> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.intention.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Connect a wallet

> How to sign in to Intention with a wallet you already control, and what the session signature actually authorizes.

There is no account to create and no password to set. Your wallet is your identity — connecting it is how you sign in.

## Connect

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the exchange">
    Go to [trade.intention-testnet.xyz](https://trade.intention-testnet.xyz). Check the URL character by character before connecting anything.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Click Connect Wallet">
    Top right of the screen. A list of supported wallets appears — the list in that dialog is authoritative, and this page deliberately does not duplicate it, because a stale list here would be worse than none.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Approve the connection">
    Your wallet asks whether to connect to the site. This step shares your address. It does not move funds and does not authorize trading.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Sign the session signature">
    A second prompt asks you to sign a message. This is what authorizes order placement. **Read it before signing** — see below.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Once connected, the `Connect Wallet` button is replaced by your address, and `Available to Trade` in the [order ticket](/help/order-ticket) shows your collateral.

## What the session signature does

Signing every individual order would make trading unusable — a wallet prompt per order, at the speed a market moves. Instead you sign once, and that signature authorizes order placement for the session.

What it **can** do:

* Place, modify, and cancel orders
* Open and close positions with the collateral already in your account

What it **cannot** do:

* Move funds out of your account. Withdrawals need a separate signature every time
* Transfer tokens from your wallet
* Survive indefinitely — it expires, and you can revoke it

That split is the whole design. Trading authority and withdrawal authority are separate, so a compromised session cannot drain you. See [Session signatures](/help/session-signature).

<Warning>
  **Never sign a message you did not initiate.** "Sign this to verify your wallet" is the most common phishing pattern in crypto, and Intention will never ask for it. A legitimate signature request only ever appears immediately after *you* clicked something.
</Warning>

## Getting collateral

You need collateral before you can trade. On testnet it comes from the faucet at [faucet.intention-testnet.xyz](https://faucet.intention-testnet.xyz).

See [Deposit](/help/deposit) for the full path in.

## If it will not connect

The common causes, in the order worth checking: your wallet is on the wrong network, an old session is cached, a second wallet extension is intercepting the request, or a pop-up blocker ate the prompt.

Each of those has a different fix — see [Wallet will not connect](/help/wallet-connection).

## Where to go next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Deposit" href="/help/deposit">
    Funding the account you trade from.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The trading screen" href="/help/screen-layout">
    What you are looking at once you are in.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Session signatures" href="/help/session-signature">
    Scope, expiry, and how to revoke.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Wallet will not connect" href="/help/wallet-connection">
    Troubleshooting a failed connection.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>