# Polar > One-click Bitcoin Lightning networks for local app development & testing [![Actions Status](https://github.com/jamaljsr/polar/workflows/CI/badge.svg)](https://github.com/jamaljsr/polar/actions) [![codecov](https://codecov.io/gh/jamaljsr/polar/branch/master/graph/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/jamaljsr/polar)

View a short video demo

## Purpose Polar was built to help Lightning Network application developers quickly spin up one or more networks locally on their computers. With Polar you can: - Create a regtest Lightning Network in just a few clicks - Connect from your app to the lightning nodes via RPC - Launch a terminal in each bitcoin/lightning node - Add more nodes using drag & drop - Open & Close Channels - Manually mine new blocks - Deposit regtest coins into each Lightning node Supported Network Nodes: - LND v0.8.0 & v0.7.1 - Bitcoin Core v0.18.1 - c-lightning (coming soon) - eclair (coming soon) ## Dependencies Polar requires that you have Docker installed to create the local networks - On Mac & Windows, you can just install [Docker Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop) - On Linux, you need to install [Docker Server](https://docs.docker.com/install/#server) and [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/) separately ## Download The most current Polar downloads for Mac, Windows & Linux can be found in the [GitHub releases](https://github.com/jamaljsr/polar/releases) ## Polar's Future The overall goal of Polar is to minimize the time & effort needed for a developer new to Lightning to get started building their next killer app. In addition, Polar aims to be a useful tool for experienced Lightning App developers to iterate faster on their projects. Less time setting up nodes, more time building your app. Here's a short list of ideas for features that may be beneficial to add in future releases (in no particular order): - Network snapshots with the ability to import/export them. These could also be used as templates to quickly boot up a network with predefined nodes and channels. The templates could be hosted github to allow community contributions. This may require a scripting system built-in. - Sample app projects/code in different languages (Python, Typescript/JS, Go, C#) showing how to connect to the Lightning/Bitcoin nodes from an external app. - Bitcoin Block Explorer & GRPC/REST API Explorers to have access to all of the node RPC API's graphically, without needing to fallback to the Terminal. - A branded website with download links and getting started guides to make Polar a bit easier to find via search engines ## Development ### Commands | Command | Description | | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | `yarn` | install dependencies | | `yarn dev` | run the app with react hot reloading and electron live restarting | | `yarn test` | run unit tests in watch mode | | `yarn test:e2e` | run e2e tests | | `yarn lint:all` | run typescript and eslint syntax checking | | `yarn langs` | extract i18n language keys from code | | `yarn package` | package the app for your OS | ### Tips - install the [import-sorter](https://github.com/SoominHan/import-sorter) Visual Studio Code extension for automatic import statement sorting ### Tech Stack - [Electron](https://github.com/electron/electron/): cross platform desktop app framework - [Typescript](https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript): increased productivity with a typed language - [ReactJS](https://github.com/facebook/react/): declarative UI library for JavaScript - [Create React App](https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app): minimize build configuration - [easy-peasy](https://github.com/ctrlplusb/easy-peasy): Redux state management without the boilerplate - [Ant Design](https://github.com/ant-design/ant-design/): don't reinvent the wheel with UI design - [react-i18next](https://github.com/i18next/react-i18next): support for multiple languages (english/spanish included) - [electron-log](https://github.com/megahertz/electron-log): multi-level logging to console and file - [Prettier](https://github.com/prettier/prettier): keep code format consistent - [ESLint](https://github.com/eslint/eslint): follow code quality best practices - [Github Actions](https://github.com/actions): automate builds and testing on Windows/Mac/Linux - [Renevate Bot](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate): automate dependency upgrades via GitHub bot - [Jest](https://github.com/facebook/jest): delightful JavaScript testing - [React Testing Library](https://github.com/testing-library/react-testing-library): React specific testing utilities - [CodeCov](https://codecov.io/): maintain quality of unit tests - [Testcafe](https://github.com/DevExpress/testcafe): End-to-end is important - [commitlint](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint): standardize git commit messages - [standard-version](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint): automate release versioning and changelog generation ## Recognition Huge thanks to maintainers of [Lightning Joule](https://github.com/joule-labs/joule-extension), [Zap Wallet](https://github.com/LN-Zap/zap-desktop), [LND](https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd), [Bitcoin Core](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin), along with many others for the amazing apps & libraries that gave this project inspiration, ideas & sometimes even a little code 😊. ## Contact I plan to setup a website and email soon. The best place to reach me now is on Twitter @jamaljsr. I also lurk in the LND Slack server, so you can msg me there as well.