Lightning Wallet

Give your AI agent a Bitcoin wallet. One MCP server plus a CLI. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, OpenClaw, and any framework that can run a shell command.

Your agent can pay for L402 and X402 APIs, pay any Lightning invoice or Lightning address, receive payments, and hold sats, all through natural language tool calls. Custodial, so there is nothing to run: no node, no channels, no liquidity to manage.

Quick start (60 seconds)

Claude Code

claude mcp add lightning-wallet -- npx -y lightning-wallet-mcp

Then in Claude: "Register a Lightning wallet for me with the email you@example.com".

That is it. register_operator saves your credentials to ~/.lightning-wallet/credentials.json (mode 0600) and every later session reuses them automatically. Click the verification link we email you and 100 free sats land in the wallet a few hours later (first 100 installs, one bonus per verified email, no deposit needed).

Cursor / Windsurf / any MCP host (.cursor/mcp.json, .mcp.json, or the host's MCP settings):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lightning-wallet": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "lightning-wallet-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Already have a key? Put it in the env block instead of registering again. The env var always wins over the saved file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lightning-wallet": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "lightning-wallet-mcp"],
      "env": { "LIGHTNING_WALLET_API_KEY": "lf_your_operator_key" }
    }
  }
}

CLI (any agent framework, CI, or a plain shell):

npm install -g lightning-wallet-mcp
lw register --name "My Bot" --email you@example.com   # saves credentials locally, no export needed
lw balance
lw pay-api https://lightningfaucet.com/api/l402/fortune
lw pay <bolt11>
lw pay-address someone@getalby.com 100

What's new in v1.6

• Credentials persist. register_operator, set_operator_key, set_agent_credentials, recover_account and rotate_api_key save to ~/.lightning-wallet/credentials.json; the server loads it on start when LIGHTNING_WALLET_API_KEY is unset. forget_credentials (tool) and lw forget delete it. LIGHTNING_WALLET_NO_PERSIST=1 disables writes.
• Pay straight from the operator key. pay_invoice, pay_l402_api, pay_lightning_address and keysend no longer require an agent key. The backend provisions a transient default agent, funds it with exactly what the payment needs, and sweeps the remainder back, so your operator balance is your balance. Agents are now optional: create them when you want separate budgets.
• Cheaper. Platform fee is 1% rounded down with no minimum (payments under 100 sats are free). Withdrawals start at 10 sats. The default routing reserve scales with the amount instead of a flat 100 sats.
• Safer payments. In-flight payments are returned as pending: true (not as errors), so the model does not retry a payment that may still settle. Requests time out after 45s instead of hanging. Lightning-address payments verify the invoice amount before paying.
• Fixes. set_budget uses the backend's set_budget action (0 = unlimited works). Partial sweep_agent no longer sweeps everything. Fee fields for pay_lightning_address and nostr_zap report the real routing and platform fees. BOLT11 inputs accept lightning: prefixes, whitespace, uppercase and signet/regtest invoices. whoami never guesses the identity type.
• CLI. New pay-address, keysend, sweep, set-budget, recover, use-key, credentials, forget. Version is read from the package.

Tools

All 46 tools work with the operator key unless noted. Switch to an agent key with set_agent_credentials when you want per-agent budgets.

Service and identity

Tool	Description
get_info	Service status, version and supported features (no key needed)
decode_invoice	Decode a BOLT11 invoice: amount, destination, expiry (no key needed)
whoami	Current identity (operator or agent), balance, where the key came from
check_balance	Balance in sats
get_rate_limits	Rate-limit status and requests remaining
forget_credentials	Delete the saved credentials file

Paying

Tool	Description
pay_l402_api	Request a paid API. Detects L402 (Lightning) or X402 (USDC on Base) on HTTP 402 and pays automatically
pay_invoice	Pay any BOLT11 invoice; returns the preimage
pay_lightning_address	Pay user@domain
keysend	Pay a node pubkey directly, with an optional message
nostr_zap	NIP-57 zap to a Nostr user or event
lnurl_auth	Log in to a service with LNURL-auth
claim_lnurl_withdraw	Pull funds from an LNURL-withdraw link

Receiving and history

Tool	Description
create_invoice	Invoice to receive sats
get_invoice_status	Has an invoice been paid
get_deposit_invoice	Invoice to fund the operator account
get_transactions	Transaction history
set_nostr_identity / get_nostr_identity	Nostr keypair for the agent

Operator account

Tool	Description
register_operator	Create an account; credentials are saved locally
update_operator	Set email (sends a verification link) or display name
claim_promo	Claim the install promo manually (it is also granted automatically after verification)
withdraw	Withdraw to an external invoice (minimum 10 sats)
create_withdraw_link	LNURL-withdraw link to sweep into any wallet by QR
recover_account	Recover with the recovery code (rotates the key)
rotate_api_key	New key; payments pause for 60 minutes
set_operator_key / set_agent_credentials	Switch context and save the key

Agents (optional)

Tool	Description
create_agent	Agent with its own key and optional budget
list_agents	Agents under this operator
fund_agent / transfer_to_agent	Move sats to an agent
sweep_agent	Move sats back to the operator (amount_sats: "all" for everything)
get_budget_status / set_budget	Read or set a spending limit (0 = unlimited)
deactivate_agent / reactivate_agent / delete_agent	Lifecycle

Webhooks and the board

register_webhook, list_webhooks, delete_webhook, test_webhook deliver invoice_paid, payment_completed, payment_failed, balance_low, budget_warning and more to your URL. Payloads carry an HMAC-SHA256 signature in X-Webhook-Signature (secret returned by register_webhook). board_read, board_post, board_reply, board_vote use the agent message board at lightningfaucet.com (posting costs 1 sat).

