decode_invoice
Decode a Lightning invoice
LABSCO SUMMARY
Decoding is the everyday use; paying is the one that needs a wallet behind it.
Reading a raw transaction or a BOLT11 invoice in plain terms — what it pays, to whom, under what expiry — is the kind of question that otherwise means finding a decoder website, and here it happens where the conversation already is, with no credentials involved. Treat the payment tool separately: it moves real funds from the LNBits wallet whose admin key you supplied, so decode_invoice first and keep the admin key out of any configuration you would not trust with the balance.
What it is
A small Bitcoin and Lightning toolkit. Key generation, address validation and transaction decoding happen locally; block and transaction lookups query the chain; Lightning payment goes through an LNBits wallet you configure.
What you get
- generate_key produces a new key pair — address, public key and private key in WIF form
- validate_address checks whether a Bitcoin address is well formed
- decode_tx parses a raw transaction hex into readable detail
- get_latest_block returns the most recent block: hash, height, timestamp and transaction count
- get_transaction fetches a transaction's details by txid
- decode_invoice parses a BOLT11 Lightning invoice into human-readable terms — what it asks for and on what conditions
- pay_invoice pays a Lightning invoice from the configured LNBits wallet
Requirements
Nothing for the Bitcoin side — key generation, validation, decoding and chain lookups need no account. It runs as npx -y bitcoin-mcp@latest. Lightning is the part that takes credentials: an LNBits account and wallet, configured with lnbitsUrl plus lnbitsAdminKey for making payments and lnbitsReadKey for wallet information, both found under API info in LNBits. Without them the Lightning payment tool has nothing to pay from.
Setup effort
One command plus a key — npx -y bitcoin-mcp@latest, then supply credentials
USE CASES
01
Understanding what a Lightning invoice is actually asking for
Decode the BOLT11 string into amount, destination and expiry before deciding anything.
02
Reading a raw transaction someone sent you
Decode the hex into inputs, outputs and structure rather than pasting it into a website.
03
Checking an address before sending to it
Validate the address is well formed, and look up the transaction history you were told about.
04
Seeing where the chain is right now
Fetch the latest block with its height, timestamp and transaction count.
05
Settling an invoice from your own wallet
Decode it first to confirm the terms, then pay it from the configured LNBits wallet.
06
Producing a throwaway key pair for testing
Generate the address, public key and WIF private key locally, without touching a wallet application.
7 tools
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
decode_tx
Decode a Bitcoin transaction
generate_key
Generate a new Bitcoin key pair and address
get_latest_block
Get the latest block
get_transaction
Get transaction details
pay_invoice
Pay a Lightning invoice
validate_address
Validate a Bitcoin address
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
7 tools when we connected.
Requires
npx on PATH
CONTEXT COST
Light Standing cost
Rated by the size of the 7 tool definitions that ride along on every turn, not by how many there are
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
Goose — stdio
TERMINAL
npx -y bitcoin-mcp@latestMCP Clients
Claude Desktop
CLAUDE DESKTOP · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"bitcoin-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"bitcoin-mcp@latest"
]
}
}
}Goose — SSE
SSE mode is started from a build of the repository:
GOOSE — SSE · TERMINAL
git clone https://github.com/AbdelStark/bitcoin-mcp
cd bitcoin-mcp
npm install
npm run build
SERVER_MODE=sse npm startRun goose configure (or open Settings > Extensions in Goose Desktop), choose Add Extension, then Remote Extension, name it bitcoin and enter this URL:
GOOSE — SSE · URL
http://localhost:3000The server listens on port 3000 unless PORT is set.
