Best for
- Users who already have an NWC-compatible Lightning wallet and want an LLM to act on it
- Developers integrating bitcoin payment capability into MCP-capable clients like Claude, Goose, Cline, or Windsurf
A
Alby Bitcoin Payments MCP Server
Official
Connect a bitcoin lightning wallet to your LLM via Nostr Wallet Connect
GitHub source repository ↗
58FMRS · C
An officially maintained bitcoin Lightning MCP server from Alby, offering both self-hosted STDIO and Alby-hosted SSE/HTTP Streamable access; the main risk is safeguarding and securely transmitting the NWC connection secret.
The Alby MCP Server is officially maintained by getAlby and built on the official MCP TypeScript SDK. It lets an LLM or agent operate a bitcoin Lightning wallet through the Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) protocol, with built-in knowledge of NWC, LNURL, and L402 via the Alby SDK and Alby Lightning Tools. It can run locally over STDIO or connect to Alby's hosted remote endpoints over SSE and HTTP Streamable transports. See the src/tools directory in the repository for the specific set of supported tools.
Tools
The tool list has not been reviewed yet.
Setup
Local: install Node.js 20+, then run the @getalby/mcp package via npx with an NWC_CONNECTION_STRING environment variable set to your wallet's NWC connection secret (or build from source with yarn install / yarn build, copy .env.example to .env, and test with yarn inspect). Remote: connect directly to Alby's hosted endpoints at https://mcp.getalby.com/sse or https://mcp.getalby.com/mcp, authenticating with your NWC secret either as a Bearer token or via the nwc query parameter. The README provides example configurations for Claude Desktop, Claude Web, Claude Code, Goose Desktop/CLI, Cline, Windsurf, and N8N.
claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"nwc": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@getalby/mcp"
],
"env": {
"NWC_CONNECTION_STRING": "YOUR NWC CONNECTION STRING HERE"
}
}
}
}
Fit and risk
Not for
- Users who don't use the bitcoin Lightning Network or lack an NWC wallet
- Use with weaker models — the README notes a capable model (e.g. Claude 3.7 Sonnet) is required or the server may not function correctly
Required permissions
- Requires an NWC connection secret, which grants the server the ability to act on your wallet's funds
- In hosted/remote mode, this secret is transmitted to the Alby server as a Bearer header or URL parameter
Risks and side effects
- If the NWC connection secret leaks, anyone holding it can control the associated wallet's funds
- Passing the secret via a URL query parameter risks it being logged in browser history, server logs, or proxies
- Relying on a weaker model may lead to unintended or incorrect payment actions
Troubleshooting
- Confirm you're using a sufficiently capable model (e.g. Claude 3.7 Sonnet); otherwise the server may not work
- Verify the entire NWC connection secret was copied with no extra spaces if you get a 'failed to connect to wallet, secret missing' error
- Contact support.getalby.com for official help if issues persist
Use cases
Letting an AI agent send or receive Lightning Network payments directly
Adding pay-per-use or tipping steps into automation workflows like N8N
Giving agents that don't support MCP similar capability via the companion Alby CLI
Supported clients
Claude DesktopFull support
Claude WebPartial support
Claude CodeFull support
Goose DesktopFull support
Goose CLIFull support
ClineFull support
WindsurfFull support
N8NPartial support