Installation

Install

The primary install path is a one-line script:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ayushn2/coalesce-releases/main/install.sh | bash

It detects your OS/arch and installs coalesce-node, never with sudo. It picks a directory that's already on your PATH and writable by your user (e.g. Homebrew's bin dir), so on most machines there's nothing else to do. If no such directory exists, it falls back to ~/.local/bin and prints the one-line PATH addition. Pick the location yourself with COALESCE_INSTALL_DIR=<dir>.

macOS/Linux can instead install via Homebrew:

brew install ayushn2/tap/coalesce

Windows users: download the .exe asset directly from the Releases page.

If `coalesce-node` is not found

On some Linux systems, especially fresh cloud instances, ~/.local/bin isn't on the PATH by default. If the installer fell back to that directory, the install itself still succeeded and the binary is there, but running coalesce-node --version right after can return coalesce-node: command not found until your shell knows to look there. The installer detects this and prints a message when it happens; if you see it, add ~/.local/bin to your PATH:

For Bash:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

For Zsh:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Then confirm it resolves:

coalesce-node --version

Prerequisite: a live signet Bitcoin node

Coalesce runs on Bitcoin signet (free test coins, not mainnet). For any real use, meaning funding, sending, or closing a channel, your machine needs its own running bitcoind -signet instance. Coalesce doesn't include or manage this for you.

# Install Bitcoin Core from https://bitcoincore.org/en/download, then:
bitcoind -signet -daemon

bitcoin-cli -signet createwallet mywallet
bitcoin-cli -signet -rpcwallet=mywallet getnewaddress
# Fund the address from a signet faucet (search "bitcoin signet faucet")

Coalesce authenticates to your node automatically via its cookie file, so no RPC username/password is needed for a default bitcoind -signet setup.

Try it without a Bitcoin node first

The local demo runs a 3-member cluster on one machine with simulated balances, no signet node required. You only need a live bitcoind -signet once you want to move real signet BTC.

Environment variables

Variable	Meaning
`COALESCE_BTC_NET`	`signet` (or `regtest`)
`COALESCE_BTC_HOST`	your bitcoind RPC host, e.g. `localhost:38332`
`COALESCE_BTC_COOKIE`	override the cookie path (default: the standard signet cookie)
`COALESCE_BTC_USER` / `COALESCE_BTC_PASS`	RPC user/pass (only if you don't use cookie auth)
`COALESCE_RELAY_PORT`	pin the relay listener to a fixed port instead of a random one

See Guides: Networking for what to open on your firewall.

Install

If coalesce-node is not found

Prerequisite: a live signet Bitcoin node

Environment variables

On this page

If `coalesce-node` is not found