Cannot find phoenixd http_key when running docker containers on a physical machine (not VPS)

[Delgado74]

Hi team,

We've been testing the lnbits-phoenixd setup by cloning the repository and running it locally on a physical machine connected to the internet (not a VPS).

Both lnbits and phoenixd containers are running successfully using docker-compose up, and we can access LNbits on http://localhost:5000. The phoenixd container listens on port 9740, and logs confirm it's active.

However, we are currently unable to locate the required http_key to configure LNbits to use phoenixd as a backend.

What we tried:

• Searched for phoenixd.conf inside the container (/phoenix/.phoenix/phoenixd.conf), but the file does not exist or is empty.
• Looked into /phoenix/phoenix-0.3.1-SNAPSHOT-jvm/phoenixd.conf but it does not contain any http_key or related configuration.
• Used strings, grep, cat, and vi within the container to search for secrets or the http_key.
• Running http://localhost:9740 in a browser returns: Unknown endpoint (check api doc)

Environment:

• Host: Physical machine (Linux, Pop!_OS)
• Docker version: 28.2.1
• Docker Compose version: 2.36.2
• Repo: https://github.com/bitkarrot/lnbits-phoenixd
• LNbits version: 0.12.9 (container)
• phoenixd version: 0.3.1-SNAPSHOT-3b6feb3

Request:

Could you please clarify:

• Where the http_key is stored or logged?
• If there's a recommended way to export or access the config from inside the running phoenixd container?
• Whether running outside a VPS changes expected behavior?

Thanks for your time and all your work on this integration!

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Labels:
question, help wanted, docker, integration, lnbits, phoenixd

[bitkarrot]

If the phoenixd.conf is empty and doesn't have the api key, it means the phoenixd process was never started or running properly. check this first, and also check the docs. You may need to use the phoenix cli tool to check if its running correctly

https://phoenix.acinq.co/server/api
https://phoenix.acinq.co/server/get-started#use-phoenix-cli-to-interact-with-the-daemon

would also recommend trying to install phoenixd locally and try it outside of the docker container so that you can troubleshoot what issues might be happening in your local environment.

[Delgado74]

Thanks for the reply!

I can confirm that I’ve tested phoenixd locally and outside Docker, and that it works as expected.

• I compiled it using ./gradlew build installDistZip and ran phoenixd from the extracted phoenixd-0.6.2-linux-x64/ folder.

• It printed:

  Phoenixd - Starting Phoenix Daemon on port 127.0.0.1:9740
  

• The file ~/.phoenix/phoenix.conf was created and contains the expected fields:

  htt-password=...
  htt-password-limited-access=...
  webhook-secret=...
  

There is no http_key field, which I understand is expected in recent phoenixd versions (e.g., v0.6.2). The htt-password is now used as the API key.

• I used the phoenix-cli getinfo command successfully.
• I also tested receiving a payment by sending funds from my Phoenix mobile wallet to the phoenixd node – the invoice was created from LNbits and settled without issues.

I then configured LNbits to use PhoenixWallet as backend:

• Set http://localhost:9740 as the endpoint
• Used the value of htt-password from the config file as the API key

LNbits was able to connect successfully, and all features like POS and invoice creation worked.

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Conclusion / Suggestion:

The confusion might come from legacy expectations that phoenixd.conf should contain http_key, which is no longer the case.
Maybe a note in the Docker README or docs could clarify this change for people using recent versions (0.6.x+).

Thanks again for the project and the support!

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[bitkarrot]

Thanks for the feedback, you are always welcome to make a Pull Request!