This release has been named by @enaples

Release Candidate 2 for cln v26.06

This RC builds upon RC1, with these changes:

• Removed fields no longer present in documentation / GRPC interfaces.
• Experimental payment proof implementation updated to latest draft
• gossipd made more robust against channel_update spamming.

See the changelog for full details

An enormous thanks to the core-Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, @daywalker90, @nGoline and @niftynei

And of course, our invaluable open-source community!

Release Candidate 1 for Core Lightning v26.06

Highlights for Users

• graceful command to prepare CLN for shutdown... gracefully!
• Added sendamount command, to make a payment specifying the desired amount to send instead of the amount to be received.
• We've started the cycle to deprecate pay and focus our efforts on xpay. xpay now handles pay command by default (use xpay-handle-pay=false to prevent this) and we now use xpay not pay for paying invoices made with invoicerequest().
• xpay now accepts label and localinvreqid parameters (like pay).
• xpay will now update for the current payment if it gets a channel_update in an error message.
• xkeysend command for keysend with modern routing support.
• invoice_creation notification now includes offer_id when the invoice is associated with a BOLT 12 offer.

Highlights for Developers

• JSON-RPC: createproof to create a payment proof for a (successful) BOLT12 payment.
• JSON-RPC: decode now supports the lnp payer proof format.
• Plugins: bwatch plugin (enable using plugin=bwatch)

Protocol Updates

• message-padding defaults to false, due to poor detection of broken implementations.
• We now wait 72 blocks, not 12, before closing channels (BOLT update)

See the changelog for full details

Since v26.04 we’ve had 211 commits in 22 days by 17 authors.

A special mention to our three first time contributors:

@nGoline
@MSimeZ
@Andezion

An enormous thanks to the core-Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, @daywalker90, @nGoline and @niftynei

What's Changed

This is a hotfix release addressing build and protocol correctness issues found shortly after v26.04.

Fixed

• Gossip: Malformed channel_announcement messages where node_id_1 is not lexicographically less than node_id_2 are now rejected per BOLT spec (lightning/bolts#1333), preventing gossip store corruption and stress on readers. ([#9082])
• Build: Fixed printf format specifiers for splice weight logging (%zu for size_t) across lightningd, channeld, and the spender plugin, resolving -Werror/-Wformat failures in Docker and 32-bit ARM cross-compilation. ([#9083], [#9086])
• Build: Removed __int128 usage from bookkeeper currency rate math, restoring builds on 32-bit targets (armv7). ([#9085])

Contributors

Thanks to the Core Lightning team for their work on this release
An enormous thanks to the Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, @daywalker90, @nGoline and @niftynei

This release has been named by @Chand-ra

Highlights for Users

• bkpr-report introduces a more flexible way to summarize Bookkeeper income, making it easier to break down earnings by category and period.
• New command splicein allows for convenient splicing funds into a channel.
• New command spliceout for easily splicing out of channels.
• New ability to "cross-splice" between two channels by specifying a second channel id as the destination of spliceout.
• You can now add a note when paying (payer-note in xpay).
• listpeerchannels can filter by channel_id, so you can zoom in on one channel without parsing the full list.
• Improved payment reliability through parallel pathfinding and multiple bug fixes in askrene.
• offer now includes a fronting_nodes option, while the new payment-fronting-node config allows you to specify preferred peers that help route payers to your invoices and offers across both BOLT11 and BOLT12 flows.
• Offer-related RPCs now expose decoded descriptions directly, making it easier to inspect, debug, and understand incoming and outgoing offers without manual decoding.
• gossipd offloads gossip_store compaction to a helper, improvin startup time especially for larger nodes while keeping the store around ~200MB.
• New currencyrate plugin exposes a currencyconvert RPC, enabling real-time conversion between Bitcoin and fiat currencies directly within Core Lightning.
• Most binaries are ~20% smaller .
• keysend now uses a final CLTV of 42 (instead of 22), improving compatibility with LDK nodes.

