# Mint

Operate the Cashu mint itself from Orchard: its dashboard, public info, configuration, keysets, and database backup and restore, across five tabs.

Connecting your Cashu Mint to Orchard gives you a complete micro-application for mint
operation. Here you can observe, configure, and manage your mint.

<figure class="screenshot">

![Orchard's Mint view on the Info tab, beside Dashboard, Config, Keysets, and Database tabs, for "Demo Dayz Mint". Editable fields show the mint's name, description, icon URL, and a long description, alongside connection URLs, contact methods for X and Nostr, and a Message of the Day.](../../../assets/your-orchard-mint.png)

<figcaption>Mint information and configuration.</figcaption>

</figure>

## Dashboard

Get an executive overview of your mint's health and status:

- **Info** — the mint's public info
- **Config** — supported features
- **Keysets** — keyset breakdown and database growth.
- **Activity** — recent activity and volume.
- **Balance Sheet** — a real-time snapshot of the mint's holdings.
- **Nutalytics** — rich timeseries charts of the mint's activity.

## Info

Update public information that wallets read about your mint.

- **Name**, **description**, and a longer **description**.
- **Icon** — the image a wallet displays for your mint.
- **Connection URLs** — where wallets reach the mint.
- **Contacts** — how users get in touch (email, X, Nostr, and so on).
- **Message of the Day** — a short broadcast note.

Keep it accurate: this is what a wallet shows someone before they trust your mint.

## Config

View and manage the features your mint does and does not support, and how they are configured.
Some features are managed in the mint's own config file, and others can be managed in Orchard.

<Aside type="note" title="Why the split">
The mint's RPC offers only limited real-time control over mint features for now, so anything
it doesn't expose has to be set in the config file directly.
</Aside>

## Keysets

Manage your mint's keysets and monitor balances after rotations.
Keysets can be rotated to change fees, versions, and denominations.

## Database

Orchard opens up the mint database. You can browse mint, melt, and swap records with a rich set of filters to find exactly what you need.

Back up and restore the mint database straight from the dashboard.

- **Create Backup** downloads a copy of the database.
- **Restore Backup** restores the database from a saved backup.

<Aside type="note" title="Backing up the database">
The mint database should always be backed up before updating the mint.
This ensures you can restore the mint in case of a problem.
</Aside>

<Aside type="caution" title="Restoring a backup">
The mint must be shut down before you restore. Follow the on-screen steps closely to ensure
a successful restore.
</Aside>

### The recovery model

A lost or corrupted mint is restored from two things together:

- **The secret seed**, which derives the mint's signing keys. This static private key lives in the
  mint daemon's config rather than its database. This half stays your responsibility.
- **The database**, which changes every time the mint issues or redeems ecash.

With both, a mint lost to a dead disk or similar catastrophe comes back fully operational, with the same keysets and
the same outstanding ecash. With only one, it cannot. Have a backup and storage strategy for both.

## AI

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

- **Mint Info** — mint identity, version, and operator contact info.
- **Mint Analytics** — balances, mints, melts, and fees over time.
- **Mint Metrics** — mint and melt volumes, swap fees, and issuance over time.