aperture: the L402 aware reverse proxy

Install and run Aperture, the L402 Lightning reverse proxy from Lightning Labs. Use when creating L402 paywalls, configuring paid API endpoints, hosting paid content for other agents, or testing L402 authentication flows.

Aperture - L402 Lightning Reverse Proxy

Aperture is a reverse proxy that implements the L402 protocol, enabling payment-gated API access via the Lightning Network. It sits in front of your backend services and requires Lightning micropayments before granting access.

Source: github.com/lightninglabs/aperture

Quick Start

# 1. Install aperture
skills/aperture/scripts/install.sh

# 2. Generate config (connects to local lnd)
skills/aperture/scripts/setup.sh

# 3. Ensure invoice.macaroon exists (required for L402 invoice creation)
#    If not present, bake one with the macaroon-bakery skill:
skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role invoice-only \
    --save-to ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/invoice.macaroon

# 4. Start aperture
skills/aperture/scripts/start.sh

# 5. Test with lnget
lnget -k --no-pay https://localhost:8081/api/test

How Aperture Works

1. Client requests a protected resource through Aperture
2. Aperture responds with HTTP 402 + WWW-Authenticate: L402 header containing a macaroon and a Lightning invoice
3. Client pays the invoice and obtains the preimage
4. Client retries with Authorization: L402 <macaroon>:<preimage>
5. Aperture validates the token and proxies to the backend service

Installation

skills/aperture/scripts/install.sh

This will:

• Verify Go is installed
• Run go install github.com/lightninglabs/aperture/cmd/aperture@latest
• Verify aperture is on $PATH

To install manually:

go install github.com/lightninglabs/aperture/cmd/aperture@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/lightninglabs/aperture.git
cd aperture
make install

Setup

skills/aperture/scripts/setup.sh

This generates ~/.aperture/aperture.yaml from the config template with sensible defaults. The setup script auto-detects the local lnd node paths.

Options:

# Custom network
setup.sh --network testnet

# Custom lnd paths
setup.sh --lnd-host localhost:10009 \
         --lnd-tls ~/.lnd/tls.cert \
         --lnd-macdir ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet

# Custom listen port
setup.sh --port 8081

# Disable TLS (development only)
setup.sh --insecure

# Disable auth (no payments required)
setup.sh --no-auth

Running Aperture

Start

skills/aperture/scripts/start.sh

Starts aperture as a background process reading ~/.aperture/aperture.yaml.

Options:

start.sh --foreground         # Run in foreground
start.sh --config /path/to   # Custom config path

Stop

skills/aperture/scripts/stop.sh

Configuration

Config file: ~/.aperture/aperture.yaml

Invoice Macaroon Requirement

Aperture requires invoice.macaroon in the configured macdir to create Lightning invoices for L402 challenges. This is not the same as admin.macaroon. If the macaroon is missing, aperture will fail to start or will return errors when clients request paid resources.

To bake an invoice macaroon with the macaroon-bakery skill:

skills/macaroon-bakery/scripts/bake.sh --role invoice-only \
    --save-to ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/invoice.macaroon

The setup.sh script will warn you if invoice.macaroon is not found at the expected path.

Minimal Agent Configuration

This is the minimal config for an agent hosting paid endpoints with a local lnd node:

listenaddr: "localhost:8081"
insecure: true
debuglevel: "info"
dbbackend: "sqlite"
sqlite:
  dbfile: "~/.aperture/aperture.db"

authenticator:
  network: "mainnet"
  lndhost: "localhost:10009"
  tlspath: "~/.lnd/tls.cert"
  macdir: "~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet"

services:
  - name: "my-api"
    hostregexp: ".*"
    pathregexp: "^/api/.*$"
    address: "127.0.0.1:8080"
    protocol: http
    price: 100

Service Configuration

Each service entry defines a backend to protect:

services:
  - name: "service-name"
    # Match requests by host (regex).
    hostregexp: "^api.example.com$"

    # Match requests by path (regex).
    pathregexp: "^/paid/.*$"

    # Backend address to proxy to.
    address: "127.0.0.1:8080"

    # Protocol: http or https.
    protocol: http

    # Static price in satoshis.
    price: 100

    # Macaroon capabilities granted at base tier.
    capabilities: "read,write"

    # Token expiry in seconds (31557600 = 1 year).
    timeout: 31557600

    # Paths exempt from payment.
    authwhitelistpaths:
      - "^/health$"
      - "^/public/.*$"

    # Per-endpoint rate limits (token bucket).
    ratelimits:
      - pathregexp: "^/api/query.*$"
        requests: 10
        per: 1s
        burst: 20

Authentication Backends

Direct LND Connection

authenticator:
  network: "mainnet"
  lndhost: "localhost:10009"
  tlspath: "~/.lnd/tls.cert"
  macdir: "~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet"

Lightning Node Connect (LNC)

authenticator:
  network: "mainnet"
  passphrase: "your-pairing-phrase"
  mailboxaddress: "mailbox.terminal.lightning.today:443"

Disable Authentication

authenticator:
  disable: true

Database Backends

SQLite (recommended for agents):

dbbackend: "sqlite"
sqlite:
  dbfile: "~/.aperture/aperture.db"

PostgreSQL:

dbbackend: "postgres"
postgres:
  host: "localhost"
  port: 5432
  user: "aperture"
  password: "secret"
  dbname: "aperture"

TLS Configuration

# Auto Let's Encrypt certificate.
autocert: true
servername: "api.example.com"

# Or disable TLS (development/local only).
insecure: true

If neither is set, Aperture generates self-signed certs in ~/.aperture/.

Dynamic Pricing

Connect to a gRPC price server instead of static prices:

services:
  - name: "my-api"
    dynamicprice:
      enabled: true
      grpcaddress: "127.0.0.1:10010"
      insecure: false
      tlscertpath: "/path/to/pricer/tls.cert"

Hosting Paid Content for Agents

A common pattern is hosting information that other agents pay to access:

# 1. Start a simple HTTP backend with your content
mkdir -p /tmp/paid-content
echo '{"data": "valuable information"}' > /tmp/paid-content/info.json
cd /tmp/paid-content && python3 -m http.server 8080 &

# 2. Configure aperture to protect it
skills/aperture/scripts/setup.sh --insecure --port 8081

# 3. Start aperture
skills/aperture/scripts/start.sh

# 4. Other agents can now pay and fetch
lnget --max-cost 100 https://localhost:8081/api/info.json

Integration with lnget and lnd

With all three components running:

# Verify lnd is running
skills/lnd/scripts/lncli.sh getinfo

# Start aperture (uses same lnd for invoice generation)
skills/aperture/scripts/start.sh

# Fetch a paid resource
lnget --max-cost 1000 https://localhost:8081/api/data

# Check tokens
lnget tokens list

File Locations

Path	Purpose
~/.aperture/aperture.yaml	Configuration file
~/.aperture/aperture.db	SQLite database
~/.aperture/tls.cert	TLS certificate
~/.aperture/tls.key	TLS private key
~/.aperture/aperture.log	Log file

Troubleshooting

Port already in use

Change listenaddr in config to a different port, or use setup.sh --port.

LND connection refused

Verify lnd is running and wallet is unlocked. Check lndhost, tlspath, and macdir in the config point to the correct lnd instance.

No 402 challenge returned

Check that the request path matches a service's pathregexp and is not in authwhitelistpaths. Verify authenticator.disable is not true.

Token validation fails

The client must present the exact macaroon from the challenge with the correct preimage. Verify the preimage matches the payment hash.