# Lightning

Watch the Lightning node that settles your mint's ecash from Orchard. A dedicated Lightning view is on the way; today the Home view summarizes the node's balances and connectivity.

Your Lightning node is where the mint actually settles value, and where the bitcoin backing your ecash is custodied.
Connecting it gives you a view of the node and feeds the assets side of your balance sheet.

<figure class="screenshot">

![Orchard's Lightning view for the node "bob", with a single Dashboard tab and a centered lightning-bolt icon above the message "Lightning Dashboard Coming Soon!".](../../../assets/your-orchard-lightning.png)

<figcaption>The dedicated Lightning view — a full node dashboard is on the way.</figcaption>

</figure>

<Aside type="note" title="Connecting your node">
  Which Lightning node Orchard connects to, and how, is set with environment
  variables. See [Installation & Configuration](/install/configuration/#lightning).
</Aside>

## Lightning Dashboard

Today, the [home page](/orchard/home/#lightning) summarizes your Lightning node.
A dedicated dashboard is coming soon.

## Mint Assets

Your mint's [balance sheet](/orchard/mint/#dashboard) weighs its liabilities (the ecash in
circulation) against the real bitcoin that backs it (your outbound lightning liquidity).
A connected Lightning node fills in the assets side of the sheet, and lets Orchard
track how your coverage shifts over time.

## AI

Connecting a Lightning node also gives the [AI agent](/orchard/settings/#ai) read-only tools
for knowing what's happening on your node:

- **Lightning Info** — node identity, sync status, and channel counts.
- **Channels** — open and closed channels with balances and peer info.
- **Peers** — connected peers and traffic.
- **Lightning Analytics** — payments, routing, and balance trends over time.