Docs

Quick start

Getting from a fresh download to a first send. The one step people are caught out by is the second: Shrike will not show you a balance until you give it a node, because it ships with no servers of its own.

1. Get a node running #

Do this first. Every other step depends on it, and it is the slowest part because the node has to sync.

You need Bitcoin Knots at v29.4.1.knots20260508 or later. For a large wallet, an Electrum server in front of it makes scanning much faster. Connecting a node covers both arrangements and why the usual public servers are not an option.

2. Download, verify, install #

Take the build for your platform from the download page and check it against the signed checksums before you run it. That page walks through the verification step by step.

Shrike installs alongside an existing Sparrow without touching it, so you do not have to uninstall anything first.

3. Point Shrike at your node #

Open Settings → Server and pick Bitcoin Knots to connect straight to your node, or Private Electrum if you are running a server in front of it. The server toggle in the status bar turns green for a node and blue for an Electrum server once it connects.

4. Create or import a wallet #

This part is unchanged from upstream, so Sparrow's documentation applies in full: single signature or multisig, software or hardware keystores, and the import flows all behave as they do there.

5. Mark your signers #

This step is specific to Shrike, and skipping it is the usual reason a transaction ends up unprotected.

Nothing a hardware wallet reports tells Shrike which firmware it is running, so you say so yourself: tick Replay protection on each keystore whose device can sign the new way. A keystore holding its own key needs no mark. See replay protection for what the marks mean, and hardware wallet firmware if your device needs new firmware first.

You may not need to do anything here. In a multisig wallet, one marked signer is enough to protect the whole transaction.

6. Before your first send #

Build the transaction as usual, then read the send screen before you sign. It says whether the transaction is protected, and if it is not, hovering the status names what is refusing and what to do about it.

Get into the habit on the first send rather than the tenth. It is the one check that cannot be done after the fact.

7. If you held coins before activation #

Send them to yourself once. Until you do, a transaction spending those coins stays valid on the SHA256d chain as well, so anyone holding a copy of it can submit it there. One sweep to your own address settles it.