---
id: rpc-eclair
title: Eclair
---

This is a RPC client for [Eclair](https://github.com/acinq/eclair). It assumes that a bitcoind instance is running.

Currently this RPC client is written for [v0.10.0](https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/releases/tag/v0.10.0) version of Eclair.

## Configuration of Eclair

Please see the configuration secion of the
[Eclair README](https://github.com/acinq/eclair#configuring-eclair).

You can find the configuration we use for our testing infrastrture for eclair [here](https://github.com/bitcoin-s/bitcoin-s/blob/a043d3858ef33da51229ee59c478d2a6c9d5a46f/testkit/src/main/scala/org/bitcoins/testkit/eclair/rpc/EclairRpcTestUtil.scala#L98).

## Starting Eclair

You need to download the jar from the [eclair's github](https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/releases/tag/v0.5.0).

To run Eclair by unzipping the `eclair-node-0.10.0-a63d2c2-bin.zip` and then running

```bash
$ ./eclair-node-0.5.0-ac08560/bin/eclair-node.sh
```

If you wish to start Eclair from the RPC client, you can do one of the following:

1. Construct a [`EclairRpcClient.binary`](https://github.com/bitcoin-s/bitcoin-s/blob/a043d3858ef33da51229ee59c478d2a6c9d5a46f/eclair-rpc/src/main/scala/org/bitcoins/eclair/rpc/client/EclairRpcClient.scala#L51) field set
2. Set the [`ECLAIR_PATH`](https://github.com/bitcoin-s/bitcoin-s/blob/a043d3858ef33da51229ee59c478d2a6c9d5a46f/eclair-rpc/src/main/scala/org/bitcoins/eclair/rpc/client/EclairRpcClient.scala#L701) environment variable to the directory where the Eclair Jar is located.

We will default to using the `binary` field first when trying to start the jar, and the fallback to `ECLAIR_PATH`.

Here is an example of how to start eclair:

```scala mdoc:invisible
import org.apache.pekko.actor.ActorSystem
import org.bitcoins.eclair.rpc.client.EclairRpcClient
import org.bitcoins.eclair.rpc.config.EclairInstanceLocal
import java.nio.file.Paths
import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext
```

```scala mdoc:compile-only

implicit val system: ActorSystem = ActorSystem(s"eclair-rpc-${System.currentTimeMillis}")
implicit val ec: ExecutionContext = system.dispatcher

val datadirPath = Paths.get("path", "to", "datadir")
val binaryPath = Paths.get("path", "to", "eclair-node-0.10.0-a63d2c2", "bin", "eclair-node.sh")
val instance = EclairInstanceLocal.fromDatadir(datadirPath.toFile, logbackXml = None, proxyParams = None)
val client = new EclairRpcClient(instance, Some(binaryPath.toFile))

val startedF = client.start()

for {
  eclair <- startedF
  info <- eclair.getInfo
} yield {
  println(s"Eclair info: $info")
}
```

### Connecting to the websocket

As of `v0.10.0` eclair supports a websocket endpoint. This means you can receive updates of what is happening with eclair
in real time. You can see an example of us testing this [here](https://github.com/bitcoin-s/bitcoin-s/blob/a043d3858ef33da51229ee59c478d2a6c9d5a46f/eclair-rpc-test/src/test/scala/org/bitcoins/eclair/rpc/EclairRpcClientTest.scala#L591)