Skip to main content
Version: v3.x.x

Installation

info

Habanero Mainnet and Manzano Testnet are now live. Check out the docs on migration to learn how you can start building on Habanero and Manzano today.

Ensure you have the following requirements in place:

  1. Operating System: Linux, Mac OS, or Windows.
  2. Development Environment: You'll need an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) installed. We recommend Visual Studio Code.
  3. Languages: The Lit JS SDK supports JavaScript. Make sure you have the appropriate language environment set up.
  4. Internet Connection: A stable internet connection is required for installation, updates, and interacting with the Lit nodes.

Installing And Importing The SDK

Install the @lit-protocol/lit-node-client package, which can be used in both browser and Node environments:

yarn add @lit-protocol/lit-node-client

Use the Lit JS SDK:

import * as LitJsSdk from "@lit-protocol/lit-node-client";
note

You should use at least Node v16.16.0 because of the need for the webcrypto library.

Connection to the Lit Network

The SDK requires an active connection to the Lit nodes to perform most functions (notably, a connection to the Lit nodes is not required if you are just verifying a JWT).

In web apps, this is typically done on first page load and can be shared between all your pages. In NodeJS apps, this is done when when the server starts.

Calling connect() on the `litNodeClient`` returns a promise that resolves when you are connected to the Lit network.

SDK installed via NodeJS / serverside usage

In this example stub, the litNodeClient is stored in a global variable app.locals.litNodeClient so that it can be used throughout the server. app.locals is provided by Express for this purpose. You may have to use what your own server framework provides for this purpose, instead.

Keep in mind that in the server-side implementation, the client class is named LitNodeClientNodeJs.

client.connect() returns a promise that resolves when you are connected to the Lit network.

app.locals.litNodeClient = new LitJsSdk.LitNodeClientNodeJs({
alertWhenUnauthorized: false,
litNetwork: "cayenne",
});
await app.locals.litNodeClient.connect();

The litNodeClient listens to network state, and those listeners will keep your Node.js process running until you explicitly disconnect from the Lit network. To stop the litNodeClient listeners and allow node to exit gracefully, call client.disconnect()

await app.locals.litNodeClient.disconnect()

SDK installed for client side usage

Within a file (in the Lit example repos it will likely be called lit.js), set up your Lit object.

client.connect() will return a promise that resolves when you are connected to the Lit Network.

const client = new LitJsSdk.LitNodeClient({
litNetwork: 'cayenne',
});

await client.connect();

Debug Logging and Lit Node Client configuration

The LitNodeClient object has a number of config params you can pass, documented here: https://v5.api-docs.getlit.dev/

For example, to turn off logging, you could set debug to false like this: const client = new LitJsSdk.LitNodeClient({debug: false})