Lightning

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.

The dedicated Lightning view — a full node dashboard is on the way.

Connecting your node

Which Lightning node Orchard connects to, and how, is set with environment variables. See Installation & Configuration.

Lightning Dashboard

Today, the home page summarizes your Lightning node. A dedicated dashboard is coming soon.

Mint Assets

Your mint’s balance sheet 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 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.