lightning-keysend -- Send funds to a node without an invoice
keysend destination amount_msat
[label] [maxfeepercent] [retry_for] [maxdelay]
[exemptfee] [routehints] [extratlvs]
[maxfee]
The keysend RPC command attempts to find a route to the
given destination, and send the specified amount to it. Unlike the
pay RPC command the keysend
command does not require an invoice, instead it uses the
destination node ID, and
amount to find a route to the specified node.
In order for the destination to be able to claim the payment, the
payment_key is randomly generated by the sender and
included in the encrypted payload for the destination. As a consequence
there is not proof-of-payment, like there is with an invoice where the
payment_key is generated on the destination, and the
only way sender could have it is by sending a payment. Please ensure that
this matches your use-case when using keysend.
When using $ lightning-cli, you may skip optional
parameters by using null. Alternatively, use -k option to
provide parameters by name.
- destination (pubkey): The 33 byte, hex-encoded, node ID of the node
that the payment should go to.
- amount_msat (msat): A whole number, or a whole number with suffix
msat or sat, or a three
decimal point number with suffix sat, or an 1 to
11 decimal point number suffixed by btc.
- label (string, optional): Used to attach a label to payments, and
is returned in lightning-listpays(7) and lightning-listsendpays(7).
- maxfeepercent (number, optional): Limits the money paid in fees as
percentage of the total amount that is to be transferred. The default is
0.5.
- retry_for (u32, optional): Until retry_for seconds passes,
the command will keep finding routes and retrying the payment. However, a
payment may be delayed for up to maxdelay blocks
by another node; clients should be prepared for this worst case. The
default is 60 seconds.
- maxdelay (u32, optional): Number of blocks the payment may be
delayed.
- exemptfee (msat, optional): Used for tiny payments which would be
dominated by the fee leveraged by forwarding nodes. Setting
exemptfee allows the
maxfeepercent check to be skipped on fees that are
smaller than exemptfee. The default is 5000 millisatoshi.
- routehints (array of arrays, optional):
- (array of objects)
- id (pubkey)
- scid (short_channel_id)
- feebase (msat)
- feeprop (u32)
- expirydelta (u16)
- extratlvs (object, optional): Dictionary of additional fields to
insert into the final tlv. The format is 'fieldnumber': 'hexstring'.:
- maxfee (msat, optional): maxfee overrides both
maxfeepercent and exemptfee defaults (and if you specify
maxfee you cannot specify either of those), and creates an absolute
limit on what fee we will pay. This allows you to implement your own
heuristics rather than the primitive ones used here. (added
v24.11)
To protect user privacy, the payment algorithm performs some
randomization.
1: Route Randomization
Route randomization means the payment algorithm does not always
use the lowest-fee or shortest route. This prevents some highly-connected
node from learning all of the user payments by reducing their fees below the
network average.
2: Shadow Route
Shadow route means the payment algorithm will virtually extend the
route by adding delays and fees along it, making it appear to intermediate
nodes that the route is longer than it actually is. This prevents
intermediate nodes from reliably guessing their distance from the payee.
Route randomization will never exceed maxfeepercent of the
payment. Route randomization and shadow routing will not take routes that
would exceed maxdelay.
On success, an object is returned, containing:
- payment_preimage (secret): The proof of payment: SHA256 of this
payment_hash.
- payment_hash (hash): The hash of the payment_preimage which
will prove payment.
- created_at (number): The UNIX timestamp showing when this payment
was initiated.
- parts (u32): How many attempts this took.
- amount_msat (msat): Amount the recipient received.
- amount_sent_msat (msat): Total amount we sent (including fees).
- status (string) (always "complete"): Status of payment.
- destination (pubkey, optional): The final destination of the
payment.
The following warnings may also be returned:
- •
- warning_partial_completion: Not all parts of a multi-part payment
have completed.
You can monitor the progress and retries of a payment using the
lightning-paystatus(7) command.
The following error codes may occur:
- -1: Catchall nonspecific error.
- 203: Permanent failure at destination. The data field of the error
will be routing failure object.
- 205: Unable to find a route.
- 206: Route too expensive. Either the fee or the needed total locktime for
the route exceeds your maxfeepercent or maxdelay settings,
respectively. The data field of the error will indicate the actual
fee as well as the feepercent percentage that the fee has of
the destination payment amount. It will also indicate the actual
delay along the route.
- 210: Payment timed out without a payment in progress.
A routing failure object has the fields below:
erring_index: The index of the node along the route that
reported the error. 0 for the local node, 1 for the first hop, and so on.
erring_node: The hex string of the pubkey id of the node that
reported the error. erring_channel: The short channel ID of the
channel that has the error, or 0:0:0 if the destination node raised
the error. failcode: The failure code, as per BOLT #4.
channel_update: The hex string of the channel_update message
received from the remote node. Only present if error is from the remote node
and the failcode has the UPDATE bit set, as
per BOLT #4.
lightning-listpays(7), lightning-decodepay(7),
lightning-listinvoices(7), lightning-delinvoice(7), lightning-getroute(7),
lightning-invoice(7)
Example 1:
Request:
$ lightning-cli keysend -k "destination"="nodeid030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303" "amount_msat"=10000
{
"id": "example:keysend#1",
"method": "keysend",
"params": {
"destination": "nodeid030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303",
"amount_msat": 10000
}
}
Response:
{
"destination": "nodeid030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303",
"payment_hash": "paymenthashkey01k101k101k101k101k101k101k101k101k101k101k101k101",
"created_at": 1738000000,
"parts": 1,
"amount_msat": 10000,
"amount_sent_msat": 10001,
"payment_preimage": "paymentpreimage1010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101",
"status": "complete"
}
Example 2:
Request:
$ lightning-cli keysend -k "destination"="nodeid040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404" "amount_msat"=10000000 "extratlvs"='{"133773310": "68656c6c6f776f726c64", "133773312": "66696c7465726d65"}'
{
"id": "example:keysend#2",
"method": "keysend",
"params": {
"destination": "nodeid040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404",
"amount_msat": 10000000,
"extratlvs": {
"133773310": "68656c6c6f776f726c64",
"133773312": "66696c7465726d65"
}
}
}
Response:
{
"destination": "nodeid040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404040404",
"payment_hash": "paymenthashkey02k201k201k201k201k201k201k201k201k201k201k201k201",
"created_at": 1738000000,
"parts": 1,
"amount_msat": 10000000,
"amount_sent_msat": 10000202,
"payment_preimage": "paymentpreimage2020202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202",
"status": "complete"
}
Example 3:
Request:
$ lightning-cli keysend -k "destination"="nodeid030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303" "amount_msat"=10000 "routehints"='[[{"scid": "111x1x1", "id": "nodeid020202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202", "feebase": "1msat", "feeprop": 10, "expirydelta": 9}]]'
{
"id": "example:keysend#3",
"method": "keysend",
"params": {
"destination": "nodeid030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303",
"amount_msat": 10000,
"routehints": [
[
{
"scid": "111x1x1",
"id": "nodeid020202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202",
"feebase": "1msat",
"feeprop": 10,
"expirydelta": 9
}
]
]
}
}
Response:
{
"destination": "nodeid030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303",
"payment_hash": "paymenthashkey03k301k301k301k301k301k301k301k301k301k301k301k301",
"created_at": 1738000000,
"parts": 2,
"amount_msat": 10000,
"amount_sent_msat": 10001,
"payment_preimage": "paymentpreimage3030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303",
"status": "complete"
}