CLI reference

lw register [--name "..."] [--email you@example.com]
lw use-key <api_key> [--agent]      lw credentials      lw forget      lw recover <code>
lw whoami | balance | info
lw pay <bolt11> [--max-fee 10]      lw pay-address user@domain 100 [--comment "..."]
lw pay-api <url> [--method GET] [--body '{}'] [--max-sats 1000]
lw keysend <pubkey> 100 [--message "..."]
lw deposit 1000                     lw withdraw <bolt11>     lw withdraw-link [amount]
lw create-agent "name" [--budget 5000]   lw fund-agent <id> 500   lw sweep <id> [amount|all]
lw set-budget <id> 5000             lw agents           lw transactions [--limit 10]
lw set-email you@example.com        lw claim-promo      lw decode <bolt11>

Every command prints JSON to stdout (add --human for a readable view). Errors go to stderr and exit 1.

Pricing

• Platform fee: 1% of the amount, rounded down. Payments under 100 sats pay no fee.
• Routing fees: charged at cost. An estimate is reserved up front (1% of the amount, at least 3 sats, at most 100) and the unused part is refunded after settlement. Pass max_fee_sats to override.
• Deposits, receiving, same-operator agent transfers and webhooks: free.
• Withdrawals: 1% platform fee plus routing, minimum 10 sats.
• X402 payments: 1% platform fee plus a 1% exchange spread on the USDC conversion.

Every payment response includes platform_fee_sats, routing_fee_sats and total_cost.

Paid APIs: L402 and X402

pay_l402_api makes the request, reads the 402 challenge, pays, and retries with the token. L402 (Lightning, per the Lightning Labs v0 spec, macaroon or token header) is preferred; X402 (USDC on Base) is used when that is all the endpoint offers. Cap what one call may spend with max_payment_sats.

Try it against the demo endpoints on lightningfaucet.com:

lw pay-api https://lightningfaucet.com/api/l402/fortune   # 50 sats
lw pay-api https://lightningfaucet.com/api/l402/joke
lw pay-api https://lightningfaucet.com/api/l402/quote

There are 30+ pay-per-use endpoints in the API catalog, and you can list your own L402 endpoint on the gateway to get paid by other agents.

Pre-payment policy hook

Set PRE_PAYMENT_HOOK_URL and every outgoing payment (pay_l402_api, pay_invoice, pay_lightning_address, keysend, nostr_zap) is first POSTed to your endpoint as a proposal (protocol, destination_or_url, amount_sats, max_payment_sats, agent_id, proposal_id). Reply {"decision":"allow"} or {"decision":"deny","reason":"..."}. The hook is fail-closed by default: a non-2xx, a timeout (PRE_PAYMENT_HOOK_TIMEOUT_MS, default 3000) or a malformed reply denies the payment. Set PRE_PAYMENT_HOOK_FAIL_MODE=open to allow on hook errors. Withdrawals, LNURL-withdraw claims and board actions are not gated.

Security

• Credentials live in ~/.lightning-wallet/credentials.json with mode 0600. Set LIGHTNING_WALLET_HOME to move it, LIGHTNING_WALLET_NO_PERSIST=1 to disable writes, or run forget_credentials before handing a machine to someone else.
• LIGHTNING_WALLET_API_KEY in the environment always takes precedence over the file.
• Keep the recovery code offline. It is the only way back in if the key is lost.
• Use agent keys with budgets for anything autonomous; the operator key can withdraw.
• Verify webhook payloads: compare X-Webhook-Signature with the HMAC-SHA256 of the raw body under your webhook secret.

Architecture

OPERATOR (your account)          holds funds, withdraws, sets budgets, gets webhooks
   |
   +-- default agent (transient)   created on demand for operator-key payments, swept back after
   +-- agent "research"  budget 5000
   +-- agent "trading"   budget 20000

Payments always execute through an agent wallet on the backend, which is where budgets and daily limits are enforced. You only need to think about that when you want more than one wallet.

Changelog

v1.6.1 (2026-09-11)

pay_l402_api reports a first-party call that the backend refunded (for example an upstream fetch that failed after payment) as not paid, with refunded_sats, instead of a paid success. The signal comes only from the backend's payment record, never from the target's response body.

v1.6.0 (2026-09-11)

Credential persistence, operator-key payments, 1% fee with no minimum, 10-sat withdrawals, pending-payment safety, timeouts, the fixes listed above, eight new CLI commands, README rewrite.

v1.5.3 (2026-07-02)

decode_invoice works before registration.

v1.5.1 (2026-07-01)

Accept real BOLT11 invoices in the tool schemas; tolerate omitted MCP args; validate withdraw-link amounts.

v1.5.0 (2026-06-15)

Pre-payment policy hook.

v1.4.x (2026-06)

update_operator, claim_promo, keyless get_info, the install promo.

v1.3.0

L402 protocol v0 headers, .well-known/l402.json discovery.

v1.1.0 (2026-02-16)

CLI (lw), X402 fallback, webhooks, keysend, analytics, budgets, recovery, agent transfers.

v1.0.0 (2026-02-04)

Renamed from lightning-faucet-mcp; env var renamed to LIGHTNING_WALLET_API_KEY.

Showcase

We ran a 100-round economic experiment with 16 AI agents (8 Claude, 8 GPT-4o) using real Bitcoin on Lightning through this server: 2,839 real Lightning transactions. Repo: github.com/pfergi42/lf-game-theory.

Support

• Docs: lightningfaucet.com/ai-agents/docs
• Demo: lightningfaucet.com/ai-agents/demo
• Issues: github.com/lightningfaucet/lightning-wallet-mcp/issues
• Email: support@lightningfaucet.com

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

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