lifi

LI.FI API Integration

LI.FI aggregates bridges, DEXs, intent solvers, and DeFi protocols behind one API. This skill covers the full product surface:

For AI agents, LI.FI also offers an MCP server (https://mcp.li.quest/mcp) and a CLI (@lifi/cli). LI.FI recommends agents and backends use the REST API directly rather than the SDK.

Authentication & Rate Limits

API key is optional — it only raises rate limits. Header: x-lifi-api-key (get one at the LI.FI Partner Portal).

curl "https://li.quest/v1/chains" -H "x-lifi-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Responses include ratelimit-limit, ratelimit-remaining, ratelimit-reset (seconds) headers. 429 responses carry error code 1005. Never expose your API key in client-side code.

Quick Start — The Five-Call Recipe

The canonical flow for any swap/bridge:

1. GET /chains   → discover chains (id, key, chainType, nativeToken)
2. GET /tokens   → find tokens & decimals (?chains=1,42161)
3. GET /quote    → get quote with ready-to-sign transactionRequest
4. [Execute]     → if ERC-20: check allowance vs estimate.approvalAddress, approve if needed;
                   then sign & send transactionRequest
5. GET /status   → poll until DONE or FAILED

# 3. Quote (fromToken/toToken accept addresses OR symbols)
curl "https://li.quest/v1/quote?\
fromChain=42161&toChain=10&\
fromToken=0xaf88d065e77c8cC2239327C5EDb3A432268e5831&\
toToken=0xDA10009cBd5D07dd0CeCc66161FC93D7c9000da1&\
fromAmount=10000000&fromAddress=0xYourAddress&slippage=0.005"

# 5. Status (pass fromChain to speed it up; bridge = quote's `tool`)
curl "https://li.quest/v1/status?txHash=0xYourTxHash&fromChain=42161&toChain=10&bridge=across"

From the quote response, extract: transactionRequest (sign & send), estimate.approvalAddress (ERC-20 spender), estimate.toAmount/toAmountMin, estimate.executionDuration (basis for polling), and tool (pass as bridge to /status). Quotes go stale in ~60 seconds — re-fetch before signing if older (and always after a separate approval tx).

Core Endpoints

GET /quote

Single best route with transaction data ready for execution.

Variants:

• GET /quote/toAmount — pass toAmount instead of fromAmount; API computes the required input.
• POST /quote/contractCalls — bridge + arbitrary destination-chain contract calls (manual calldata). For supported DeFi protocols, prefer Composer instead.

POST /advanced/routes + POST /advanced/stepTransaction

Multiple route options for comparison. Note the different naming: body uses fromChainId, fromTokenAddress (addresses only), with filters and preset inside options{}. Routes contain steps without transaction data — POST each step to /advanced/stepTransaction to populate transactionRequest.

Use /quote for simple transfers (1 call); use /advanced/routes when the user needs choices or price comparison (2+ calls).

GET /status

txHash (required — sending hash, receiving hash, or step id), plus optional fromChain (recommended, speeds up response), toChain, bridge.

Statuses: NOT_FOUND → PENDING → DONE | FAILED. On DONE, check substatus: COMPLETED, PARTIAL (different token received — full value preserved), or REFUNDED. See Status Recovery below.

Discovery & utility

• GET /chains — ?chainTypes=EVM,SVM,UTXO,MVM,TVM. If omitted, returns EVM only. Non-EVM: Solana (SVM), Bitcoin (UTXO), Sui (MVM), Tron (TVM).
• GET /tokens — ?chains=1,137&tags=stablecoin&minPriceUSD=0.01
• GET /token — ?chain=POL&token=DAI
• GET /tools — valid bridge/exchange keys for the allow*/deny* filters
• GET /connections — available token-pair connections (at least one filter required)
• GET /gas/prices, /gas/prices/{chainId}, /gas/suggestion/{chain}` — gas data; GET /gas/status — LIFuel tx status
• GET /calldata/parse (beta) — ?callData=0x...&chainId=1 decodes LI.FI calldata into named function calls
• Analytics: GET /v1/analytics/transfers (filtered, max 1000), GET /v2/analytics/transfers (cursor-paginated), GET /v1/analytics/transfers/summary (cross-chain amounts received, 30-day max range)
• Integrator fees: GET /integrators/{integratorId} (collected fee balances), GET /integrators/{integratorId}/withdraw/{chainId} (withdrawal transactionRequest)

Deprecated — do not use: /advanced/possibilities, /gas/refetch, /analytics/wallets/{address}.

Routing Presets

preset=stablecoin (on /quote, or options.preset on /advanced/routes) applies optimized defaults for stablecoin transfers: order=CHEAPEST, slippage=0.001, price impact capped at 2%, and a shortlist of stablecoin-friendly bridges (Glacis, Mayan, Celer, Eco, Relay, Across, Gaszip). Explicit request params always override preset defaults — but list overrides like denyBridges replace the preset's lists entirely. Find qualifying tokens with GET /tokens?tags=stablecoin. (commerce preset coming soon.)

