"The **invoice** RPC command creates the expectation of a payment of a given amount of milli-satoshi: it returns a unique token which another lightning daemon can use to pay this invoice. This token includes a *route hint* description of an incoming channel with capacity to pay the invoice, if any exists."
],
"request":{
"required":[
"amount_msat",
"label",
"description"
],
"properties":{
"amount_msat":{
"type":"msat_or_any",
"description":[
"The string `any`, which creates an invoice that can be paid with any amount. Otherwise it is a positive value 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*."
]
},
"label":{
"oneOf":[
{
"type":"string"
},
{
"type":"integer"
}
],
"description":[
"A unique string or number (which is treated as a string, so `01` is different from `1`); it is never revealed to other nodes on the lightning network, but it can be used to query the status of this invoice."
]
},
"description":{
"type":"string",
"description":[
"A short description of purpose of payment, e.g. *1 cup of coffee*. This value is encoded into the BOLT11 invoice and is viewable by any node you send this invoice to (unless *deschashonly* is true as described below). It must be UTF-8, and cannot use *\\u* JSON escape codes."
]
},
"expiry":{
"type":"u64",
"description":[
"The time the invoice is valid for, in seconds. If no value is provided the default of 604800 (1 week) is used."
]
},
"fallbacks":{
"type":"array",
"description":[
"One or more fallback addresses to include in the invoice (in order from most- preferred to least): note that these arrays are not currently tracked to fulfill the invoice."
],
"items":{
"type":"string"
}
},
"preimage":{
"type":"hex",
"description":[
"A 64-digit hex string to be used as payment preimage for the created invoice. By default, if unspecified, lightningd will generate a secure pseudorandom preimage seeded from an appropriate entropy source on your system. **IMPORTANT**: if you specify the *preimage*, you are responsible, to ensure appropriate care for generating using a secure pseudorandom generator seeded with sufficient entropy, and keeping the preimage secret. This parameter is an advanced feature intended for use with cutting-edge cryptographic protocols and should not be used unless explicitly needed."
]
},
"exposeprivatechannels":{
"description":[
"If specified, it overrides the default route hint logic, which will use unpublished channels only if there are no published channels."
],
"oneOf":[
{
"type":"boolean",
"description":[
"If *True* unpublished channels are always considered as a route hint candidate; if *False*, never."
]
},
{
"type":"array",
"description":[
"Array of short channel ids (or a remote alias), only those specific channels will be considered candidates, even if they are public or dead-ends."
],
"items":{
"type":"short_channel_id"
}
},
{
"type":"short_channel_id",
"description":[
"If it is a short channel id (e.g. *1x1x3*), only this specific channel will be considered candidate, even if it is public or dead-end."
]
}
]
},
"cltv":{
"type":"u32",
"description":[
"If specified, sets the *min_final_cltv_expiry* for the invoice. Otherwise, it's set to the parameter **cltv-final**."
]
},
"deschashonly":{
"type":"boolean",
"description":[
"If True, then the bolt11 returned contains a hash of the *description*, rather than the *description* itself: this allows much longer descriptions, but they must be communicated via some other mechanism."
],
"default":"False"
}
}
},
"response":{
"required":[
"payment_hash",
"expires_at",
"created_index",
"bolt11",
"payment_secret"
],
"properties":{
"bolt11":{
"type":"string",
"description":[
"The bolt11 string."
]
},
"payment_hash":{
"type":"hash",
"description":[
"The hash of the *payment_preimage* which will prove payment."
]
},
"payment_secret":{
"type":"secret",
"description":[
"The *payment_secret* to place in the onion."
]
},
"expires_at":{
"type":"u64",
"description":[
"UNIX timestamp of when invoice expires."
]
},
"created_index":{
"type":"u64",
"added":"v23.08",
"description":[
"1-based index indicating order this invoice was created in."
]
},
"warning_capacity":{
"type":"string",
"description":[
"Even using all possible channels, there's not enough incoming capacity to pay this invoice."
]
},
"warning_offline":{
"type":"string",
"description":[
"There would be enough incoming capacity, but some channels are offline, so there isn't."
]
},
"warning_deadends":{
"type":"string",
"description":[
"There would be enough incoming capacity, but some channels are dead-ends (no other public channels from those peers), so there isn't."
]
},
"warning_private_unused":{
"type":"string",
"description":[
"There would be enough incoming capacity, but some channels are unannounced and *exposeprivatechannels* is *false*, so there isn't."
]
},
"warning_mpp":{
"type":"string",
"description":[
"There is sufficient capacity, but not in a single channel, so the payer will have to use multi-part payments."
]
}
}
},
"errors":[
"On failure, an error is returned and no invoice is created. If the",
"lightning process fails before responding, the caller should use",
"lightning-listinvoices(7) to query whether this invoice was created or",
"not.",
"",
"The following error codes may occur:",
"",
"- -1: Catchall nonspecific error.",
"- 900: An invoice with the given *label* already exists.",
"- 901: An invoice with the given *preimage* already exists.",
"- 902: None of the specified *exposeprivatechannels* were usable."