Highlights for Developers

• clnrest-register-path allows plugins to register custom HTTP endpoints at runtime, enabling dynamic REST APIs without restarting the node.
• bcli plugin is now synchronous: Simplifies the codebase and improves reliability of Bitcoin backend interactions by removing async complexity and queueing.
• Core Lightning builds are reproducible/deterministic on Fedora targets.
• Plugin options can now accumulate multiple values ("multi": true).
• STRICT tables and additional safety pragmas improve correctness and catch issues earlier during development.
• Lightningd now uses a more efficient ring buffer for logs, reducing overhead and simplifying log handling.
• Peer messages are now padded to a uniform length, mitigating traffic analysis and making it harder to infer node activity from message sizes.

Protocol Updates

• Splicing is now enabled by default!
• Legacy onion format support is removed (aligned with current interop, e.g. recent LND behavior).
• A splicing fix avoids an occasional hang when there is a pending closing HTLC during splice.

See the changelog for full details

Since v25.12 we’ve had 421 commits in 110 days by 23 authors

A special thanks to our three first time contributors:

@ScuttoZ
@Raimo33
@TatianaMoroz
@dovgopoly
@erdoganishe
@Nazarevsky

An enormous thanks to the Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @endothermicdev, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, @daywalker90 and @niftynei

This release has been named by @Chand-ra

Release Candidate 3 for Core Lightning v26.04

Highlights for Users

• bkpr-report introduces a more flexible way to summarize Bookkeeper income, making it easier to break down earnings by category and period.
• New command splicein allows for convenient splicing funds into a channel.
• New command spliceout for easily splicing out of channels.
• New ability to "cross-splice" between two channels by specifying a second channel id as the destination of spliceout.
• You can now add a note when paying (payer-note in xpay).
• listpeerchannels can filter by channel_id, so you can zoom in on one channel without parsing the full list.
• Improved payment reliability through parallel pathfinding and multiple bug fixes in askrene.
• offer now includes a fronting_nodes option, while the new payment-fronting-node config allows you to specify preferred peers that help route payers to your invoices and offers across both BOLT11 and BOLT12 flows.
• Offer-related RPCs now expose decoded descriptions directly, making it easier to inspect, debug, and understand incoming and outgoing offers without manual decoding.
• gossipd offloads gossip_store compaction to a helper, improvin startup time especially for larger nodes while keeping the store around ~200MB.
• New currencyrate plugin exposes a currencyconvert RPC, enabling real-time conversion between Bitcoin and fiat currencies directly within Core Lightning.
• Most binaries are ~20% smaller .
• keysend now uses a final CLTV of 42 (instead of 22), improving compatibility with LDK nodes.

Highlights for Developers

• clnrest-register-path allows plugins to register custom HTTP endpoints at runtime, enabling dynamic REST APIs without restarting the node.
• bcli plugin is now synchronous: Simplifies the codebase and improves reliability of Bitcoin backend interactions by removing async complexity and queueing.
• Core Lightning builds are reproducible/deterministic on Fedora targets.
• Plugin options can now accumulate multiple values ("multi": true).
• STRICT tables and additional safety pragmas improve correctness and catch issues earlier during development.
• Lightningd now uses a more efficient ring buffer for logs, reducing overhead and simplifying log handling.
• Peer messages are now padded to a uniform length, mitigating traffic analysis and making it harder to infer node activity from message sizes.

Protocol Updates

• Splicing is now enabled by default!
• Legacy onion format support is removed (aligned with current interop, e.g. recent LND behavior).
• A splicing fix avoids an occasional hang when there is a pending closing HTLC during splice.

