Auto-reconnect Lightning peers and document service management#1
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refined-element merged 4 commits intoApr 29, 2026
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The Lightning node had no way to keep critical peer connections alive after a TCP drop — once a peer disconnected, channels became unusable until the user manually called ln_connect again. This is the same gap that left an LN channel offline after a recent reboot even though both nodes were healthy. Add a persistent_peers config field on LightningConfig listing peers the node should keep connected (pubkey@host:port). On startup, after the LDK background processor is running, spawn a reconnector that ticks every 60s, walks the peer list, and dials any persistent peer not currently in peer_manager().list_peers(). Hostnames are resolved on each tick so DHCP/DNS changes on the LAN don't permanently break reconnection. Also document service management since users without an AI assistant need to know how to start and stop the node: - README gains a Stop section (Ctrl+C, RPC stop, kill, dashboard Settings page) and Auto-Start sections for macOS launchd and Linux systemd. - A template launchd plist lands in config/com.bitcoinwolfe.node.plist with placeholder paths for the user to fill in. The plist uses KeepAlive with SuccessfulExit=false so launchd restarts the node on crashes but respects intentional shutdowns. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Pull request overview
This PR adds a Lightning “persistent peers” feature to automatically re-establish configured LN peer connections, and expands the README with service-management guidance (launchd/systemd) plus a launchd plist template.
Changes:
- Add
[lightning].persistent_peersconfig and default it to empty. - Spawn a periodic Lightning peer reconnector task that dials configured peers not currently connected.
- Add service-management documentation (stop + auto-start) and include a macOS launchd plist template.
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| crates/wolfe-types/src/config.rs | Adds persistent_peers to LightningConfig and defaults it. |
| crates/wolfe-node/src/main.rs | Implements the periodic LN peer reconnector and adds parse_ln_peer. |
| config/com.bitcoinwolfe.node.plist | Adds a launchd template for running the node as a macOS user service. |
| README.md | Documents stop methods and auto-start setup for macOS (launchd) and Linux (systemd). |
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- Handle SIGTERM alongside SIGINT/Ctrl+C so kill, systemctl stop, and launchctl unload all exit through the same graceful shutdown path. - Resolve persistent peer hostnames with tokio::net::lookup_host to keep blocking DNS off the runtime workers. - Validate persistent_peers pubkeys once at startup; invalid entries are logged once and skipped instead of warning every 60s. - Move the launchd plist log path out of data/ so a fresh install doesn't fail before the binary creates that directory. - README: document SIGTERM as a graceful stop, correct LaunchAgents to run on login (not boot) with a LaunchDaemons pointer, and add TimeoutStopSec=30 to the systemd example so Lightning state can persist. - Update the persistent_peers doc comment to reflect the ongoing reconnect behavior. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Threads a `picture` field through NostrConfig and the NostrBridge so it shows up in the published kind-0 metadata event. Invalid URLs are warned once and skipped rather than failing the whole metadata publish. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
cargo fmt --check on the prior commits flagged two long error!() calls and clippy was hitting too_many_arguments after the picture field was added to NostrBridge::new (8 args, default threshold is 7). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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feature/persistent-ln-peers-and-service-management
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Summary
persistent_peersconfig in[lightning]. A reconnector ticks every 60s and dials any listed peer that's not currently connected. Solves the "LN channel goes dark after a reboot or transient TCP drop" problem.config/com.bitcoinwolfe.node.plist.Why
The Lightning node had no mechanism to keep critical peer connections alive after a disconnect. If LDK lost the TCP connection to a counterparty, the channels stayed open on-chain but became
is_usable: falseuntil a manualln_connect. This was hit in practice after an OS update reboot — the channel partner's address wasn't stored anywhere, so reconnection required AI assistance to look up the IP.The reconnector fixes the reconnection loop. The README/launchd docs fix the bootstrap loop.
Implementation
Reconnector (
crates/wolfe-node/src/main.rs):peer_manager().list_peers()into aHashSet<PublicKey>, then iterate config peers and dial any not in the set.ToSocketAddrs) so DHCP/DNS churn on the LAN doesn't permanently break reconnection.debug!(silent retries) since the next tick will try again; only invalid config entries warn.parse_ln_peerhelper splitspubkey@host:portinto(PublicKey, SocketAddr).Config (
crates/wolfe-types/src/config.rs):persistent_peers: Vec<String>toLightningConfigwith sensible default (empty).Service management:
config/com.bitcoinwolfe.node.plist: Template plist with__WOLFE_BINARY__/__WOLFE_DIR__placeholders.KeepAlivewithSuccessfulExit=falsemeans launchd restarts on crashes but respects intentionalstop.ThrottleInterval=10prevents tight crash loops.stop,kill, dashboard Settings page — all converge on the same graceful shutdown path.launchctl load) and Linux (systemctl enable).Test plan
cargo build --release -p wolfe-node— clean buildcargo clippy --release -p wolfe-node -p wolfe-types -- -D warnings— cleanpersistent_peers = ["02acb60b...@host:9735"], observedpersistent Lightning peer reconnector startedlog, killed peer connection, watched it reconnect on the next tick. Lightning info reportednum_peers: 1and channels becameis_usable: trueautomatically.~/Library/LaunchAgents/, starts on login, restarts on crash, respects RPCstop.🤖 Generated with Claude Code