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Usage

Command line with eclair-cli

Windows user

On windows, you will have to install Bash first. We recommend installing Git Bash which is packed in the Git installer from git-scm.

Then you'll have to install jq:

eclair-cli installation

  • Download the eclair-cli file from our sources
  • (optional) Move the file to ~/bin
  • Enable the JSON API in your eclair.conf settings.

Run this command to list the available calls:

./eclair-cli -p <api_password> help

ℹ️ Protip: you can edit the eclair-cli file and save the API password/url so you don't have to set them every time. We will omit them in the examples below.

Note that you may have to install jq first if it's not already installed on your machine:

sudo apt-get install jq

Example 1: open a channel with eclair-cli

Your node listens on 8081. You want to open a 140 mBTC channel with endurance.acinq.co on Testnet.

First connect to the endurance node:

eclair-cli connect --uri=03933884aaf1d6b108397e5efe5c86bcf2d8ca8d2f700eda99db9214fc2712b134@endurance.acinq.co:9735

Then open a channel with endurance:

eclair-cli open --nodeId=03933884aaf1d6b108397e5efe5c86bcf2d8ca8d2f700eda99db9214fc2712b134 --fundingSatoshis=14000000

This will broadcast a funding transaction to the bitcoin blockchain. Once that transaction is confirmed, your lightning channel will be ready for off-chain payments.

⚠️ You should NEVER use RBF to bump the fees of that funding transaction, otherwise you won't be able to recover your funds unless your peer cooperates. If the transaction doesn't confirm, you should use CPFP to bump the fees.

Example 2: pay an invoice with eclair-cli

eclair-cli payinvoice --invoice=lntb17u1pdthhsdpp5z5am8.......

Example 3: generate a payment request for 1 mBTC

eclair-cli createinvoice --amountMsat=100000000 --description="my first invoice" | jq .serialized

This command will return a lightning payment request, such as:

lntb1m1pdthhh0pp5063r8hu6f6hk7tpauhgvl3nnf4ur3xntcnhujcz5w82yq7nhjuysdq6d4ujqenfwfehggrfdemx76trv5xqrrss6uxhewtmjkumpr7w6prkgttku76azfq7l8cx9v74pcv85hzyvs9n23dhu9u354xcqpnzey45ua3g2m4dywuw7udrt2sdsvjf3rawdqcpas9mah

You can check this invoice with the parseinvoice command:

eclair-cli parseinvoice --invoice=lntb1m1pdthhh0pp5063r8hu6f6hk7tpauhgvl3nnf4ur3xntcnhujcz5w82yq7nhjuysdq6d4ujqenfwfehggrfdemx76trv5xqrrss6uxhewtmjkumpr7w6prkgttku76azfq7l8cx9v74pcv85hzyvs9n23dhu9u354xcqpnzey45ua3g2m4dywuw7udrt2sdsvjf3rawdqcpas9mah

Which will breakdown the invoice in human readable data.

Example 4: list local channels in NORMAL state

eclair-cli channels | jq '.[] | select(.state == "NORMAL")'

Example 5: compute your total balance across all channels

We divide by 1000 because we want satoshis, not millisatoshis.

eclair-cli usablebalances | jq 'map(.canSend / 1000) | add'