---
title: "Get started"
description: "Build waved with the wallet API enabled and make your first call over gRPC or REST."
canonical: https://wavelength.lightning.engineering/api/get-started/
---

> Docs index: https://wavelength.lightning.engineering/llms.txt

# Get started

## Build waved with the wallet API

`WalletService` and `WalletInspectionService` are compiled into `waved` only when the daemon is built with the `wavewalletrpc` build tag. That tag requires `swapruntime` transitively: building with `wavewalletrpc` but without `swapruntime` is a deliberate compile error, and a default `make build` includes neither, so the wallet API is off unless you opt in.

Build both `waved` and `wavecli` with the tag using the provided make target:

```sh
make build-wavewalletrpc
```

This produces `bin/waved` and `bin/wavecli` with the wallet RPC surface registered. `make install-wavewalletrpc` does the same via `go install`, landing the binaries in `$GOPATH/bin`.

> **Default builds omit the API**
>
> Without the `wavewalletrpc` tag, `WalletService` and `WalletInspectionService` are compiled out entirely and never registered. A call against a default build fails with gRPC’s standard unknown-service error, which surfaces as the `Unimplemented` status code. If a call fails that way, rebuild with `make build-wavewalletrpc`.

## Endpoints

`waved` starts two listeners by default:

| Protocol | Default address   | Notes                                                               |
| -------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| gRPC     | `localhost:10029` | The daemon’s own RPC server.                                        |
| REST     | `localhost:10031` | An HTTP/JSON gateway in front of the same RPCs, enabled by default. |

Every `WalletService` and `WalletInspectionService` method is reachable on both listeners with the same request and response shape, modulo JSON encoding. See [REST conventions](/api/rest/) for the route and body shape used by the gateway.

> **The gRPC listener is secured by default**
>
> The daemon’s gRPC server wires up TLS and macaroon authentication by default: it serves TLS credentials and enforces a macaroon on every call. For loopback development and regtest you can disable both with `--no-tls` and `--no-macaroons`; on a mainnet TCP listener the daemon refuses both by default, so a stray flag can’t quietly expose an unauthenticated plaintext RPC surface. A deployment that terminates TLS and enforces authentication at an external proxy can set `allow-insecure-mainnet` to override that refusal, which acknowledges that the daemon’s own listener then runs without transport security. The default macaroon is written to `admin.macaroon` under the daemon’s network directory. The REST gateway (`localhost:10031`) is a local plaintext HTTP proxy: it forwards the `macaroon` HTTP header to the enforcing gRPC backend, so a call needs that header whenever macaroons are enabled.

## Your first call

With `waved` running a `wavewalletrpc` build, call `Status` to confirm the daemon and wallet API are up. `StatusRequest` is empty, so an empty JSON object is a complete request body.

Over REST (a local daemon started with `--no-macaroons`; otherwise add a `-H "macaroon: <hex>"` header):

```sh
curl -X POST http://localhost:10031/v1/wallet/status -d '{}'
```

Over the CLI, the equivalent is:

```sh
wavecli getinfo --no-tls --no-macaroons
```

`getinfo` talks to the daemon’s own `DaemonService` rather than `WalletService.Status` directly, but it is the fastest way to confirm `wavecli` can reach `waved` at all before you start scripting `WalletService` calls. `--no-tls --no-macaroons` matches a daemon run with authentication disabled; it is the right pairing for local and regtest use.

## Where to go next

- Walk the method reference starting with [Create](/api/wallet/create/) and [Unlock](/api/wallet/unlock/) to bring up a wallet, then [PrepareSend](/api/wallet/prepare-send/) and [Send](/api/wallet/send/) to move funds.
- Read [REST conventions](/api/rest/) for the full request, error, and streaming shape shared by every route.
- Explore the same surface from a terminal in the [CLI](/cli/) slice: `wavecli` wraps every `WalletService` method as a subcommand.