simnet-workbench

simnet-workbench remotely creates an LND cluster for dev / ops / fun etc. It uses fabric3. If follows the LND Docker readme, and is somewhat inspired by cmdruid/regtest-workbench.

                   ┌───────┐
      ┌────────────┤ alice ├─────────────┐
      │            └───────┘             │
      │                                  │
      │                                  │
      │                                  │
      │                                  │
      │                                  │
      │                                  │
      │                                  │
  ┌───┴───┐                          ┌───┴───┐
  │ carol ├──────────────────────────┤  bob  │
  └───────┘                          └───────┘

See Video

Clusters created remotely via SSH.
Automated mining of coins (get rich quick).
Automated opening of balanced channels.
Provides handy aliases (bob, alice etc.)
Remote CLI capability.

Requires

A modern docker version, e.g 20.10.17
A modern ubuntu version, e.g 20.04

Python dependencies

simnet-workbench only requires two depedencies: fabric and simple_chalk.

$ python3 -m venv .venv
$ . .venv/bin/activate
$ pip3 install -r src/requirements.txt

Running

The simplest and cleanest way is to use the src/spawn.sh script to avoid having to mess with long commands in bash.

$ . src/spawn.sh

We source the spawn script as it creates convenience aliases, for example you can run:

$ alice --help
$ alice getnetworkinfo
$ alice 'addinvoice --help'
$ alice 'addinvoice --amt 100000'
$ bob 'sendpayment -f --pay_req=<ln...>'
$ bob channelbalance

How does it connect to the host?

The cleanest way to set up your host is with your ~/.ssh/config file:

Host lnd
    HostName xx.xx.xx.xx
    User ubuntu
    Port 22
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<my_cert_file>

Can it run on my local machine?

Yes of course. Just strip out the -H lnd part of the commands in spawn.sh. At some point that'll be implemented properly as a flag.

SQLite Support

SQLite support was recently added. To enable SQLite simply copy the sample file:

$ cp src/sample-lnd.conf src/lnd.conf

And enable SQL support by toggling on, in src/lnd.conf:

db.backend=sqlite

Github actions

The simnet workbench works on Github actions. It only takes about 2 minutes to setup LND, the nodes, connect them in a state where payments can be made. See the github workflow for more details.

Soon these actions will be moved out and refactored so they can be used from any repo.

lightningorb/simnet-workbench