See the changelog for full details

Since v25.12 we’ve had 421 commits in 110 days by 23 authors

A special thanks to our three first time contributors:

@ScuttoZ
@Raimo33
@TatianaMoroz
@dovgopoly
@erdoganishe
@Nazarevsky

An enormous thanks to the Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @endothermicdev, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, @daywalker90 and @niftynei

Release Candidate 2 for Core Lightning v26.04

Highlights for Users

• New command splicein allows for convenient splicing funds into a channel.
• New command spliceout for easily splicing out of channels.
• New ability to "cross-splice" between two channels by specifying a second channel id as the destination of spliceout.
• You can now add a note when paying (payer-note in xpay).
• listpeerchannels can filter by channel_id, so you can zoom in on one channel without parsing the full list.
• Improved payment reliability through parallel pathfinding and multiple bug fixes in askrene.
• offer now includes a fronting_nodes option, while the new payment-fronting-node config allows you to specify preferred peers that help route payers to your invoices and offers across both BOLT11 and BOLT12 flows.
• Offer-related RPCs now expose decoded descriptions directly, making it easier to inspect, debug, and understand incoming and outgoing offers without manual decoding.
• gossipd offloads gossip_store compaction to a helper, improvin startup time especially for larger nodes while keeping the store around ~200MB.
• New currencyrate plugin exposes a currencyconvert RPC, enabling real-time conversion between Bitcoin and fiat currencies directly within Core Lightning.
• Most binaries are ~20% smaller .

Highlights for Developers

• clnrest-register-path allows plugins to register custom HTTP endpoints at runtime, enabling dynamic REST APIs without restarting the node.
• bcli plugin is now synchronous: Simplifies the codebase and improves reliability of Bitcoin backend interactions by removing async complexity and queueing.
• Core Lightning builds are reproducible/deterministic on Fedora targets.
• Plugin options can now accumulate multiple values ("multi": true).
• STRICT tables and additional safety pragmas improve correctness and catch issues earlier during development.
• Lightningd now uses a more efficient ring buffer for logs, reducing overhead and simplifying log handling.
• Peer messages are now padded to a uniform length, mitigating traffic analysis and making it harder to infer node activity from message sizes.

Protocol Updates

• Legacy onion format support is removed (aligned with current interop, e.g. recent LND behavior).
• A splicing fix avoids an occasional hang when there is a pending closing HTLC during splice.

See the changelog for full details

Since v25.12 we’ve had 421 commits in 110 days by 23 authors

A special thanks to our three first time contributors:

@ScuttoZ
@Raimo33
@TatianaMoroz
@dovgopoly
@erdoganishe
@Nazarevsky

An enormous thanks to the Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @endothermicdev, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, @daywalker90 and @niftynei

Release Candidate 1 for Core Lightning v26.04

Highlights for Users

• New command splicein allows for convenient splicing funds into a channel.
• New command spliceout for easily splicing out of channels.
• New ability to "cross-splice" between two channels by specifying a second channel id as the destination of spliceout.
• You can now add a note when paying (payer-note in xpay).
• listpeerchannels can filter by channel_id, so you can zoom in on one channel without parsing the full list.
• Improved payment reliability through parallel pathfinding and multiple bug fixes in askrene.
• offer now includes a fronting_nodes option, while the new payment-fronting-node config allows you to specify preferred peers that help route payers to your invoices and offers across both BOLT11 and BOLT12 flows.
• Offer-related RPCs now expose decoded descriptions directly, making it easier to inspect, debug, and understand incoming and outgoing offers without manual decoding.
• gossipd offloads gossip_store compaction to a helper, improvin startup time especially for larger nodes while keeping the store around ~200MB.
• New currencyrate plugin exposes a currencyconvert RPC, enabling real-time conversion between Bitcoin and fiat currencies directly within Core Lightning.
• Most binaries are ~20% smaller .

Highlights for Developers

• clnrest-register-path allows plugins to register custom HTTP endpoints at runtime, enabling dynamic REST APIs without restarting the node.
• bcli plugin is now synchronous: Simplifies the codebase and improves reliability of Bitcoin backend interactions by removing async complexity and queueing.
• Core Lightning builds are reproducible/deterministic on Fedora targets.
• Plugin options can now accumulate multiple values ("multi": true).
• STRICT tables and additional safety pragmas improve correctness and catch issues earlier during development.
• Lightningd now uses a more efficient ring buffer for logs, reducing overhead and simplifying log handling.
• Peer messages are now padded to a uniform length, mitigating traffic analysis and making it harder to infer node activity from message sizes.

