access_l402_resource
Fetch a URL with automatic L402 payment handling. If the server returns a 402 Payment Required response, the invoice will be automatically paid and the request retried.
LABSCO SUMMARY
An agent can settle a 402 by itself, inside limits set before it starts.
access_l402_resource turns a paywalled endpoint into an ordinary fetch, and the controls around it are the substance: configure_budget only tightens, spends above the configured threshold stop for a confirmation code a human relays from the server console, and get_receipts keeps a durable record after the session ends. Part of the surface is conditional — the price, exchange and on-chain tools are Strike-only, and four of the agent-coordination tools are in preview and return an error against the hosted API today.
What it is
A Lightning wallet and L402 client for agents, covering both sides of the exchange: paying for access, and charging for it. It holds no funds — the wallet you connect does — and runs locally next to your client.
What you get
- Fetches that pay their own way: a 402 response is settled and the request retried, capped by a max_sats ceiling (access_l402_resource), plus manual handling of an L402 or MPP challenge when you want the token yourself (pay_l402_challenge).
- A one-satoshi self-test against a public L402 endpoint that proves the wallet is connected and returns a preimage before you depend on it (test_l402_payment).
- Direct BOLT11 payment returning the preimage as proof, invoice creation to receive payment, and a paid/unpaid check by invoice ID (pay_invoice, create_invoice, check_invoice_status).
- Spending limits that only tighten at runtime, a read-only budget view, and an append-only receipt log at ~/.lightning-enable/receipts.jsonl that outlives the session and records the spend policy and how to revoke the wallet (configure_budget, get_budget_status, get_receipts, get_payment_history).
- Wallet balance in sats and, with a Strike wallet, the Bitcoin price, USD/BTC exchange and on-chain sends (get_balance, get_btc_price, exchange_currency, send_onchain).
- Discovery of paid APIs in the L402 registry by keyword, category or manifest URL, with budget_aware=true reporting how many calls you can afford (discover_api).
- The provider side: issue an L402 challenge to charge for a resource, then verify the macaroon and preimage a payer presents back (create_l402_challenge, verify_l402_payment).
- Agent-to-agent commerce on Nostr — capabilities published as kind 38400 events, requests as 38401, attestations as 38403 — with settlement over the same L402 auto-pay path (discover_agent_services, publish_agent_capability, unpublish_agent_capability, request_agent_service, settle_agent_service, publish_agent_attestation, get_agent_reputation).
Requirements
One L402-capable wallet, and it has to return the payment preimage: Strike (STRIKE_API_KEY), an NWC connection string (NWC_CONNECTION_STRING) from CoinOS, CLINK or Alby Hub, or your own LND node (LND_REST_HOST plus LND_MACAROON_HEX). OpenNode invoices and pays but never returns a preimage, so it cannot clear L402 challenges. If several are set the order is LND, then NWC, then Strike, then OpenNode. Install it as a .NET tool (dotnet tool install -g LightningEnable.Mcp), from PyPI (pip install lightning-enable-mcp or uvx lightning-enable-mcp), or from the Docker image; all three run over stdio. Nine tools additionally need LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY, which create_lightning_enable_account can mint with a payment of about 100 sats.
Setup effort
One command plus a key — pip install lightning-enable-mcp, then supply credentials
USE CASES
01
Getting past a 402 without stopping to ask a human
The paywalled fetch is settled and retried in one call, under a ceiling agreed beforehand rather than argued about after.
02
Confirming the wallet really works before an agent depends on it
A wallet that looks connected and a wallet that can complete a payment are different states. One satoshi tells them apart.
03
Reviewing what an agent has already spent
Session memory disappears with the session; the receipt log does not, and it records the spend policy alongside the payments.
04
Finding a paid API you can afford before calling it
Search the registry by keyword or category and see how many calls the remaining budget covers.
05
Charging another agent for access to something you run
Issue the challenge, then check the token that comes back before granting access.
06
Hiring another agent for a step yours cannot do
Find a published capability on Nostr, check its attestations, then settle over L402 when the work is done.
26 tools
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
check_invoice_status
Check if a Lightning invoice has been paid. Use the invoice ID from create_invoice.
configure_budget
Set spending limits for the session.
create_invoice
Create a Lightning invoice to receive a payment. Returns a BOLT11 invoice string to share with the payer.
create_l402_challenge
Create an L402 payment challenge to charge another agent or user for accessing a resource. Returns a Lightning invoice and macaroon. The payer must pay the invoice and present the L402 token (macaroon:preimage) back to you for verification. Requires LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY with an Agentic Commerce subscription.
create_lightning_enable_account
Self-bootstrapping signup: activate a Lightning Enable account with a tiny Lightning payment (~100 sats) and get back a merchant API key. Requires NO Lightning Enable API key (it CREATES one) — only a connected wallet. On success the API key is saved to ~/.lightning-enable/config.json so the producer/ASA tools unlock. Above-threshold fees require an out-of-band confirmation code (as with pay_l402_challenge).
discover_agent_services
Discover agent services on the Nostr network. Search by category, hashtag, or keyword. Returns capabilities published as kind 38400 events. Use this to find agents that offer services you can pay for via L402.
discover_api
Discover L402-enabled APIs. Use 'query' to search the registry for available APIs by keyword, or use 'url' to fetch a specific API's manifest with full endpoint details and pricing. Use 'category' to browse by category. With budget_aware=true, shows how many calls you can afford.
