BuildRoute

BuildRoute builds a fully specified route based on a list of hop public keys. It retrieves the relevant channel policies from the graph in order to calculate the correct fees and time locks.

Source: routerrpc/router.proto

gRPC

rpc BuildRoute (BuildRouteRequest) returns (BuildRouteResponse);

REST

HTTP Method	Path
POST	/v2/router/route

Code Samples

gRPC

Javascript

const fs = require('fs');
const grpc = require('@grpc/grpc-js');
const protoLoader = require('@grpc/proto-loader');

const GRPC_HOST = 'localhost:10009'
const MACAROON_PATH = 'LND_DIR/data/chain/bitcoin/regtest/admin.macaroon'
const TLS_PATH = 'LND_DIR/tls.cert'

const loaderOptions = {
  keepCase: true,
  longs: String,
  enums: String,
  defaults: true,
  oneofs: true,
};
const packageDefinition = protoLoader.loadSync(['lightning.proto', 'routerrpc/router.proto'], loaderOptions);
const routerrpc = grpc.loadPackageDefinition(packageDefinition).routerrpc;
process.env.GRPC_SSL_CIPHER_SUITES = 'HIGH+ECDSA';
const tlsCert = fs.readFileSync(TLS_PATH);
const sslCreds = grpc.credentials.createSsl(tlsCert);
const macaroon = fs.readFileSync(MACAROON_PATH).toString('hex');
const macaroonCreds = grpc.credentials.createFromMetadataGenerator(function(args, callback) {
  let metadata = new grpc.Metadata();
  metadata.add('macaroon', macaroon);
  callback(null, metadata);
});
let creds = grpc.credentials.combineChannelCredentials(sslCreds, macaroonCreds);
let client = new routerrpc.Router(GRPC_HOST, creds);
let request = {
  amt_msat: <int64>,
  final_cltv_delta: <int32>,
  outgoing_chan_id: <uint64>,
  hop_pubkeys: <bytes>,
  payment_addr: <bytes>,
};
client.buildRoute(request, function(err, response) {
  console.log(response);
});
// Console output:
//  {
//    "route": <Route>,
//  }

Python

import codecs, grpc, os
# Generate the following 2 modules by compiling the routerrpc/router.proto with the grpcio-tools.
# See https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/blob/master/docs/grpc/python.md for instructions.
import router_pb2 as routerrpc, router_pb2_grpc as routerstub

GRPC_HOST = 'localhost:10009'
MACAROON_PATH = 'LND_DIR/data/chain/bitcoin/regtest/admin.macaroon'
TLS_PATH = 'LND_DIR/tls.cert'

# create macaroon credentials
macaroon = codecs.encode(open(MACAROON_PATH, 'rb').read(), 'hex')
def metadata_callback(context, callback):
  callback([('macaroon', macaroon)], None)
auth_creds = grpc.metadata_call_credentials(metadata_callback)
# create SSL credentials
os.environ['GRPC_SSL_CIPHER_SUITES'] = 'HIGH+ECDSA'
cert = open(TLS_PATH, 'rb').read()
ssl_creds = grpc.ssl_channel_credentials(cert)
# combine macaroon and SSL credentials
combined_creds = grpc.composite_channel_credentials(ssl_creds, auth_creds)
# make the request
channel = grpc.secure_channel(GRPC_HOST, combined_creds)
stub = routerstub.RouterStub(channel)
request = routerrpc.BuildRouteRequest(
  amt_msat=<int64>,
  final_cltv_delta=<int32>,
  outgoing_chan_id=<uint64>,
  hop_pubkeys=<bytes>,
  payment_addr=<bytes>,
)
response = stub.BuildRoute(request)
print(response)
# {
#    "route": <Route>,
# }

REST

Javascript

const fs = require('fs');
const request = require('request');

const REST_HOST = 'localhost:8080'
const MACAROON_PATH = 'LND_DIR/data/chain/bitcoin/regtest/admin.macaroon'

let requestBody = {
  amt_msat: <string>, // <int64> 
  final_cltv_delta: <integer>, // <int32> 
  outgoing_chan_id: <string>, // <uint64> 
  hop_pubkeys: <array>, // <bytes> (base64 encoded)
  payment_addr: <string>, // <bytes> (base64 encoded)
};
let options = {
  url: `https://${REST_HOST}/v2/router/route`,
  // Work-around for self-signed certificates.
  rejectUnauthorized: false,
  json: true,
  headers: {
    'Grpc-Metadata-macaroon': fs.readFileSync(MACAROON_PATH).toString('hex'),
  },
  form: JSON.stringify(requestBody),
}
request.post(options, function(error, response, body) {
  console.log(body);
});
// Console output:
//  {
//    "route": <object>, // <Route> 
//  }

