REST APIs for c-lightning written in Node.js

Docker image: https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/saubyk/c-lightning-rest

• Setup
  • Pre-requisite
  • Installation
  • Config
  • Execute
  • Security
  • Authentication
• API Documentation

• A node running c-lightning
• Node.js, which can be downloaded here

Download a specific version by following the instructions on the release page

Download from master (not recommended), by following the below steps:

$ git clone https://github.com/saubyk/c-lightning-REST
$ cd c-lightning-REST
$ npm install

The below run time configuration are available, which can be configured either via library specific config file or C-Lightning config file:

• Port - Port for serving the APIs
• Documentation port - Port for serving the swagger documentation
• Protocol - Http protocol for communication with the REST server. Two options are supported https and http(unencrypted and insecure communication between API server and the app)
• Execution mode - Control for more detailed log info
• RPC Command - - Enable additional RPC commands for /rpc endpoint

For running the server, rename the file sample-cl-rest-config.json to cl-rest-config.json. Following parameters can be configured in the config file:

• PORT (Default: 3001)
• DOCPORT (Default: 4001)
• PROTOCOL (Default: https)
• EXECMODE (Default: production)
• RPCCOMMANDS (Default: ["*"])

If running as a plugin, configure the below options in your c-lightning config file:

• rest-port
• rest-docport
• rest-protocol
• rest-execmode
• rest-rpc

Defaults are the same as in option # 1 with the exception that rest-rpc is a comma separated string.

You can choose from the below options to run the API server

$ node cl-rest.js

Access the APIs on the default port 3001 or the port configured in the config file.

Pass arguments when launching lightningd:

$ lightningd --plugin=PATH_TO_PLUGIN [--rest-port=N] [--rest-protocol=http|https] [--rest-execmode=MODE]

E.g. $ lightningd --plugin=/Users/<user>/c-lightning-REST/plugin.js --rest-port=3003

OR

Set plugin, [rest-port], [rest-docport], [rest-protocol], and [rest-execmode] in lightningd config

E.g. add below to the config file in .lightning folder

plugin=/Users/<user>/c-lightning-REST/plugin.js
rest-port=3002
rest-docport=4001
rest-protocol=https

In case you are running a headless Rpi or a Linux node, you can configure c-lightning-REST as a service.

• Create c-lightning-REST systemd unit and with the following content. Save and exit.

# Raspibolt c-lightning-REST: systemd unit for c-lightning-REST
# /etc/systemd/system/c-lightning-REST.service

[Unit]
Description=c-lightning-REST daemon
Wants=lightningd.service
After=lightningd.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node <Full path of the c-lightning-REST folder>/cl-rest.js
User=<user>
Restart=always
TimeoutSec=120
RestartSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• enable and start c-lightning-REST

$ sudo systemctl enable c-lightning-REST
$ sudo systemctl start c-lightning-REST

• montior the c-lightning-REST log file in realtime(exit with Ctrl-C)

$ sudo journalctl -f -u c-lightning-REST

With the default config, APIs will be served over https (a self signed certificate and key will be generated in the certs folder with openssl).

Sample url: https://localhost:3001/v1/getinfo/

Authentication has been implemented with macaroons. Macaroons are bearer tokens, which will be verified by the server. A file access.macaroon will be generated in the certs folder in the application root. The access.macaroon has to be read by the requesting application, converted to base64 or hex, and passed in the header with key value macaroon.

Encoding Options for passing macaroon in the header:

• Request header: macaroon set as the macaroon coverted to base64 string.
• Sample code to convert macaroon to base64 string:

var abc = fs.readFileSync (macaroonFile);
var macaroon = Buffer.from(abc).toString("base64");

• Request header: macaroon set as the macaroon coverted to hex string and encodingtype with value set as hex
• Sample code to convert macaroon to hex string:

var abc = fs.readFileSync (macaroonFile);
var macaroon = Buffer.from(abc).toString("hex");

If you need help converting your macaroon to hex format you can use the Node.js script from the Zeus project, found here. Alternatively, if you're running a Unix-based operating system (eg. macOS, Linux) you can run xxd -ps -u -c 1000 /path/to/access.macaroon to generate your macaroon in hex format.

Sample url for Swagger documentation of APIs: http://localhost:4001/api-docs/

C-Lightning commands covered by this API suite is here

• getinfo (/v1/getinfo) - GET: Get node information
• listfunds (/v1/listFunds) - GET: Returns on-chain funds and channel funds information
• getbalance (/v1/getBalance) - GET: Returns total, confirmed and unconfirmed on-chain balances
• getfees (/v1/getFees) - GET: Returns the routing fee collected by the node
• signmessage (/v1/utility/signMessage) - POST: Creates a digital signature of the message using node's secret key
• verifymessage(/v1/utility/verifyMessage) - GET: Verifies a signature and the pubkey of the node which signed the message

• newaddr (/v1/newaddr) - GET: Generate address for recieving on-chain funds
• withdraw (/v1/withdraw) - POST: Withdraw on-chain funds to an address

• connect (/v1/peer/connect) - POST: Connect with a network peer
• listpeers (/v1/peer/listPeers) - GET: Returns the list of peers connected with the node
• disconnect (/v1/peer/disconnect) - DEL: Disconnect from a connected network peer

• fundchannel (/v1/channel/openChannel) - POST: Open channel with a connected peer node
• listchannels (/v1/channel/listChannels) - GET: Get the list of channels open on the node
• setchannelfee (/v1/channel/setChannelFee) - POST: Update the fee policy for a channel
• close (/v1/channel/closeChannel) - DEL: Close channel
• listforwards (/v1/channel/listForwards) - GET: Get the list of forwarded htlcs by the node
• localremotebal (/v1/channel/localremotebal) - GET: Summarizes local and remote channel balances on the node

• pay (/v1/pay) - POST: Pay a bolt11 invoice
• listpays (/v1/pay/listPays) - GET: List result of payment {bolt11}, or all
• listsendpays (/v1/pay/listPayments) - GET: List outgoing payments {bolt11}, or all. This api has more detailed output than listpays
• decodepay (/v1/pay/decodePay) - GET: Decode the bolt11 invoice
• keysend (/v1/pay/keysend) - POST: Send funds to a node without an invoice

• invoice (/v1/invoice/genInvoice) - POST: Generates a bolt11 invoice provided amount in msat, label, description, expiry in seconds (optional)
• listinvoices (/v1/invoice/listInvoices) - GET: Lists the invoice on the node, for a {label} or all.
• delexpiredinvoice (v1/invoice/delExpiredInvoice) - DEL: Delete expired invoices.
• delinvoice (v1/invoice/delInvoice) - DEL: Delete a particular invoice with a label and status.

• getroute (/v1/network/getRoute) - GET: List the best route for the payment of [msatoshi] to a lightning node [id]
• listnodes (/v1/network/listNode) - GET: Lookup node info from the network graph, for a given [pubkey]
• listchannels (/v1/network/listChannel) - GET: Lookup channel info from the network graph, for a given [short_channel_id]
• feerates (/v1/network/feeRates) - GET: Lookup fee rates on the network, for a given rate style (perkb or perkw)
• estimatefees (/v1/network/estimateFees) - GET: Get the urgent, normal and slow Bitcoin feerates as sat/kVB.

• rpc (/v1/rpc) - POST: additional access to RPC comands. Examples of body param for rpc:

{"method": "getinfo}

{"method":"signmessage", "params": ["message"]}

{"method":"mymethod", "params: {"key1": "value1"...}}

PRs are welcome! :-)