NestJS quickstart

NestJS on its default Express platform. Requires Node ≥ 22 and NestJS ≥ 10.

OpenReceive mounts in main.ts as Express middleware, with @openreceive/express, the adapter the Express quickstart uses. There is no Nest module to import. Three things differ from a plain Express app, and this page is about them:

1. Install

npm install @openreceive/express @openreceive/http @openreceive/react

@openreceive/express mounts the routes. @openreceive/http supplies the database handle in step 4 (typeOrmDb, prismaDb). Swap @openreceive/react for the UI package your frontend uses: @openreceive/vue, @openreceive/svelte, @openreceive/angular, or @openreceive/elements for server-rendered views. The openreceive package is only the CLI, and npx openreceive … below needs no install.

This page is for Nest’s default Express platform. OpenReceive has not been tested on @nestjs/platform-fastify.

Some editor sandboxes run npm with ignore-scripts. That setting skips Prisma’s engine download and esbuild’s binary postinstall. If a typecheck or build fails only in such an environment, the environment is the cause, not your code.

2. Migrate the payment tables

npx openreceive scaffold payments --orm prisma   # or drizzle | typeorm | sequelize | knex

openreceive scaffold payments writes one schema or migration file for your ORM, plus a wiring guide. It never touches a database. → openreceive scaffold payments

Then run the generated migration the way you normally do (for example npx prisma migrate dev). OpenReceive runs the tables’ logic at runtime, so there is nothing else to generate. Details: Payment storage, Node ORM recipes.

No ORM? You can pass a bare driver handle (pg, node:sqlite, better-sqlite3) as the db in step 4. The scaffold has no flavor for it. Instead of scaffolding, run the same DDL once yourself, using paymentsSchemaSql(dialect) from @openreceive/http. Your adapter already pulls that package in, but this import is yours, so install it too: npm install @openreceive/http.

With TypeORM, the scaffold writes src/migrations/20260101000000-create-openreceive-tables.ts. Register it the way the app registers its other migrations: a migrations glob such as dist/migrations/*.js already picks it up. It runs at start with migrationsRun: true, or with npx typeorm migration:run -d <data source>. With Prisma, scaffold with --orm prisma and run npx prisma migrate dev.

3. Add wallet credentials

Create a server-only .env:

NWC_URI=
LSC_URI_PRIMARY=
LSC_URI_BACKUP=
  1. Get a receive-only NWC code from a compatible wallet (get one here). Put it in NWC_URI.
  2. Optional: set up a swap provider. Put its connection string in LSC_URI_PRIMARY, and a second one in LSC_URI_BACKUP if you have one.

Never put these values in browser code. Your app refuses to start if the NWC code also advertises spend methods such as pay_invoice. Create a receive-only code instead (Security).

OpenReceive reads process.env, so creating a .env file is not enough on its own. If AppModule already imports ConfigModule.forRoot() from @nestjs/config, that loads .env into process.env before main.ts mounts OpenReceive. Otherwise put import "dotenv/config"; first in main.ts (npm install dotenv). Environment variables covers production secrets.

4. Wire OpenReceive in main.ts

One factory call takes your hooks and a database handle. Mount it in main.ts, after the app’s own session, cookie or Passport middleware and before app.listen(). There is no background reconciler: settlement runs during normal requests, through the durable reconcile gate.

import "dotenv/config"; // drop this line if ConfigModule.forRoot() loads .env
import { NestFactory } from "@nestjs/core";
import type { NestExpressApplication } from "@nestjs/platform-express";
import { openReceiveExpress } from "@openreceive/express";
import { typeOrmDb } from "@openreceive/http";
import type { Request } from "express";
import { DataSource } from "typeorm";
import { AppModule } from "./app.module";
import { AuthService } from "./auth/auth.service"; // your existing services
import { OrdersService } from "./orders/orders.service";

async function bootstrap() {
  const app = await NestFactory.create<NestExpressApplication>(AppModule);
  // The app's own app.use(session(...)), cookie-parser or passport.session()
  // stay above the mount, so the session is on the request when authorize runs.
  const orders = app.get(OrdersService);
  const auth = app.get(AuthService);
  // Nest adds its JSON body parser only at listen, after this mount. Without
  // this line every checkout request fails with a 500.
  app.useBodyParser("json");
  app.use(
    openReceiveExpress({
      wallet: { nwc: process.env.NWC_URI! }, // receive-only NWC code; your app refuses to start otherwise
      storage: {
        // The app's TypeORM DataSource. Prisma: prismaDb(app.get(PrismaService), "postgres").
        db: typeOrmDb(app.get(DataSource), "postgres"),
        onPaid: async ({ reference, paidAt, query }) => {
          // Settlement transaction; runs only for the first settled attempt for
          // a reference. The WHERE clause is the lock: a second fulfillment
          // path of yours (admin action, replayed job) updates zero rows. Use
          // `query` here, not a repository: it runs in this same transaction.
          // `$1` on postgres, `?` on sqlite.
          await query(
            "UPDATE orders SET status = 'paid', paid_at = $1 WHERE id = $2 AND status = 'awaiting_payment'",
            [paidAt, reference],
          );
        },
      },
      // The price for a reference (your order id, as a string) from your own
      // data. `value` is a decimal STRING from the order row, never a float and
      // never a request param. `description` is what the payer is buying.
      amountFor: async (reference) => {
        const order = await orders.findOne(reference);
        return order
          ? {
              currency: "USD",
              value: order.total.toString(),
              description: `${order.lines.length} items`,
            }
          : null;
      },
      // Nest's guards do not run here: make the check your guard makes.
      // `native` is the Express request your session, cookie-parser or
      // Passport middleware already filled in. `request` is a Web Request
      // without any of that, so a helper given it finds no session and every
      // payer gets a 403. `resource.reference` is a claim from the payer's
      // browser, not proof.
      authorize: async ({ action, native, resource }) =>
        orders.viewerMay(await auth.currentUser(native as Request), resource.reference, action),
      // Recommended for public web shops: caps invoice creation at 60 per
      // client IP per hour. Leave it off for point-of-sale deployments, where
      // many payers share the terminal's IP.
      rateLimiting: true,
    }),
  );
  // Behind a reverse proxy, rate limiting needs the real client IP. Delete the
  // line only if the app faces the network directly (see the rate-limiting guide).
  app.set("trust proxy", 1);
  await app.listen(process.env.PORT ?? 3000);
}
bootstrap();

