We are pleased to announce the release of Core Lightning v25.05, named “Satoshi's OP_RETURN Opinion“ by contributor Peter Neuroth and led by release captain Shahana Farooqi. This release builds upon v25.02, introducing enhancements across user experience, developer tools, and network performance.
User and Network Highlights
Core Lightning v25.05 delivers significant improvements aimed at optimizing performance and enhancing usability.
Reduced latency in commit and revoke messages now accelerates Lightning transactions, delivering smoother user experiences. This is particularly important for mobile apps and time-sensitive payment flows where every millisecond counts.
Additionally, the Reckless plugin manager now supports updating existing Reckless-installed plugins using the reckless update command, simplifying plugin management and helping users stay current with new plugin features.
Routing with AskRene has been significantly improved, especially for high-capacity channels, ensuring better payment reliability. Smarter routing decisions result in higher success rates for xpay and renepay and fewer failures across the network. This release also introduces more accurate anchor fee calculations, enhancing transaction predictability and cost efficiency.
The peer storage feature, initially an experimental feature, has graduated to default in this release. It allows encrypted backup data to be stored by peers, enabling stronger recovery options and reducing risk in the event of node loss. This turns your channel counterparties into partial watchtowers, enhancing user safety.
Channel splicing has been improved with stricter protocol adherence and support for Replace-by-Fee (RBF), providing more flexibility when adjusting channel balances. These updates also improve interoperability with other Lightning implementations such as Eclair. Splicing allows users to add or remove funds from an existing channel without closing it, reducing downtime and on-chain fees while preserving channel history – crucial for keeping apps and services online.
Developer Highlights
For developers, Core Lightning v25.05 introduces several notable features.
The listhtlcs command now includes pagination support through index, start, and end parameters, making it easier to handle large datasets. Furthermore, the wait API extends support to the listhtlcs subsystem, enabling better synchronization in applications.
This release also lays the groundwork for Lightning Service Provider Specification (LSPS) integration, with early implementation of client and server plugins supporting the LSPS0 transport protocol. LSPS aims to standardize how non-node users-such as wallets and applications-interact with Lightning infrastructure like Greenlight or LSPs. This helps expand the Lightning-as-a-Service ecosystem, reducing complexity for developers and improving wallet and liquidity provider interoperability.
Developers now have access to the signmessagewithkey RPC, allowing secure signing of input messages using wallet keys. This unlocks new use cases like message authentication or decentralized identity verification. Additionally, the sendonion command has achieved compatibility with sendpay, featuring a new total_amount_msat parameter for more precise payment handling.
Acknowledging Our Contributors
Special thanks to the dedicated Core Lightning team: Rusty Russell, Christian Decker, Peter Neuroth, Alex Myers, Lisa Neigut, and Shahana Farooqi for steering this release.
Since 25.02, we've had 338 commits in 103 days by 22 authors, including five new contributors: Erick Cestari, Zen, Jiri Jakes, Boris Nagaev, and 21M4TW.
For full details on every update, check the official changelog.
Finally, we invite you to download and explore Core Lightning v25.05. Your feedback is crucial-share your experiences and suggestions on the Build On L2 forum. Stay connected with us on X, Telegram, and Discord for the latest updates.
Thank you for supporting Core Lightning and helping build a stronger Lightning community!