Composer — One-Click DeFi Deposits & Withdrawals

Composer bundles swap + bridge + protocol interaction (deposit, stake, lend, withdraw) into a single atomic transaction. There is no dedicated endpoint — set toToken to a supported protocol's vault/staking/deposit token address on the standard GET /quote, and Composer activates automatically:

# 100 USDC on Arbitrum → Morpho Spark USDC vault on Base, one signature
curl "https://li.quest/v1/quote?\
fromChain=42161&toChain=8453&\
fromToken=0xaf88d065e77c8cC2239327C5EDb3A432268e5831&\
toToken=0x7BfA7C4f149E7415b73bdeDfe609237e29CBF34A&\
fromAmount=100000000&fromAddress=0xYou&toAddress=0xYou"

• Detection: same-chain deposit quotes show the zap tool as top-level tool (e.g. composer, but the engine may route via other integrated zap tools such as fly); cross-chain quotes show the bridge as tool with the zap step in includedSteps. Don't hard-code on tool === "composer" — any quote with a vault address as toToken is a deposit route.
• Withdrawals: reverse it — vault token as fromToken, desired token as toToken.
• Every quote is simulated on a fork before being returned; failures surface as API errors instead of reverting txs.
• Coverage: ~29 protocols (Aave V3, Morpho, Pendle, Spark, Euler, Fluid, Yearn, EtherFi, Kelp, Ethena, Maple, …) across 23 EVM chains. Some are deposit-only (Ethena, Kinetiq, Maple, Royco, USDai, Concrete, Ember) — withdraw via the protocol's own UI.
• Limitations: EVM only; tokenized positions only (the target must mint a token); cross-chain flows are eventually consistent, not atomic — a destination deposit can fail after a successful bridge, leaving the user with the bridged token (poll /status, handle PARTIAL).
• Use higher slippage (e.g. 0.01) for cross-chain composer routes.

See references/REFERENCE.md for the full protocol list and error codes.

Earn — Yield Discovery & Portfolio Data

Earn is a read-only data API at https://earn.li.fi (separate host!) normalizing vaults from 20+ protocols. Unlike the core API, it requires the x-lifi-api-key header (401 without). Execution is delegated to Composer: take a vault's address and use it as toToken on li.quest/v1/quote.

# Top USDC vaults on Base by APY, depositable via Composer
curl "https://earn.li.fi/v1/vaults?chainId=8453&asset=USDC&sortBy=apy&isComposerSupported=true&limit=10" \
  -H "x-lifi-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Gotchas: boolean filters are string literals ("true"/"false"); APY values are decimals (0.0534 = 5.34%); TVL/balances are strings; lpTokens is usually empty — use the vault's top-level address for execution; gate deposit/withdraw UI on isTransactional/isRedeemable; check timeLock, caps, kyc fields. Rate limit: 50 req/min per key. Vault data refreshes every 15 min (transactional flags every 2 min).

Discover → deposit recipe: GET earn.li.fi/v1/vaults → pick vault → GET li.quest/v1/quote with vault address as toToken → approve + send → poll /status.

LI.FI Intents — Solver Marketplace

A separate intent-based system at https://order.li.fi (dev: order-dev.li.fi). Users express desired outcomes; solvers pre-fund delivery on the destination chain against standing quotes. Foundation of the Open Intents Framework. Integrator endpoints need no API key.

Two funding models:

• Escrow (recommended default): approve → on-chain open(order) on InputSettlerEscrow — no /orders/submit call needed, solvers detect the Open event.
• Compact (gasless): deposit once into The Compact, then sign EIP-712 BatchCompact orders off-chain and submit via /orders/submit.

Order lifecycle: Submitted/Open → Signed → Delivered → Settled (terminal). Refundable after expires if unfilled. Addresses use EIP-7930 interoperable format (chain ID embedded), not bare 0x addresses. Amounts in smallest units. See REFERENCE.md for StandardOrder structs, contract addresses, and signing details.

Note: the classic li.quest/v1/quote already aggregates intent-based bridges (Across, Relay, etc.) — only integrate order.li.fi directly when you want the order-server model itself (solver selection, resource locks, gasless submission).

Token Approvals

• Native token (0x0000…0000) → no approval needed.
• Spender is always quote.estimate.approvalAddress — never hardcode it (it varies by route).
• Check allowance(fromAddress, approvalAddress); if < fromAmount, send approve and wait for confirmation before the main tx, then re-fetch the quote (gas estimates go stale).
• USDT quirk: if current allowance > 0, you must approve(spender, 0) first, then approve the new amount.
• Prefer exact-amount approvals for agents; approval gas ≈ 50–100k.

