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Description

Updates the lightning channel to query the TrafficShaper bandwidth once more before adding the HTLC to the channel state. During pathfinding, the reported payment bandwidth could be stale, as it may have not accounted for HTLCs that have not yet been added to the channel state (i.e the aux htlc view).

By querying the aux bandwidth once more, right before the HTLC is added to the channel state, we ensure that no race condition can lead to unexpected failures due to insufficient balance.

@GeorgeTsagk GeorgeTsagk self-assigned this Dec 8, 2025
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Summary of Changes

Hello @GeorgeTsagk, I'm Gemini Code Assist1! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request introduces a robust mechanism to enhance the reliability of HTLC additions within Lightning channels. It addresses a potential race condition where payment bandwidth calculations could become outdated by implementing a new AuxHtlcValidator. This validator performs a final, real-time check against the channel's most current state, leveraging the TrafficShaper to ensure that HTLCs are only processed when adequate balance is confirmed, thereby preventing unexpected failures due to insufficient funds.

Highlights

  • New HTLC Validation Mechanism: Introduced an AuxHtlcValidator interface and associated functionality within the lnwallet package. This allows for an additional, custom validation step for HTLCs just before they are added to the channel state.
  • Race Condition Mitigation: The primary goal of this change is to prevent race conditions where the reported payment bandwidth might be stale. By performing a final validation check against the most up-to-date channel state, including pending HTLCs, it ensures that HTLCs are only added if sufficient balance is truly available.
  • Traffic Shaper Integration: The peer/brontide.go component now integrates with this new validation mechanism. It creates an AuxHtlcValidator that queries the TrafficShaper's PaymentBandwidth method, providing the most current channel state and HTLC details for a precise bandwidth check.
  • Configurable Validation: The AuxHtlcValidator is an optional component, configured via ChannelOpts, allowing for flexible integration with external systems like the TrafficShaper without altering core channel logic.
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Code Review

This pull request introduces an AuxHtlcValidator to perform a final bandwidth check right before an HTLC is added to the channel state. This is a solid approach to prevent race conditions arising from stale bandwidth information during pathfinding. The implementation is clean and integrates well with the existing channel logic. My main feedback is the lack of unit tests for this new validation logic, which would be beneficial to ensure its correctness and cover edge cases. I've also included one minor suggestion for code simplification.

peer/brontide.go Outdated
Comment on lines 5489 to 5494
peerBytes := p.IdentityKey().SerializeCompressed()
peer, err := route.NewVertexFromBytes(peerBytes)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("failed to create vertex from peer "+
"pub key: %w", err)
}

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medium

This block can be simplified by using route.NewVertex. The current implementation serializes the public key to bytes, then route.NewVertexFromBytes parses it back to a public key for validation before converting it to a route.Vertex. Since p.IdentityKey() is guaranteed to return a valid *btcec.PublicKey, we can use route.NewVertex directly. This is slightly more efficient and makes the code cleaner by removing the unnecessary error handling.

Suggested change
peerBytes := p.IdentityKey().SerializeCompressed()
peer, err := route.NewVertexFromBytes(peerBytes)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("failed to create vertex from peer "+
"pub key: %w", err)
}
peer := route.NewVertex(p.IdentityKey())

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My gut reaction: can we get rid of some of the extra calls that validate this elsewhere (eg: switch method calls into the link to check if an HTLC is ready for transit) if we're adding this additional layer of protection?

@GeorgeTsagk
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GeorgeTsagk commented Dec 15, 2025

My gut reaction: can we get rid of some of the extra calls that validate this elsewhere (eg: switch method calls into the link to check if an HTLC is ready for transit) if we're adding this additional layer of protection?

We definitely need more than 1 call sites per operation (forward / payment) as we need to first quickly gauge if enough funds exist to go ahead with the operation, then verify things one last time before committing it to the channel.

The aux bandwidth calls though seem to be a bit intertwined. By adding the AuxHtlcValidator we end up calling the PaymentBandwidth a total of 6 times (previous was 4). We definitely need to trim some of those call sites.

Will update PR soon

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@ziggie1984 ziggie1984 left a comment

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Interesting approach, this solves all your flakes on the tap side ?

Previously we'd perform aux bandwidth checks during path finding. This
could lead to issues where multiple HTLCs where querying the same
bandwidth but were not accounting for each other before being added to
the commitment log. We now add a new validator function that will serve
as the last point of checks before adding the HTLC to the commitment.

During path finding HTLCs could query channel bandwidth asynchronously.
At this new call site all HTLCs that are about to be added to the
channel have been organised in sequence, so it's safe to query bandwdith
again at this point as we're getting the actual up-to-date values.

We remove the aux bandwidth check from the helper canSendHtlc, which was
called from CheckHTLCTransit and CheckHTLCForward (both are methods of
the htlcswitch).

For forwards we now fail at the link level, following the introduction
of the AuxHtlcValidator.

For payments, we now may fail either at the pathfinding level, or at the
link level. The htlcswitch may no longer fail for aux bandwidth checks.

Finally, when fetching the latest htlc view (for bandwidth checks during
pathfinding) we'd silently set the nextHeight of the view to the default
zero value. We now make sure to set it to the correct nextHeight value.
When instantiating the lightning channel we now pass in the created HTLC
validator. This validator simply performs a bandwidth check and errors
out if that is insufficient.
We remove the aux bandwidth check from the helper canSendHtlc, which was
called from CheckHTLCTransit and CheckHTLCForward (both are methods of
the htlcswitch).

For forwards we now fail at the link level, following the introduction
of the AuxHtlcValidator.

For payments, we now may fail either at the pathfinding level, or at the
link level. The htlcswitch may no longer fail for aux bandwidth checks.
We add this constructor for an AuxHtlcDescriptor that allows setting
some of the internal fields. This is useful for testing purposes for
code external to this package that may need to extensively test the
AuxHtlcView.
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@Roasbeef: review reminder
@GeorgeTsagk, remember to re-request review from reviewers when ready

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4 participants