Python

import base64, codecs, json, requests

REST_HOST = 'localhost:8080'
MACAROON_PATH = 'LND_DIR/data/chain/bitcoin/regtest/admin.macaroon'
TLS_PATH = 'LND_DIR/tls.cert'

url = f'https://{REST_HOST}/v2/router/route'
macaroon = codecs.encode(open(MACAROON_PATH, 'rb').read(), 'hex')
headers = {'Grpc-Metadata-macaroon': macaroon}
data = {
  'amt_msat': <int64>,
  'final_cltv_delta': <int32>,
  'outgoing_chan_id': <uint64>,
  'hop_pubkeys': base64.b64encode(<bytes>),
  'payment_addr': base64.b64encode(<bytes>),
}
r = requests.post(url, headers=headers, data=json.dumps(data), verify=TLS_PATH)
print(r.json())
# {
#    "route": <Route>,
# }

Shell

# There is no CLI command for this RPC

Messages

routerrpc.BuildRouteRequest

Source: routerrpc/router.proto

Field	gRPC Type	REST Type	REST Placement
amt_msat The amount to send expressed in msat. If set to zero, the minimum routable amount is used.	int64	string	body
final_cltv_delta CLTV delta from the current height that should be used for the timelock of the final hop	int32	integer	body
outgoing_chan_id The channel id of the channel that must be taken to the first hop. If zero, any channel may be used.	uint64	string	body
hop_pubkeys A list of hops that defines the route. This does not include the source hop pubkey.	bytes[]	array	body
payment_addr An optional payment addr to be included within the last hop of the route.	bytes	string	body

routerrpc.BuildRouteResponse

Source: routerrpc/router.proto

Field	gRPC Type	REST Type
route Fully specified route that can be used to execute the payment.	Route	object

Nested Messages

lnrpc.Route

Field	gRPC Type	REST Type
total_time_lock The cumulative (final) time lock across the entire route. This is the CLTV value that should be extended to the first hop in the route. All other hops will decrement the time-lock as advertised, leaving enough time for all hops to wait for or present the payment preimage to complete the payment.	uint32	integer
total_fees The sum of the fees paid at each hop within the final route. In the case of a one-hop payment, this value will be zero as we don't need to pay a fee to ourselves.	int64	string
total_amt The total amount of funds required to complete a payment over this route. This value includes the cumulative fees at each hop. As a result, the HTLC extended to the first-hop in the route will need to have at least this many satoshis, otherwise the route will fail at an intermediate node due to an insufficient amount of fees.	int64	string
hops Contains details concerning the specific forwarding details at each hop.	Hop[]	array
total_fees_msat The total fees in millisatoshis.	int64	string
total_amt_msat The total amount in millisatoshis.	int64	string

lnrpc.Hop

Field	gRPC Type	REST Type
chan_id The unique channel ID for the channel. The first 3 bytes are the block height, the next 3 the index within the block, and the last 2 bytes are the output index for the channel.	uint64	string
chan_capacity	int64	string
amt_to_forward	int64	string
fee	int64	string
expiry	uint32	integer
amt_to_forward_msat	int64	string
fee_msat	int64	string
pub_key An optional public key of the hop. If the public key is given, the payment can be executed without relying on a copy of the channel graph.	string	string
tlv_payload If set to true, then this hop will be encoded using the new variable length TLV format. Note that if any custom tlv_records below are specified, then this field MUST be set to true for them to be encoded properly.	bool	boolean
mpp_record An optional TLV record that signals the use of an MPP payment. If present, the receiver will enforce that the same mpp_record is included in the final hop payload of all non-zero payments in the HTLC set. If empty, a regular single-shot payment is or was attempted.	MPPRecord	object
amp_record An optional TLV record that signals the use of an AMP payment. If present, the receiver will treat all received payments including the same (payment_addr, set_id) pair as being part of one logical payment. The payment will be settled by XORing the root_share's together and deriving the child hashes and preimages according to BOLT XX. Must be used in conjunction with mpp_record.	AMPRecord	object
custom_records An optional set of key-value TLV records. This is useful within the context of the SendToRoute call as it allows callers to specify arbitrary K-V pairs to drop off at each hop within the onion.	CustomRecordsEntry[]	object
metadata The payment metadata to send along with the payment to the payee.	bytes	string

lnrpc.MPPRecord

Field	gRPC Type	REST Type
payment_addr A unique, random identifier used to authenticate the sender as the intended payer of a multi-path payment. The payment_addr must be the same for all subpayments, and match the payment_addr provided in the receiver's invoice. The same payment_addr must be used on all subpayments.	bytes	string
total_amt_msat The total amount in milli-satoshis being sent as part of a larger multi-path payment. The caller is responsible for ensuring subpayments to the same node and payment_hash sum exactly to total_amt_msat. The same total_amt_msat must be used on all subpayments.	int64	string

lnrpc.AMPRecord

Field	gRPC Type	REST Type
root_share	bytes	string
set_id	bytes	string
child_index	uint32	integer

lnrpc.Hop.CustomRecordsEntry

Field	gRPC Type	REST Type
key	uint64	unknown
value	bytes	unknown