Tools · Wallets & toolkits
lightning-agent-tools
Lightning Labs' production AI-agent toolkit — composable skills plus an MCP server that let an agent run a node, pay L402 APIs, host paid endpoints, and keep its keys isolated.
What it is
lightning-agent-tools is Lightning Labs’ open-source toolkit for letting AI agents transact natively on the Lightning Network. It packages composable skills plus an MCP server covering the full commerce loop: run an LND node programmatically; isolate keys with a remote signer; bake scoped macaroons in preset roles (pay-only, invoice-only, read-only, channel-admin, signer-only); pay for L402-gated APIs via the lnget client; host paid endpoints via the Aperture reverse proxy; query node state over MCP; and orchestrate buyer/seller workflows.
It is the canonical 2026 reference implementation for what a production Bitcoin-substrate agent-payment stack actually looks like — the surface most subsequent agent-Lightning integrations are measured against.
When to use it
- Building an agent that both pays for and sells services over Lightning end-to-end.
- You want least-privilege key handling (remote signer + scoped macaroons) out of the box.
- Connecting an MCP-capable agent (e.g. Claude Code) to a real Lightning node.
Quick start
Add the MCP server to an MCP-capable agent backed by a Lightning Node Connect node:
claude mcp add --transport stdio lnc -- npx -y @lightninglabs/lightning-mcp-serverThe agent can then query node state and send/receive Lightning payments through MCP tool calls. Production deployment runs against any LND-compatible backend; Docker is the default path.
Gotchas
- Use the recommended watch-only node + remote signer model so the agent host holds no private keys; the README explicitly warns never to ship
admin.macaroonin production — use scoped macaroons. - Early-stage (v0.2.x as of February 2026) — APIs and surface area are still moving; pin versions.
- The MCP server exposes read-only node tools by default; mutating operations require deliberately scoped credentials.