Official Alby Hub Guide

last updated: September 10, 2025

Flavors:

Setup Alby Hub Desktop

Download the latest Alby Hub Desktop release from Github here
Run Alby Hub Desktop

It is recommended to use an always-on device, as receiving payments could otherwise fail.

see official documentation

Now you can attach send and/or receive

Setup Alby Hub Server

Requirements:

a server running a Linux-based distribution or macOS
reachable from the internet via clearnet and HTTPS

Choose a path:

Quickstart (only Linux)
Manual
Docker

Quickstart

Follow the Quick start script provided by Alby here
Visit the Web UI at ip:8080 or ip:8029 (if installed as a service) to continue setup

Docker

Pull the image from Docker:

$ docker run -v .albyhub-data:/data -e WORK_DIR='/data' -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/getalby/hub:latest

Visit the Web UI at ip:8080 to continue setup

Manual

Download the latest Alby Hub Server release for your processor from Github here
Extract it to a folder of your choice, we'll go with albyhub, and navigate to it
Create a data folder in albyhub: mkdir -p data
Create a start.sh script in albyhub

WORK_DIR="dir/to/albyhub/data" LDK_GOSSIP_SOURCE="" dir/to/albyhub/bin/albyhub

Now you can either install it as a service or run it via ./start.sh
Visit the Web UI at ip:8080 or ip:PORT (if installed as a service) to continue setup

Now you can attach send and/or receive

Install as a systemd service (optional)

This focuses on systemd for Linux systems.

macOS uses launchd to handle services, you can follow this really good guide to mirror what we're going to do here.

Open with your editor of choice /etc/systemd/system/albyhub.service
Populate:

[Unit]
Description=Alby Hub
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=$USER
ExecStart=dir/to/albyhub/start.sh
Environment="PORT=8029"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable albyhub
sudo systemctl start albyhub

Attach send

Navigate to the Connections tab in Alby Hub
Create a Full Access connection and press Next

Copy the Nostr Wallet Connect URL via the apposited button

Paste the copied NWC URL in the NWC send step of the Alby Hub wallet attachment on SN
Press next

Attach receive

Navigate to the Connections tab in Alby Hub
Create a Read Only connection and press Next

Copy the Nostr Wallet Connect URL via the apposited button

Paste the copied NWC URL in the NWC receive step of the Alby Hub wallet attachment on SN
Press next

1 reply \ @sox OP 5h

You can follow an amazing and more in-depth guide from @DarthCoin here #701233. I can't speak for it being updated, but it explores external sources opposed to Alby's own service.

This guide focuses only on

installing Alby Hub
creating connections
- attach these connections to SN

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 1h

Do you guys plan to add also the Rizful node guide into SN docs, about how to connect with SN? I think is a good option too.

1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 4h

I'll also shamelessly plug my Alby desktop guide which is designed for a total lightning noob: #723978

It walks through everything step by step and explains common pitfalls like thinking you need to buy liquidity from a LSP.

It's a little dated now and the SN interface has changed but hopefully the guide mostly still works

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sox OP 4h

Awesome!

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @StillStackinAfterAllTheseYears 1h

I'm not trying to be an asshole or troll here, but you called this the "Official" guide. Are you working on Alby development (your bio doesn't say)? "Official" implies some level of connection to the project itself.