Transactions

associate-hotkey

Associate a hotkey with the signing coldkey.

Records on chain that the signing coldkey owns the hotkey, without registering it on any subnet or staking anything. Useful when the pairing should be visible before the hotkey's first registration (registration and staking establish it as a side effect). The chain only associates hotkeys that are not already owned: if the hotkey already belongs to a coldkey the call succeeds but is silently a no-op — it does not error, and it does not take over the hotkey.

Signer	Origin	Pallet	Wraps
`coldkey`	signed account (pallet role may apply)	SubtensorModule	`SubtensorModule.try_associate_hotkey`

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`hotkey_ss58`	string	no	Hotkey to record as owned by the signing coldkey.

Address parameters (--hotkey, --coldkey, --dest, ...) accept a raw ss58 address, an address-book or proxy-book name, or a local wallet/hotkey name.

CLI

Preview with --dry-run (shows fee, effects, and policy result without submitting), then submit:

btcli tx associate-hotkey --dry-run
btcli tx associate-hotkey -w my_coldkey

Python

import bittensor as bt
from bittensor.wallet import Wallet

wallet = Wallet(name="my_coldkey", hotkey="my_hotkey")
intent = bt.AssociateHotkey()

sub = bt.Subtensor()
plan = sub.plan(intent, wallet)   # fee, effects, policy — no submission
result = sub.execute(intent, wallet)
if not result.success:
    print(result.error.code, result.error.remediation)

(bt.Subtensor is also the async client — async with bt.Subtensor() as client: — see The client.) Or build the intent by op name, as an agent would:

result = sub.execute_tool("associate_hotkey", {...}, wallet)

On-chain implementation

SubtensorModule.try_associate_hotkey — pallets/subtensor/src/macros/dispatches.rs#L1521:

#[pallet::call_index(91)]
#[pallet::weight(<T as crate::pallet::Config>::WeightInfo::try_associate_hotkey())]
pub fn try_associate_hotkey(origin: OriginFor<T>, hotkey: T::AccountId) -> DispatchResult {
    let coldkey = ensure_signed(origin)?;

    Self::do_try_associate_hotkey(&coldkey, &hotkey)?;

    Ok(())
}

Delegates to do_try_associate_hotkey.

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