Cast Vote Override

Override your validator’s governance vote using your stake account.

Description

This command lets a delegator express their own voting preference independently of their validator. The CLI fetches both the MetaMerkle proof (for the validator) and the StakeMerkle proof (for your specific stake account) from the operator API, then submits a vote override transaction to svmgov.

Usage


svmgov cast-vote-override \
  --proposal-id "ABC123..." \
  --for-votes 6000 \
  --against-votes 3000 \
  --abstain-votes 1000 \
  --stake-account "StAkE..." \
  --vote-account "VoTe..." \
  --network mainnet

Arguments

Argument	Type	Required	Description
`--proposal-id`	String	Yes	Proposal PDA address (base58)
`--for-votes`	u64	Yes	Basis points for For (0–10,000)
`--against-votes`	u64	Yes	Basis points for Against (0–10,000)
`--abstain-votes`	u64	Yes	Basis points for Abstain (0–10,000)
`--stake-account`	String	Yes	Your stake account address (base58)
`--vote-account`	String	Yes	Your validator’s vote account address (base58)
`--network`	String	No	Network override: `mainnet`, `testnet`
`--staker-keypair`	String	Yes	Path to staker keypair JSON
`--close-timestamp`	i64	No	Unix timestamp after which the `MetaMerkleProof` PDA can be closed permissionlessly. Defaults to the proposal’s vote-expiry time

Global Arguments

Option	Short	Description
`--rpc-url <URL>`	`-r`	Custom RPC URL

Requirements

for_votes + against_votes + abstain_votes must equal exactly 10,000
Your stake account must be delegated to the specified validator
Your stake account must be in the NCN snapshot (active at snapshot slot)
You must be the signing authority (withdraw authority) of the stake account
Proposal must be in voting phase

Examples


# 60% For, 30% Against, 10% Abstain
svmgov cast-vote-override \
  --proposal-id "AbCdEf..." \
  --for-votes 6000 \
  --against-votes 3000 \
  --abstain-votes 1000 \
  --stake-account "StAkE111..." \
  --vote-account "VoTe111..." \
  --network mainnet \
  --staker-keypair ~/.config/solana/staker.json
 
# 100% Against — explicit RPC
svmgov cast-vote-override \
  --proposal-id "AbCdEf..." \
  --for-votes 0 \
  --against-votes 10000 \
  --abstain-votes 0 \
  --stake-account "StAkE111..." \
  --vote-account "VoTe111..." \
  --network mainnet \
  --staker-keypair ~/.config/solana/staker.json \
  --rpc-url https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com

What Happens On-Chain

The CLI fetches from the operator API:

/proof/vote_account/:vote_account — MetaMerkle proof for the validator
/proof/stake_account/:stake_account — StakeMerkle proof for your stake account

Then calls cast_vote_override which:

Verifies your stake account is in the snapshot via two-level Merkle proof
If validator has voted (Path A): Adjusts their Vote PDA immediately
If validator hasn’t voted (Path B): Writes to VoteOverrideCache PDA

Multiple stake accounts delegated to the same validator can each be overridden independently. Each creates a separate VoteOverride PDA.

If the validator’s MetaMerkleProof PDA does not yet exist, the CLI creates it first and sets its close_timestamp to the proposal’s vote-expiry time (or the --close-timestamp override), so it can be reclaimed permissionlessly once voting ends. You normally don’t need to set this flag.

Modify Vote Override — Change your override
For Stakers Overview — How vote overrides work