I was surprised to see that this actually runs an LDK node, rather than using Spark or Liquid or something like that. It looks like you still would be relying on someone querying public Bitcoin nodes for chain data via Esplora, though.

It sounds a lot like phoenixd, where you rely on a single LSP and they can kinda manage your liquidity because they are your only channel partner.

Key Design DecisionsKey Design Decisions

Unix Domain Socket IPCUnix Domain Socket IPC

The daemon (sz start) owns the LDK node and exposes 23 methods over a Unix Domain Socket at ~/.local/share/saturnzap/<network>/sz.sock. CLI commands, the MCP server, and OpenClaw automatically detect the daemon and route through IPC — no port conflicts, no database locks. If no daemon is running, commands fall back to starting an ephemeral node.

Esplora chain sync with fallbackEsplora chain sync with fallback

LDK Node syncs chain data via Esplora (block explorer REST API). No external Bitcoin node is needed. SaturnZap ships with a fallback chain — if the primary Esplora server is unreachable, it automatically probes alternatives (LQWD, blockstream.info, mempool.space) and connects to the first healthy endpoint. First sync takes a few minutes on a fresh install; subsequent starts are near-instant.

LQWD as default LSPLQWD as default LSP

On mainnet, fresh installs peer with LQWD-AI-Grid by default — LQWD's agent-focused LSP node that supports LSPS1 and LSPS2 (JIT channels). The node auto-opens a channel back on first peer contact, so a new wallet can start receiving inbound liquidity without needing on-chain funds first. The 18-region geographic fleet is still embedded and available: set SZ_REGION=NEAREST to fall back to timezone-based selection (e.g. LQWD-England from UTC, LQWD-Japan from JST), or SZ_REGION=CA / --region CA to pin a specific region.

Peer-agnostic after initPeer-agnostic after init

After the initial channel, agents use standard Lightning channel open flows to peer with anyone. SaturnZap has no routing logic that artificially prefers LQWD — Lightning pathfinding selects the best route. LQWD nodes appear as attractive routes naturally because of their connectivity and capacity across 18 countries.

JSON-first, non-interactive by defaultJSON-first, non-interactive by default

All commands are designed for non-interactive execution. No spinners that break pipe parsing. Pass --pretty for human-readable output in a TTY. Default is always clean JSON.

One exception for safety: mainnet spending commands (send, pay, keysend, channels open) show a [y/N] confirmation. Skip it with --yes or SZ_MAINNET_CONFIRM=yes in automation. Signet and testnet never prompt.

Autonomous channel managementAutonomous channel management

SaturnZap monitors channel health. When configured, it automatically opens new channels when outbound liquidity drops below a threshold, and requests inbound liquidity from the configured LSP when needed. Agents can run indefinitely without manual intervention.