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lightninglabs/lightning-agent-tools/macaroon-bakery

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version: "1.0.0" name: macaroon-bakery description: Bake, inspect, and manage lnd macaroons for least-privilege agent access. Use when an agent needs scoped credentials — pay-only, invoice-only, read-only, or custom permissions. Also covers signer macaroon scoping and macaroon rotation.

Macaroon Bakery

Bake custom lnd macaroons so every agent gets only the permissions it needs. Never hand out admin.macaroon in production — bake a scoped one instead.

Quick Start

bash

# Bake a pay-only macaroon
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role pay-only
 
# Bake an invoice-only macaroon
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role invoice-only
 
# Bake a read-only macaroon
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role read-only
 
# Inspect any macaroon
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --inspect ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon
 
# List all available lnd permissions
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --list-permissions

Docker

The litd container is auto-detected. You can also specify --container:

bash

# Auto-detect litd container (default)
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role pay-only
 
# Explicit container
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role pay-only --container litd
 
# Inspect a macaroon inside a container
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --inspect /root/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --container litd

Remote Nodes

To bake macaroons on a remote lnd node, provide the connection credentials:

bash

# Bake a pay-only macaroon on a remote node
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role pay-only \
    --rpcserver remote-host:10009 \
    --tlscertpath ~/remote-tls.cert \
    --macaroonpath ~/remote-admin.macaroon \
    --save-to ~/remote-pay-only.macaroon

You need lncli installed locally and copies of the node's TLS cert and a macaroon with macaroon:generate permission (typically admin.macaroon).

Preset Roles

Role	What the agent can do	Cannot do
`pay-only`	Pay invoices, decode invoices, get node info	Create invoices, open channels, see balances
`invoice-only`	Create invoices, lookup invoices, get node info	Pay, open channels, see wallet balance
`read-only`	Get info, balances, list channels/peers/payments	Pay, create invoices, open/close channels
`channel-admin`	All of read-only + open/close channels, connect peers	Pay invoices, create invoices
`signer-only`	Sign transactions, derive keys (for remote signer)	Everything else

Baking Custom Macaroons

For permissions not covered by presets, bake a custom macaroon:

bash

# Custom: agent can only pay and check wallet balance
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --custom \
    uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/SendPaymentSync \
    uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/DecodePayReq \
    uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/WalletBalance \
    uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/GetInfo
 
# Custom with explicit output path
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --custom \
    uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/AddInvoice \
    uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/GetInfo \
    --save-to ~/my-agent.macaroon

Discovering Permissions

bash

# List all available URI permissions
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --list-permissions
 
# Filter for specific service
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --list-permissions | grep -i invoice
 
# Filter for routing-related permissions
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --list-permissions | grep -i router

Inspecting Macaroons

bash

# See what permissions a macaroon has
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --inspect <path-to-macaroon>
 
# Inspect the admin macaroon to see full permissions
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --inspect ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon

Signer Macaroon Scoping

When using the lightning-security-module skill, the credentials bundle includes admin.macaroon by default. For production, bake a signing-only macaroon on the signer machine:

bash

# On the signer container
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role signer-only \
    --container litd-signer --rpc-port 10012
 
# Or on a native signer
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role signer-only \
    --rpc-port 10012 --lnddir ~/.lnd-signer
 
# Then re-export the credentials bundle with the scoped macaroon

Macaroon Rotation

Rotate macaroons regularly to limit the window if one is compromised:

bash

# 1. Bake a new macaroon with the same role
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role pay-only --save-to ~/pay-only-v2.macaroon
 
# 2. Update your agent config to use the new macaroon
 
# 3. Delete the old macaroon's root key (invalidates it)
skills/lnd/scripts/lncli.sh bakemacaroon --root_key_id 0
# Note: use lncli listmacaroonids and deletemacaroonid for fine-grained control

Best Practices

One macaroon per agent role. Don't share macaroons between agents with

different responsibilities.

Never use admin.macaroon in production. It's the master key.
Inspect before deploying. Always verify what a baked macaroon can do.
Rotate on a schedule. Monthly for production, immediately if compromised.
Scope signer macaroons too. The remote signer's credentials bundle should

use signer-only, not admin.

Store with 0600 permissions. Macaroons are bearer tokens — treat like passwords.

Common Permission URIs

Permission	Description
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/GetInfo`	Node info (version, pubkey, sync status)
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/WalletBalance`	On-chain wallet balance
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/ChannelBalance`	Lightning channel balance
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/ListChannels`	List open channels
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/ListPeers`	List connected peers
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/SendPaymentSync`	Pay a Lightning invoice
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/DecodePayReq`	Decode a BOLT11 invoice
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/AddInvoice`	Create a Lightning invoice
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/LookupInvoice`	Look up an invoice by hash
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/ListInvoices`	List all invoices
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/ListPayments`	List all payments
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/ConnectPeer`	Connect to a peer
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/OpenChannelSync`	Open a channel
`uri:/lnrpc.Lightning/CloseChannel`	Close a channel
`uri:/signrpc.Signer/SignOutputRaw`	Sign a transaction output
`uri:/signrpc.Signer/ComputeInputScript`	Compute input script for signing
`uri:/signrpc.Signer/MuSig2Sign`	MuSig2 signing
`uri:/walletrpc.WalletKit/DeriveKey`	Derive a key
`uri:/walletrpc.WalletKit/DeriveNextKey`	Derive next key in sequence

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