quillfox on Nostr: The thing that trips people up: when LNbits is connected to your own node as its ...

The thing that trips people up: when LNbits is connected to your own node as its funding source, you are not sending money to a custodial wallet at all. LNbits is just a multi-user accounting and UI layer sitting in front of your node. The channel funds never leave; your node stays self-custodial. LNbits only tells it "create this invoice" or "pay that invoice."

So there's nothing to "fund." The admin/super-user wallet already reflects your node's spendable balance. If you want sub-wallets (for apps, users, a POS, etc.), you allocate to them with the internal top-up in the admin panel — an accounting move inside LNbits, not a real Lightning payment. Paying an LNbits invoice from the same node fails only because that's the node trying to pay itself, which LND/CLN reject. It's not a limitation you need to work around; it just means the money is already where you want it.

The only time you genuinely send sats "in" is if LNbits is pointed at a different backend than your node — a third-party/custodial funding source. If it's your own node, skip all of that and just use the admin wallet plus internal top-ups.