Status Tracking & Recovery

Poll GET /status with backoff: 10s (first ~6 attempts) → 30s → 60s → 120s. Use estimate.executionDuration from the quote to set expectations. Same-chain swaps are atomic and usually instant.

On timeout, never assume failure — save txHash and share lifiExplorerLink (https://explorer.li.fi/tx/<txHash>). Funds are non-custodial and end with the user; prevent PARTIAL by raising slippage for volatile tokens or targeting the bridge's native token directly.

Error Handling

Common API error codes: 1002 NoQuote, 1007 Slippage (raise slippage to min(current×2, 0.03) or lower amount), 1011 Validation. Tool-level codes inside errors[]: NO_POSSIBLE_ROUTE, AMOUNT_TOO_LOW (Composer minimums run higher), INSUFFICIENT_LIQUIDITY, TOOL_TIMEOUT (retry immediately), FEES_HIGHER_THAN_AMOUNT. On execution reverted at send time: the quote was stale — fetch a fresh one (max ~2 retries). Full table in REFERENCE.md.

Integration Examples

Python

import requests

BASE_URL = "https://li.quest/v1"
HEADERS = {"x-lifi-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"}  # optional

def get_quote(from_chain, to_chain, from_token, to_token, amount, address, **kwargs):
    params = {
        "fromChain": from_chain, "toChain": to_chain,
        "fromToken": from_token, "toToken": to_token,
        "fromAmount": amount, "fromAddress": address,
        "slippage": 0.005, "integrator": "your-app", **kwargs,
    }
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/quote", params=params, headers=HEADERS)
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()

def get_status(tx_hash, from_chain=None, to_chain=None, bridge=None):
    params = {"txHash": tx_hash, "fromChain": from_chain,
              "toChain": to_chain, "bridge": bridge}
    return requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/status", params=params, headers=HEADERS).json()

# Cross-chain swap quote
quote = get_quote(42161, 10,
    "0xaf88d065e77c8cC2239327C5EDb3A432268e5831",   # USDC.e Arbitrum
    "0xDA10009cBd5D07dd0CeCc66161FC93D7c9000da1",   # DAI Optimism
    "10000000", "0xYourAddress")

# Composer deposit: same call, vault address as toToken
deposit = get_quote(8453, 8453,
    "0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913",   # USDC Base
    "0x7BfA7C4f149E7415b73bdeDfe609237e29CBF34A",   # Morpho vault
    "100000000", "0xYourAddress")

# transactionRequest values are hex strings — parse before use
tx = quote["transactionRequest"]
gas_limit = int(tx["gasLimit"], 16)

Node.js

const BASE_URL = 'https://li.quest/v1';

async function getQuote(params) {
  const res = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/quote?${new URLSearchParams(params)}`);
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Quote failed: ${res.status} ${await res.text()}`);
  return res.json();
}

async function pollStatus(txHash, fromChain, toChain, bridge) {
  const params = new URLSearchParams({ txHash, fromChain, toChain, bridge });
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 60; attempt++) {
    const data = await (await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/status?${params}`)).json();
    if (data.status === 'DONE' || data.status === 'FAILED') return data;
    const delay = attempt < 6 ? 10_000 : attempt < 12 ? 30_000 : 60_000;
    await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, delay));
  }
  throw new Error('Status polling timed out — check explorer.li.fi');
}

// Earn: discover top vaults, then deposit via Composer
const { data: vaults } = await (await fetch(
  'https://earn.li.fi/v1/vaults?chainId=8453&asset=USDC&sortBy=apy&isComposerSupported=true&limit=5'
)).json();
const quote = await getQuote({
  fromChain: 8453, toChain: 8453,
  fromToken: '0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913',
  toToken: vaults[0].address, // vault address triggers Composer
  fromAmount: '100000000',
  fromAddress: '0xYourAddress', toAddress: '0xYourAddress',
});

Best Practices

1. Always pass integrator — required for analytics, fee collection, and fee withdrawal.
2. Re-fetch stale quotes — quotes expire in ~60s; always re-quote after an approval tx.
3. Cache /chains, /tokens, /tools — they change infrequently and polling burns rate limit.
4. Pass fromChain to /status — significantly faster responses.
5. Use preset=stablecoin for stable-to-stable transfers instead of hand-tuning slippage/bridges.
6. Request chainTypes explicitly on /chains if you need non-EVM (default is EVM-only).
7. Amounts are strings in smallest units (human × 10^decimals); transactionRequest.value/gasLimit/gasPrice are hex strings.
8. Handle PARTIAL completions — offer a same-chain recovery swap when worthwhile.
9. For agents: consider the MCP server (https://mcp.li.quest/mcp) or @lifi/cli for token-efficient access; machine-readable docs at https://docs.li.fi/llms.txt and https://docs.li.fi/openapi.yaml (any docs page is fetchable as markdown by appending .md).

See references/REFERENCE.md for complete endpoint documentation, response schemas, the Earn and Intents API references, error codes, chain IDs, and token addresses.