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Quick Start Guide

Get your first Neutron integration working in under 5 minutes. Choose the path that fits your stack.

Prerequisites

  • Neutron account with API credentials (Sign up)
  • Your API Key and API Secret from the dashboard

Path 1 — MCP (AI Agents & Claude) ⚡ Fastest

Add Bitcoin Lightning payments to any MCP-compatible AI tool in 2 minutes.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neutron": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "neutron-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "NEUTRON_API_KEY": "your_api_key",
        "NEUTRON_API_SECRET": "your_api_secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Paste into your tool's MCP config, restart, then ask:

"Check my Neutron wallet balances"

That's it. Auth, token refresh, and retries are handled automatically.

ToolConfig Location
Claude Desktop~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Claude Code~/.claude.json or .mcp.json in your project
Cursor.cursor/mcp.json
WindsurfWindsurf MCP settings

Path 2 — SDK (Node.js / TypeScript)

npm install neutron-sdk
import { Neutron } from "neutron-sdk";

const neutron = new Neutron({
  apiKey: process.env.NEUTRON_API_KEY!,
  apiSecret: process.env.NEUTRON_API_SECRET!,
});

// Check balances
const wallets = await neutron.account.wallets();

// Create a Lightning invoice
const invoice = await neutron.lightning.createInvoice({ amountSats: 10000 });
console.log(invoice.invoice); // "lnbc100u1p..."

Auth is handled automatically — no HMAC code needed.

Path 3 — CLI (Terminal / Shell Scripts)

npm install -g neutron-cli
neutron-cli auth        # one-time setup
neutron-cli balance     # check wallets
neutron-cli send        # send payments

Use --json for scripting and AI agent environments:

neutron-cli balance --json

Path 4 — REST API (Direct)

Authentication uses HMAC-SHA256 signature exchange. Full details in the Authentication Guide.

Step 1: Get an access token

API_KEY="your_api_key"
API_SECRET="your_api_secret"
PAYLOAD='{"test":"auth"}'
STRING_TO_SIGN="${API_KEY}&payload=${PAYLOAD}"
SIGNATURE=$(echo -n "$STRING_TO_SIGN" | openssl dgst -sha256 -hmac "$API_SECRET" | cut -d' ' -f2)

curl -X POST https://api.neutron.me/api/v2/authentication/token-signature \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Api-Signature: $SIGNATURE" \
  -d "$PAYLOAD"

Response includes accessToken and accountId — save both.

Step 2: Make API calls

curl https://api.neutron.me/api/v2/account/YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID/wallet/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Step 3: Create a Lightning invoice

curl -X POST https://api.neutron.me/api/v2/transaction/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "sourceReq": {"ccy": "BTC", "method": "lightning", "reqDetails": {}},
    "destReq": {"ccy": "BTC", "method": "neutronpay", "amtRequested": 0.0001, "reqDetails": {}}
  }'

Step 4: Confirm the transaction

curl -X PUT https://api.neutron.me/api/v2/transaction/TXN_ID/confirm \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Key concepts: Amounts are in BTC (0.0001 = 10,000 sats). Transactions are two-step: Create → Confirm. Set amount on source OR destination, not both.

Next Steps

Updated 30 days ago