exchange_currency
Exchange currency within your wallet (USD to BTC or BTC to USD). Currently only available with Strike wallet.
get_agent_reputation
Get an agent's reputation score and reviews. Queries kind 38403 attestation events for the given pubkey off the relay. Returns the average rating and individual reviews. Ratings are un-weighted on-relay attestations — apply your own proof/Web-of-Trust weighting before trusting them.
get_balance
Get the connected wallet's balance. Returns the sats balance plus, where available, all currency balances (USD, BTC, ... — most useful with Strike) and wallet info. Supersedes check_wallet_balance and get_all_balances.
get_btc_price
Get the current Bitcoin price in USD. Only available with Strike wallet.
get_budget_status
View current budget status and spending limits (read-only). Edit ~/.lightning-enable/config.json to change limits.
get_payment_history
List recent L402 payments made during this session.
get_receipts
Read the durable, append-only payment receipt log (~/.lightning-enable/receipts.jsonl). Unlike get_payment_history (in-memory, this session only), receipts persist across sessions and include the spend policy and how to revoke the wallet. Use to review what an agent has spent and how to pull the plug.
pay_invoice
Pay a Lightning invoice directly and get the preimage as proof of payment. Use this to pay any BOLT11 Lightning invoice without L402 protocol overhead.
pay_l402_challenge
Manually pay an L402 or MPP invoice and receive the authorization token. Use this if you need to handle the L402/MPP flow yourself. Omit macaroon for MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) mode.
publish_agent_attestation
Publish an attestation (review) for an agent after a completed agreement. Creates a kind 38403 event that builds the agent's on-protocol reputation. Requires LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY. NOTE: writing attestations is not yet available on the hosted API and returns an error. The platform holds a single signing key, so a platform-signed review would share one pubkey across all reviewers — worthless for reputation — so this is intentionally disabled until per-agent (client-side) signing exists. Reading reputation (get_agent_reputation) works today.
publish_agent_capability
Publish an agent capability advertisement to the Nostr network. Makes your agent discoverable by other agents as a kind 38400 listing, published via Lightning Enable's L402 proxy pipeline. Provide target_url — an L402 proxy is created to back the listing and handle payment. The event is signed by the Lightning Enable platform key. Requires LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY.
request_agent_service
Sends a service request (kind 38401 event) referencing the provider's capability. The provider responds with agreement/settlement terms; settle via settle_agent_service. If the provider has an L402 endpoint, you can skip this step and use settle_agent_service directly. Requires LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY.
send_onchain
Send an on-chain Bitcoin payment to a Bitcoin address. Currently only available with Strike wallet.
settle_agent_service
Settle an agent service agreement via L402 payment (CONSUMER/REQUESTER side). Pays the L402 endpoint specified in the agreement, completing the service transaction. Uses the same L402 auto-pay flow as access_l402_resource. The L402 endpoint URL comes from discover_agent_services or request_agent_service results. NOTE: If you are the PROVIDER (selling a service), use create_l402_challenge to generate a Lightning invoice at the agreed price, then verify_l402_payment to confirm payment before delivering the service.
test_l402_payment
Self-test the Lightning wallet by paying the public 1-sat L402 test endpoint end to end. Proves the wallet is connected, returns a preimage, and can complete an L402 payment. Costs about 1 satoshi. Use this to verify setup or answer 'is my wallet actually working?'. If your budget config requires confirmation for this amount, the verdict is 'needs_confirmation' and the server prints a code to its console — re-run with confirmation_nonce set to that code.
unpublish_agent_capability
Take a published listing down. Retires the L402 proxy and publishes a NIP-09 kind 5 deletion plus a status=removed 38400 replacement, so other agents stop seeing a dead listing. Works for marketplace listings created via the L402 proxy/dashboard pipeline. Requires LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY.
verify_confirmation_code
Verify whether a payment confirmation code (relayed by the human from the server console) is still valid and what it authorizes. VERIFICATION ONLY — never executes a payment. To pay, call the original payment tool again with confirmation_nonce.
verify_l402_payment
Verify an L402 token (macaroon + preimage) to confirm payment was made. Use this after receiving an L402 token from a payer to validate they paid before granting access to the resource. Requires LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY with an Agentic Commerce subscription.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
26 tools when we connected. 17 work with just a wallet; the other 9 need LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY. Four of those, publish_agent_capability, request_agent_service, publish_agent_attestation and get_agent_reputation, are in preview and currently return errors on the hosted API.
Requires
- uvx on PATH
- One wallet that returns a payment preimage — STRIKE_API_KEY (as in the config below), NWC_CONNECTION_STRING, or LND_REST_HOST with LND_MACAROON_HEX
Optional
LIGHTNING_ENABLE_API_KEY in your environment
Where it runs
Both documented setups run the server on your machine.
CONTEXT COST
Moderate Standing cost
Rated by the size of the 26 tool definitions that ride along on every turn, not by how many there are
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
pip install lightning-enable-mcpMCP Clients
Claude Desktop — Python
CLAUDE DESKTOP — PYTHON · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"lightning-enable": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"lightning-enable-mcp"
],
"env": {
"STRIKE_API_KEY": "<YOUR_STRIKE_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}Claude Desktop — .NET
CLAUDE DESKTOP — .NET · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"lightning-enable": {
"command": "dotnet",
"args": [
"tool",
"run",
"lightning-enable-mcp"
],
"env": {
"STRIKE_API_KEY": "<YOUR_STRIKE_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}
