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welshman/docs/domain/zaps.md
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2026-06-20 09:12:18 -07:00

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Zaps

The lightning-zap flow (NIP-57) and zap goals (NIP-75) are modeled by three kinds: ZapRequest (what a sender publishes to ask for a zap), ZapReceipt (what the recipient's LN service publishes as proof of payment), and ZapGoal (a fundraising target). All three are plain EventReader / EventBuilder subclasses — see Readers & Builders for the base pattern.

Zap request (kind 9734)

The zap request you send to a recipient's LNURL callback. The comment is the event content; everything else is tags.

import {ZapRequest, ZapRequestBuilder} from "@welshman/domain"

const req = await ZapRequest.fromEvent(event)
req.amount()       // millisats as an int, or undefined ("amount" tag)
req.lnurl()        // string | undefined
req.recipient()    // p-tag value
req.eventId()      // e-tag value (the zapped event)
req.urls()         // the "relays" tag, sliced past the key
req.comment()      // event.content

const template = await new ZapRequestBuilder()
  .setAmount(21000)                         // millisats
  .setRecipient(recipientPubkey)
  .setLnurl(lnurl)
  .setEventId(zappedNoteId)
  .setUrls(["wss://relay.example"])         // ["relays", ...urls]
  .setComment("great post")
  .toTemplate()

buildTags always emits a relays tag (bare if you never called setUrls).

Zap receipt (kind 9735)

The receipt is generated by the recipient's lightning service, so it is effectively read-only in practice. parse decodes the embedded zap request out of the description tag into plain, which the getters read through.

import {ZapReceipt} from "@welshman/domain"

const receipt = await ZapReceipt.fromEvent(event)
receipt.bolt11()          // the invoice
receipt.invoiceAmount()   // amount parsed from bolt11, or undefined on parse failure
receipt.request()         // the embedded zap-request event (TrustedEvent | undefined)
receipt.sender()          // request.pubkey
receipt.recipient()       // p-tag value
receipt.eventId()         // e-tag value
receipt.comment()         // the embedded request's content
receipt.preimage()        // string | undefined

The important method is verify(zapper), which validates the receipt against a Zapper (the recipient's LNURL zapper info from @welshman/util). It checks that the request is present, that the invoice amount matches the requested amount, that the sender is not the zapper itself, and that the recipient / lnurl / nostr pubkey are consistent. It returns a boolean.

import type {Zapper} from "@welshman/util"

const ok: boolean = receipt.verify(zapper)

A ZapReceiptBuilder exists (setBolt11, setDescription, setRecipient, setEventId, setPreimage) for completeness — e.g. tests or a service generating receipts — but you rarely construct these by hand.

Zap goal (kind 9041)

A fundraising target. The title is the content; the goal amount and relays are tags.

import {ZapGoal, ZapGoalBuilder} from "@welshman/domain"

const goal = await ZapGoal.fromEvent(event)
goal.title()      // event.content (or "")
goal.summary()    // "summary" tag value
goal.amount()     // millisats as an int, default 0
goal.urls()       // "relays" tag values

const template = await new ZapGoalBuilder()
  .setTitle("Fund the relay")
  .setSummary("keeps the lights on")
  .setAmount(1000000)                       // millisats
  .setUrls(["wss://relay.example"])         // one ["relays", url] per url
  .toTemplate()

validate() requires a title (throws ZapGoal requires a title), and buildTags always emits an amount tag (defaulting to ["amount", "0"]).

See also