Filecoin Cold Storage Onboarding 

What is Filecoin Cold Storage Service?

Filecoin Cold Storage Service (FCSS) gives enterprises cryptographically verifiable, off-site preservation for their datasets - built for permanence, not just backup. Your data is split into content-addressed pieces, matched with storage providers through the PoRep Market, and stored under on-chain deals with enforceable terms: retrievability, bandwidth, latency, and duration, all set by you. Every piece is independently verifiable - you're not trusting a vendor's word that your data is safe, you're trusting math and a public blockchain record.

How to store on Filecoin?

Onboarding data to Filecoin Cold Storage Service is very straightforward. You have two options: a full automation with an Agent or running a couple of scripts

Onboard to FCSS with an agent

Open your favorite coding agent (Claude, Codex, Cursor, etc.) and say:

Use https://www.fidl.tech/tools/fcss/AGENT_PROMPT.md and onboard my data to Filecoin cold storage.

Then point it at where your data is, or attach the files. That's the only instruction you need to give - the agent prepares your data, then continues straight into proposing storage deals on its own, using the manifest it just created. You won't be asked to find or paste that link back in.

The one place it will stop and wait for you: right before anything is proposed on-chain, it'll show you the exact storage terms and total cost and wait for your explicit go-ahead. Nothing is signed or paid for before that. Make sure you read the notes below

Onboard using scripts

Onboarding has two steps: prepare your data into storage-ready pieces, then propose deals with storage providers to actually store them.  

Step 1 - Prepare your data

Turns your raw dataset into verified, downloadable storage pieces and gives you a manifest link.

Run the script

curl -fsSL https://www.fidl.tech/tools/fcss/prepare-filecoin-dataset.sh -o prepare-filecoin-dataset.sh

chmod +x prepare-filecoin-dataset.sh

./prepare-filecoin-dataset.sh <dataset_name> <source_dir> <output_dir>

Step 2 - Storage deals happen automatically from here

Continue manually with the manifest URL it printed:

curl -fsSL https://www.fidl.tech/tools/fcss/propose-filecoin-deal.sh -o propose-filecoin-deal.sh

chmod +x propose-filecoin-deal.sh

./propose-filecoin-deal.sh setup      # one-time: configure your wallet

./propose-filecoin-deal.sh preview <manifest_url> <retrievability_bps> <bandwidth_mbps> <duration_months> <latency_ms> <price_per_sector_per_month_usdc>

./propose-filecoin-deal.sh execute <manifest_url> <retrievability_bps> <bandwidth_mbps> <duration_months> <latency_ms> <price_per_sector_per_month_usdc>

preview shows your exact terms and total cost with nothing touching the blockchain. execute proposes both deals for real, waits for a storage provider to accept, and completes onboarding automatically once they do.

Notes

You'll need a wallet funded with FIL (for network fees) and USDC (to pay for storage) before deals can be proposed. Setup instructions are provided the first time you run it - you always choose and control your own wallet; it's never generated or held for you.

If a storage provider declines a proposed deal, you'll be told plainly - nothing retries automatically.