Deploy a Cosmos HWR

Outcomes

You will be deploying a Hyperlane Warp Route (HWR) for an asset of your choice between Cosmos SDK chains, provided there is an existing Hyperlane core deployment.

Looking for cross-VM guides? This guide focuses on Cosmos-native deployments. For cross-chain setups, see:

HWR Types

The type of token used determines the HWR type. In Cosmos, tokens are identified by their denominations (denoms) rather than contract addresses.

Collateral: Handles the transfer of existing tokens by locking them on the source chain. This can be a native denom (e.g., uatom, uhyp) or an IBC denom (e.g., ibc/27394FB092D2ECCD56123C74F36E4C1F926001CEADA9CA97EA622B25F41E5EB2).
Synthetic: Handles synthetic tokens that are minted and burned as transfers occur. The Hyperlane CLI deploys a new token representation on the destination chain.

Common Setup: Collateral to Synthetic

The most common pattern is Collateral to Synthetic. You lock an existing token (Collateral) on its origin chain to mint a new representation (Synthetic) on the destination chain. When transferring back, the Synthetic token is burned and the Collateral is unlocked.

Before You Start

Hyperlane Core: Ensure Hyperlane core components are deployed on your target chains. If not, follow the Deploy Hyperlane to Cosmos guide.
Deployer Wallet: You need a private key for a wallet funded with native tokens on all participating chains to pay for deployment and transaction fees.
- If your wallet is mnemonic-based, derive/export the raw hex private key first (64 hex chars, optional 0x prefix).
Hyperlane CLI: Install the Hyperlane CLI.

Walkthrough: Deploy a Cosmos HWR

Step 1: Create Warp Deployment Config

Create a YAML file (e.g., warp-route-deployment.yaml) to define your Warp Route. This config maps chain names to their respective token settings.

# Replace chain names, addresses, and token details with your own values.
# Each chain uses its own bech32 prefix for addresses.
hyp1:
  type: collateral
  token: uhyp
  owner: "hyp1jq304cthpx0lwhpqzrdjrcza559ukyy3sc4dw5"
  mailbox: "0x..."    # Your chain's Mailbox address (Hex32 format)
  name: Hyperlane Token
  symbol: HYP
  decimals: 6

hyp2:
  type: synthetic
  owner: "hyp2..."    # Owner address on the destination chain
  mailbox: "0x..."    # Destination chain's Mailbox address (Hex32 format)
  name: Hyperlane Token
  symbol: HYP
  decimals: 6

Config Schema

Field	Description
`type`	`collateral` (lock existing) or `synthetic` (mint new).
`token`	The token denomination (e.g., `uhyp`, `uatom`, or an `ibc/` path). Required for `collateral`.
`owner`	The Bech32 address that will own the Warp Route components.
`mailbox`	The address of the Mailbox.
`name`	The display name of the token.
`symbol`	The token symbol.
`decimals`	The number of decimal places (usually `6` for Cosmos SDK tokens).
`interchainSecurityModule`	(Optional) Address of a custom ISM. Omit to use the default ISM configured in the destination Mailbox.
`gas`	(Optional) Compute unit ceiling for message delivery on the destination chain. Start conservative (e.g., `300000`) and increase if messages run out of gas.

Step 2: Deploy the Warp Route

Run the deployment command using the Hyperlane CLI. The CLI will prompt you for the private key for each chain if it’s not provided via environment variables.

hyperlane warp deploy --config ./warp-route-deployment.yaml

You can also set your private key as an environment variable to skip prompts: export HYP_KEY_COSMOSNATIVE=<your_hex_private_key>For mixed EVM ↔ Cosmos routes, also set HYP_KEY for the EVM side.

Upon success, the CLI will output the deployment artifacts to ~/.hyperlane/deployments/warp_routes/.

Step 3: Verify the Deployment

You can verify the state of your deployed Warp Route by reading its configuration from the chains.

export WARP_ROUTE_ID='<your_warp_route_id>'
hyperlane warp read --warpRouteId "$WARP_ROUTE_ID"

Use the Warp Route ID shown in deploy output. For a config with exactly one synthetic chain, the default ID is usually SYMBOL/<synthetic_chain_name> (for the example above, HYP/hyp2).

Step 4: Transfer Ownership for Production (Recommended)

Many teams deploy first with a hot deployer key, then transfer ownership to a multisig after verification.

Update owner fields in your warp-route-deployment.yaml to your production owner addresses.
Use the generated core config and re-apply:

cp ~/.hyperlane/deployments/warp_routes/"$WARP_ROUTE_ID"-config.yaml ./warp-route-core.yaml

hyperlane warp apply \
  --warpRouteId "$WARP_ROUTE_ID" \
  --config ./warp-route-deployment.yaml \
  --warp ./warp-route-core.yaml

When --config points to a local deploy config file, you must also pass the matching core config with --warp.

Step 5: Test a Transfer

hyperlane warp send does not currently support Cosmos SDK chains.

To test your route:

Run a relayer between your chains.
From Cosmos, submit a warp module transfer transaction using /hyperlane.warp.v1.MsgRemoteTransfer (via your chain’s native tx tooling).
Before sending, quote the required gas payment using QueryQuoteRemoteTransfer (hyperlane.warp.v1.Query/QuoteRemoteTransfer).
Or run a local bridge UI using the Hyperlane Warp UI template (see Bridge UI Guide).

You can verify the warp route is correctly registered on both chains:

hyperlane warp read --warpRouteId "$WARP_ROUTE_ID"

Production Handoff

If you want your route to be discoverable by others:

Open a PR to hyperlane-registry with your deploy/config artifacts.
Add logoURI on all route tokens and coinGeckoId on collateral/native entries when applicable.
If you want listing in Hyperlane-hosted bridge surfaces (such as Nexus), contact the Hyperlane team after your registry PR is merged.

Overview

Quickstart

Applications

Guides

Developer Tools

Resources

Outcomes

HWR Types

Common Setup: Collateral to Synthetic

Before You Start

Walkthrough: Deploy a Cosmos HWR

Step 1: Create Warp Deployment Config

Config Schema

Step 2: Deploy the Warp Route

Step 3: Verify the Deployment

Step 4: Transfer Ownership for Production (Recommended)

Step 5: Test a Transfer

Production Handoff

​Outcomes

​HWR Types

​Common Setup: Collateral to Synthetic

​Before You Start

​Walkthrough: Deploy a Cosmos HWR

​Step 1: Create Warp Deployment Config

​Config Schema

​Step 2: Deploy the Warp Route

​Step 3: Verify the Deployment

​Step 4: Transfer Ownership for Production (Recommended)

​Step 5: Test a Transfer

​Production Handoff

Outcomes

HWR Types

Common Setup: Collateral to Synthetic

Before You Start

Walkthrough: Deploy a Cosmos HWR

Step 1: Create Warp Deployment Config

Config Schema

Step 2: Deploy the Warp Route

Step 3: Verify the Deployment

Step 4: Transfer Ownership for Production (Recommended)

Step 5: Test a Transfer

Production Handoff