core-lightning/doc/lightning-sendpay.7.md

lightning-sendpay -- Low-level command for sending a payment via a route
========================================================================

SYNOPSIS
--------

**sendpay** *route* *payment\_hash* \[*label*\] \[*msatoshi*\]
\[*bolt11*\] \[*partid*\]

DESCRIPTION
-----------

The **sendpay** RPC command attempts to send funds associated with the
given *payment\_hash*, along a route to the final destination in the
route.

Generally, a client would call lightning-getroute(7) to resolve a route,
then use **sendpay** to send it. If it fails, it would call
lightning-getroute(7) again to retry.

The response will occur when the payment is on its way to the
destination. The **sendpay** RPC command does not wait for definite
success or definite failure of the payment. Instead, use the
**waitsendpay** RPC command to poll or wait for definite success or
definite failure.

The *label* and *bolt11* parameters, if provided, will be returned in
*waitsendpay* and *listsendpays* results.

The *msatoshi* amount, if provided, is the amount that will be recorded
as the target payment value. If not specified, it will be the final
amount to the destination. By default it is in millisatoshi precision; it can be a whole number, or a whole number
ending in *msat* or *sat*, or a number with three decimal places ending
in *sat*, or a number with 1 to 11 decimal places ending in *btc*.

The *partid* value, if provided and non-zero, allows for multiple parallel
partial payments with the same *payment_hash*.  The *msatoshi* amount
(which must be provided) for each **sendpay** with matching
*payment_hash* must be equal, and **sendpay** will fail if there are
already *msatoshi* worth of payments pending.

Once a payment has succeeded, calls to **sendpay** with the same
*payment\_hash* but a different *msatoshi* or destination will fail;
this prevents accidental multiple payments. Calls to **sendpay** with
the same *payment\_hash*, *msatoshi*, and destination as a previous
successful payment (even if a different route or *partid*) will return immediately
with success.

RETURN VALUE
------------

On success, an object similar to the output of **listsendpays** will be
returned. This object will have a *status* field that is typically the
string *"pending"*, but may be *"complete"* if the payment was already
performed successfully.

On error, if the error occurred from a node other than the final
destination, the route table will be updated so that
lightning-getroute(7) should return an alternate route (if any). An
error from the final destination implies the payment should not be
retried.

The following error codes may occur:
-   -1: Catchall nonspecific error.
-   201: Already paid with this *hash* using different amount or
    destination.
-   202: Unparseable onion reply. The *data* field of the error will
    have an *onionreply* field, a hex string representation of the raw
    onion reply.
-   203: Permanent failure at destination. The *data* field of the error
    will be routing failure object.
-   204: Failure along route; retry a different route. The *data* field
    of the error will be routing failure object.

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.

AUTHOR
------

Rusty Russell <<rusty@rustcorp.com.au>> is mainly responsible.

SEE ALSO
--------

lightning-listinvoice(7), lightning-delinvoice(7),
lightning-getroute(7), lightning-invoice(7), lightning-pay(7),
lightning-waitsendpay(7).

RESOURCES
---------

Main web site: <https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning>