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Version: v0.50

ProtocolBuffer Annotations

This document explains the various protobuf scalars that have been added to make working with protobuf easier for Cosmos SDK application developers

Signer

Signer specifies which field should be used to determine the signer of a message for the Cosmos SDK. This field can be used for clients as well to infer which field should be used to determine the signer of a message.

Read more about the signer field here.

proto/cosmos/bank/v1beta1/tx.proto
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option (cosmos.msg.v1.signer) = "from_address";

Scalar

The scalar type defines a way for clients to understand how to construct protobuf messages according to what is expected by the module and sdk.

(cosmos_proto.scalar) = "cosmos.AddressString"

Example of account address string scalar:

proto/cosmos/bank/v1beta1/tx.proto
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Example of validator address string scalar:

proto/cosmos/distribution/v1beta1/query.proto
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Example of Decimals scalar:

proto/cosmos/distribution/v1beta1/distribution.proto
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Example of Int scalar:

proto/cosmos/gov/v1/gov.proto
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There are a few options for what can be provided as a scalar: cosmos.AddressString, cosmos.ValidatorAddressString, cosmos.ConsensusAddressString, cosmos.Int, cosmos.Dec.

Implements_Interface

Implement interface is used to provide information to client tooling like telescope on how to encode and decode protobuf messages.

option (cosmos_proto.implements_interface) = "cosmos.auth.v1beta1.AccountI";

Amino

The amino codec was removed in 0.50.0, this means there is not a need register legacyAminoCodec. To replace the amino codec, Amino protobuf annotations are used to provide information to the amino codec on how to encode and decode protobuf messages.

note

Amino annotations are only used for backwards compatibility with amino. New modules are not required use amino annotations.

The below annotations are used to provide information to the amino codec on how to encode and decode protobuf messages in a backwards compatible manner.

Name

Name specifies the amino name that would show up for the user in order for them see which message they are signing.

option (amino.name) = "cosmos-sdk/BaseAccount";
proto/cosmos/bank/v1beta1/tx.proto
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Field_Name

Field name specifies the amino name that would show up for the user in order for them see which field they are signing.

uint64 height = 1 [(amino.field_name) = "public_key"];
proto/cosmos/distribution/v1beta1/distribution.proto
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Dont_OmitEmpty

Dont omitempty specifies that the field should not be omitted when encoding to amino.

repeated cosmos.base.v1beta1.Coin amount = 3 [(amino.dont_omitempty)   = true];
proto/cosmos/bank/v1beta1/bank.proto
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Encoding

Encoding instructs the amino json marshaler how to encode certain fields that may differ from the standard encoding behaviour. The most common example of this is how repeated cosmos.base.v1beta1.Coin is encoded when using the amino json encoding format. The legacy_coins option tells the json marshaler how to encode a null slice of cosmos.base.v1beta1.Coin.

(amino.encoding)         = "legacy_coins",
proto/cosmos/bank/v1beta1/genesis.proto
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