Protocol Updates

• Legacy onion format support is removed (aligned with current interop, e.g. recent LND behavior).
• A splicing fix avoids an occasional hang when there is a pending closing HTLC during splice.

See the changelog for full details

Since v25.12 we’ve had 421 commits in 110 days by 23 authors

A special thanks to our three first time contributors:

@ScuttoZ
@Raimo33
@TatianaMoroz
@dovgopoly
@erdoganishe
@Nazarevsky

An enormous thanks to the Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @endothermicdev, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, and @niftynei

This is a recommended point release, particularly for those creating new nodes.

Fixed

• lightningd: we now correctly sign for non-taproot addresses given by nodes created by v25.12 or newer. ([#8831])
• lightning-hsmtool: handle mnemonic hsm_secret files (nodes created >= v25.12). ([#8831])
• plugins: pay can crash on errors returned from deep inside routehints. ([#8829])
• plugins: askrene can crash on a corner case in increase_flows. ([#8829])
• askrene: fix a plugin crash triggered during single path payments when a channel fees doesn't fit u32. ([#8832])
• JSON-RPC: malformed filters no longer crash lightningd. ([#8780])
• pay: maxdelay parameter now enforced for direct channel payments ([#8740])
• gossipd: we would occasionally not show a node announcement in listnodes(). ([#8769])
• lightningd: potential crash on startup if bitcoind isn't up-to-date. ([#8779])

Changed

• JSON-RPC: recover takes a 12-word mnemonic for nodes created by v25.12 or later. ([#8830])
• lightning-hsmtool: getsecret replaces getcodexsecret for modern nodes (gives mnemonic). ([#8830])

Deprecated

Note: You should always set allow-deprecated-apis=false to test for changes.

• lightning-hsmtool: getcodexsecret. Use getsecret. ([#8830])

For more information, please see the changelog.

A shout out to acknowledge the significant efforts of the very cool Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @endothermicdev, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, and @niftynei

This release has been named by @sangbida

Highlights for Users

• This release candidate includes a downgrade tool! lightningd-downgrade will downgrade your database from v25.12 to v25.09 if something goes wrong
• New nodes will now be created with a BIP-39 12-word phrase as their root secret. BIP-39 12-word base functionality in lightning-hsmtool to support hsm_secret files.
• We solved the case of the missing_utxo bug!!
• We received great feedback about xpay and adjusted accordingly: which will no longer try to send too many HTLCs through unknown channels (6, as that is Phoenix's limit) unless it has no choice, we've fixed a clash with simultaneous payments via routehints and blinded paths and asked xpay to wait if it suspects a payment failure is due to a height disagreement with the final node.
• Added askrene-bias-node: an RPC command to set a bias on node's outgoing or incoming channels.
• Use the new networkevents subsystem to access information about peers: ping times and connection times.
• We've configured an experimental-lsps-client and experimental-lsps2-service support for LSPS level 2 specification.

Highlights for Developers

There's a vast array of performance improvements for large nodes... Do not pass go. Go directly to the changelog!

• Multiple significant speedups for large nodes have been added to lightningd, especially preventing "freezes" under exceptionally high load and helping it to handle large numbers of command outputs gracefully.
• Postgres: significant speedup on read-only operations (e.g. 30% on empty SELECTs)

Protocol Updates

• We now re-transmit unseen funding transactions on startup, for more robustness.
• Stricter conformance to Bolt spec for splice commitments.

See the changelog for full details

Since 25.09 we’ve had 520 commits in 92 days by 24 authors

A special thanks to our four first time contributors:

@noblepayne
@claudio.raimondi
@botantony
@wqxoxo

An enormous thanks to the very cool Core Lightning team:
@rustyrussell, @ShahanaFarooqui, @sangbida, @endothermicdev, @cdecker, @nepet, @Lagrang3, and @niftynei

A critical and longstanding fix for missing UTXOs.