The first request checks the wallet. Later OpenReceive requests also settle pending invoices, so a payer who closes the tab is still covered. → openReceiveExpress · authorize context

Where authorize finds the user:

app.setGlobalPrefix() does not move middleware. The routes stay under /openreceive, the prefix the checkout below uses.

An optional worker, startNotificationWorker({ service, host }), listens for wallet payment notifications so settlement does not wait for the next page load. → startNotificationWorker

Your app also needs an ordinary route that creates the order. It validates the cart, computes the price with exact decimal math, and returns the order id. The page passes that id as the reference. OpenReceive never takes a price from payer input.

The reference is a string you choose, and it identifies what gets fulfilled. Use your order id. Make it:

OpenReceive never looks inside the reference, but it relies on it:

Naming boundary: TypeScript APIs use camelCase fields (paymentHash, amountMsats). Everything on the wire is snake_case (payment_hash, amount_msats). The wire means the mounted HTTP routes and the browser snapshots.

5. Render checkout

import { Checkout } from "@openreceive/react";
import "@openreceive/react/styles.css";

<Checkout reference={order.id} prefix="/openreceive" />;

The checkout renders, polls, and settles itself.

@openreceive/react and @openreceive/elements each ship a compiled styles.css. Each sheet is self-contained, so a plain <link rel="stylesheet"> works with no build step. Each is also scoped: every rule applies only inside what OpenReceive renders.

Serve the compiled styles.css without Tailwind processing. Import it from JavaScript if your bundler handles CSS, or use a plain <link rel="stylesheet">. Do not @import it into your app’s Tailwind entry. Its rules have low specificity, so your page’s styles can override checkout styles. Scoping does not prevent that.

Server-rendered views (Handlebars, EJS, Pug) use the <openreceive-checkout> element from @openreceive/elements instead. Serve its standalone script and stylesheet straight from the package, so there is nothing to build:

import path from "node:path";
import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";

app.useStaticAssets(
  path.dirname(
    fileURLToPath(import.meta.resolve("@openreceive/elements/standalone/openreceive-checkout.js")),
  ),
  { prefix: "/checkout-assets/" },
);

In a CommonJS build, the default before Nest 12, use path.dirname(require.resolve("@openreceive/elements/standalone/openreceive-checkout.js")). Then, on the order’s page:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/checkout-assets/openreceive-checkout.css">
<script type="module" src="/checkout-assets/openreceive-checkout.js"></script>
<openreceive-checkout reference="{{order.id}}" prefix="/openreceive"></openreceive-checkout>

<Checkout> is complete as rendered. It already shows the description from amountFor and the collapsed transaction-details panel. Do not build a custom UI to show them. The display rules for them become your job only if you replace the drop-in component (Checkout UX).

Match the host page’s theme. By default the checkout follows the payer’s stored choice, then the system color scheme. If this page always uses one theme, lock it with <Checkout theme="dark" … />. On the custom element, set the theme attribute. Locking the theme keeps a white card off a dark page. CSS variables under data-theme style the checkout. Frontend checkout lists the settings you can change.

Everything the checkout draws ships inside the JavaScript: the payment-method icons, the wallet logos, and the pay tutorials. There is no image file to copy or serve, and no asset option to set. Deploy your normal JavaScript and CSS build output, including any generated JavaScript chunks. Bundlers with code splitting can wait to load tutorial screenshots until a tutorial first opens. Single-file builds, including the standalone checkout, include them from the start. If your Content-Security-Policy has a strict img-src, allow data: (Provider registry).

That is the whole loop. Your server owns the price and the order. The payer gets an invoice. onPaid runs inside the settlement transaction. If that transaction rolls back, the callback may run again. For delivery to outside systems, use an outbox in your app: record the message in the transaction and send it after commit.

The NestJS starter is a runnable one-product shop with all of the above: TypeORM, sessions, Handlebars views and the element (examples/nestjs-starter). Map its hooks onto the models in THIS app; do not copy its order model over yours.

6. Verify

npx openreceive doctor

openreceive doctor checks Node, NWC_URI, and the swap-provider configuration. It also probes the wallet relay to confirm the code is receive-only. Add --db <file-or-url> to confirm the migration ran. Add --url http://localhost:3000 to confirm the routes are mounted. Every failing line states its own fix. → openreceive doctor

Then open the checkout in a browser. Confirm the payment-method icons and wallet logos render. Open a wallet’s pay tutorial to check its screenshots. If an image is missing, look in the console for CSP violations and in the Network panel for failed JavaScript chunks. To fix it, allow data: in img-src and deploy the complete build output. Do not add image routes or copy package source images. Do not use registry icon_path or tutorial path keys as browser URLs.

Next

More on wiring, storage, and routes: Authorization, Payment storage, API reference.