Exact eth_estimateGas limit can revert valid addTransaction; no CLI gas override

[Leokings]

Summary

On Bradbury, genlayer write used the exact eth_estimateGas result as the outer EVM gas limit for an addTransaction call. The outer transaction reverted twice before GenVM, while identical calldata succeeded when replayed with a larger explicit gas limit. The CLI currently exposes no gas-limit override for this path.

Environment

• genlayer CLI: 0.39.2 (current stable npm release)
• Bundled genlayer-js: 1.1.8
• Node.js: v24.13.0
• OS: Windows
• Network: testnet-bradbury, EVM chain ID 4221
• ConsensusMain: 0x0112Bf6e83497965A5fdD6Dad1E447a6E004271D
• Intelligent Contract: 0x91d6E838b93c9CCA32Ab964d096949210F60b1DF
• Method: submit_case_base64

Observed behavior

The corrected submission produced these outer EVM transactions:

1. 0x07f4f7c04caa496243b0505626def616842b73a23d1baf9a691c1d79048a3294 — reverted
2. 0xcc4a5f0627f39dadd850ce8afe4538a5379eca73c66b8cf34a15b28218389554 — reverted

For the second transaction:

• gas limit: 1,319,997
• gas used: 1,260,766
• calldata size: 868 bytes
• calldata Keccak-256: 0x8da473d71d9ab2a909d285661295e6c3c7bae665d10e5bd93e6cec8a3961c094
• a fresh eth_estimateGas call still returns exactly 1,319,997

Replaying the exact same destination, value, and calldata with a 2,000,000 gas limit succeeded:

• outer EVM tx: 0x5ea3f6aa6f571357700b59edee9ba98787083f89626bea01656dc4add1df6cbc
• gas used: 1,254,917
• calldata Keccak-256: 0x8da473d71d9ab2a909d285661295e6c3c7bae665d10e5bd93e6cec8a3961c094
• resulting GenLayer tx: 0x50201a17859f57a7787241d683fbefa7da8b0a93d9e1410714ace1ccd6e2a4bc
• resulting GenLayer transaction is now FINALIZED

The reverted outer transactions emitted no GenLayer transaction and changed no Intelligent Contract state.

Full public test record: https://github.com/Leokings/digital-deliverable-verifier/blob/main/docs/BRADBURY_TEST_RECORD.md

Expected behavior

Either:

1. apply a safety margin above eth_estimateGas for consensus submissions; and/or
2. expose a --gas option on deploy and write and pass it through to the SDK transaction request.

The CLI should also retain the outer EVM hash and provide a clear diagnostic when the transaction reverts before GenVM.

Impact

This does not alter Intelligent Contract logic or validator consensus, but it can make an otherwise valid write fail before reaching GenVM. Users pay gas for the reverted outer transaction, automated integrations can fail repeatedly, and the current CLI offers no direct recovery path other than using a separate signer/SDK path.

[Leokings]

Additional source audit: the root behavior is in genlayer-js 1.1.8, which is bundled by stable CLI 0.39.2.

A 2× headroom implementation has already been merged on unreleased SDK branches:

• v1 fix commit: genlayerlabs/genlayer-js@0edc3f8
• helper and 20,000-bps multiplier: https://github.com/genlayerlabs/genlayer-js/blob/0edc3f8fc62f062423ccbaf846e400dd717797c6/src/contracts/actions.ts#L1027-L1057
• application after estimateTransactionGas: https://github.com/genlayerlabs/genlayer-js/blob/0edc3f8fc62f062423ccbaf846e400dd717797c6/src/contracts/actions.ts#L2000-L2009

CLI 0.40.0-rc2 also pins an SDK commit containing the 2× helper:

• RC2 release: https://github.com/genlayerlabs/genlayer-cli/releases/tag/v0.40.0-rc2
• pinned SDK commit: genlayerlabs/genlayer-js@5788928
• helper: https://github.com/genlayerlabs/genlayer-js/blob/57889281db1e34df49abcf6129ffe6f347e4de4d/src/contracts/actions.ts#L1225-L1256
• estimate application: https://github.com/genlayerlabs/genlayer-js/blob/57889281db1e34df49abcf6129ffe6f347e4de4d/src/contracts/actions.ts#L2323-L2331

So the remaining request is a stable 0.39.x/Bradbury backport or release, plus ideally a CLI --gas/ --gas-limit escape hatch. I am not recommending that production users switch to the breaking prerelease solely for this workaround.

[ygd58]

Opened two PRs covering both parts of the ask:

• genlayer-js#205 — adds an explicit gas override to writeContract/deployContract, bypassing eth_estimateGas entirely when set.
• genlayer-cli#404 — adds the --gas CLI flag to deploy/write, depends on chore(deps): update dependency node to v22 - autoclosed #205.

One useful finding along the way: this repo already has a 2x gas-headroom safety margin implemented (withTransactionGasHeadroom in genlayer-js's source), which would have covered the exact numbers in this report (1,319,997 estimated × 2 = 2,639,994, comfortably above the 2,000,000 that worked). I checked the actual published genlayer-js@1.1.8 npm tarball directly and confirmed that headroom code isn't in it yet — so part of this may resolve itself once a new version is published, independent of these two PRs.