LND Channel Rebalancing Strategies -- Keep Liquidity Flowing

Channel rebalancing moves liquidity from over-funded local side to depleted channels. Essential for active routing nodes.

Circular Rebalancing (Most Common)

# Using bos (Balance of Satoshis)
bos rebalance --out CHANNEL_ID_A --in CHANNEL_ID_B --amount 100000

# Using lncli directly (loop payment)
lncli payinvoice --max_parts=10 <invoice>

Check Channel Balances

lncli listchannels | jq ".channels[] | {remote_pubkey, local_balance, remote_balance}"

Auto-Rebalancing with charge-lnd

# Install
pip install charge-lnd

# Config example
[default]
strategy=proportional
base_fee_msat=1000
fee_rate=200

Using Lightning Terminal (Loop)

# Loop out: move funds on-chain
loop out --amt 500000 --channel CHANNEL_ID

# Loop in: add inbound liquidity
loop in --amt 500000

When to Rebalance

Rebalance when: local balance > 80% (outbound heavy) or < 20% (inbound heavy). Set fee budget under 0.1% of rebalance amount.

Common Errors

- "no route found" — reduce amount or increase max fee

- "fee exceeds budget" — raise --max_fee_percent or lower amount

- Rebalancing loops — avoid rebalancing channels with same fee policy