Canary Wallet

Canary Wallet is a Bitcoin monitoring and early warning system built in Rust using BDK (Bitcoin Development Kit) with a Next.js frontend. It provides real-time transaction intelligence, advanced pattern recognition (RBF, CPFP, consolidation), and instant multilingual notifications for Bitcoin wallet activity - designed specifically for monitoring cold storage and Bitcoin holdings you don't actively use.

Why Use Canary Wallet?

A canary in the cold mine - When your bitcoins are in cold storage, you seldom check on them. Canary Wallet acts as an early warning system that alerts you the moment your coins move, giving you immediate notification of any activity on your wallets.

Screenshots

Empty Wallets

Start with a clean watch-only wallet list and add your first wallet when you are ready.

Start from an empty wallet list and add the first watch-only wallet.

Add a Wallet

Select your wallet type from popular software wallets (Sparrow, BlueWallet, Electrum) or hardware wallets (ColdCard, Ledger, Trezor). Single-sig and multisig watch-only wallets are both supported. Canary Wallet only needs read-only access to monitor transactions - your private keys stay safe in your wallet.

Add a read-only descriptor for a wallet named Test.

Step-by-Step Setup

Follow wallet-specific instructions to export your output descriptor or XPUB. Each supported wallet has tailored guidance to make setup easy.

Follow the Sparrow-specific guide to export a descriptor safely.

Wallet Dashboard

View your balance in BTC and fiat and see your complete transaction history with send/receive indicators.

Monitor balances, pending activity, and transaction details from one dashboard.

Notifications

Give each contact its own delivery methods, transaction rules, balance alerts, and message-content privacy level.

Review notification behavior at a glance and open the editor only when changes are needed.

Settings

Customize your language preference (9 languages supported) and fiat currency display. Exchange rates update automatically via CoinGecko.

Configure appearance, regional preferences, transaction explorer, and ntfy notifications.

Key Features

Watch-only wallets

• Single-sig and multisig wallets
• Output descriptors, XPUBs, and individual addresses
• No seed phrases or private keys

Transaction Monitoring

• Sending and receiving bitcoin notifications
• Transaction confirmation alerts
• RBF (Replace-By-Fee) detection - fee bumping notifications
• CPFP (Child-Pays-For-Parent) detection - transaction acceleration notifications

Balance Alerts

• Configurable threshold alerts (above/below/equals)
• Support for both BTC and fiat currency thresholds
• Smart crossing detection to prevent notification spam
• Auto-disable after firing with manual reactivation

Notifications

Real-time notifications in 9 languages via ntfy push (default public server ntfy.sh, or a local server such as the Umbrel ntfy app), encrypted Nostr DMs, self-hosted JSON webhooks, and optional Telegram bot messages.

canarybitcoin.com additionally supports SMS (via Twilio) and Email (via Resend) notifications.

Supported Languages: English, Norwegian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Japanese, Danish, Swedish

Umbrel / Docker note: On Umbrel, Canary Wallet auto-detects the local ntfy app through the Docker-internal URL provided by the Umbrel package. You should not need to enter http://ntfy_app_1 manually. Use "Send Test Notification" in Settings to verify your configuration.

With CANARY_MODE=self-hosted, custom ntfy URLs can use Docker-internal names (such as http://ntfy on a shared Docker network), LAN addresses (such as http://192.168.1.20:8080), and Tailscale addresses or MagicDNS names (such as http://100.64.0.10:8080). This works on Umbrel, StartOS, myNode, and standalone Docker without an extra flag. Existing saved private URLs work after upgrading. The Canary backend must be able to resolve the hostname and reach the server; browser access alone is insufficient. Loopback addresses refer to the backend's own network namespace. Link-local metadata and other special-purpose addresses remain blocked for custom servers. Custom self-hosted ntfy connections bypass HTTP proxy environment settings to connect directly to validated addresses. Detected integrations and operator defaults retain their existing connection behavior.

StartOS note: StartOS packages can provision a scoped local ntfy publisher and pass it to Canary Wallet with CANARY_NTFY_SERVER_URL, CANARY_NTFY_TOKEN, and CANARY_NTFY_TOPIC. These values are used as defaults; settings saved in Canary Wallet remain authoritative.

Nostr .onion relays: NIP-17 delivery to .onion inbox relays needs system Tor (or equivalent SOCKS5). Set CANARY_NOSTR_SOCKS_PROXY to the SOCKS port, typically 127.0.0.1:9050. Public clearnet relays keep using a direct connection.

Self-Hosted vs. canarybitcoin.com

	Self-Hosted	canarybitcoin.com
Users	Single user, no auth required	Multi-user with email/password authentication
Notifications	ntfy + Nostr DM + JSON webhook + Telegram	ntfy + SMS + Email
Billing	Free	Subscription plans (Personal & Team)
Wallet sync	Fixed interval	Tier-based (faster sync on higher plans)

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain
• Node.js 18+
• Docker and Docker Compose (for local Bitcoin regtest)

Configuration

# Backend - choose your mode
cd backend
cp .env.example.self-hosted .env  # or .env.example.cloud

# Frontend
cd frontend
cp .env.example.self-hosted .env.local  # or .env.example.cloud

Development

# Start local Bitcoin regtest environment
cd scripts && docker-compose up -d

# Start backend (requires Stripe CLI for cloud mode)
cd backend && cargo run

# Start frontend
cd frontend && pnpm dev

Development & Testing

Displaying Git Version in Footer

The frontend displays the git version and commit hash in the footer. To generate this build info locally:

# Generate build info (creates src/lib/build-info.json)
cd frontend && node scripts/generate-build-info.js

# Then start the dev server
pnpm dev

The footer will display in format: v0.13.0 • 5e66fe3 (tag and commit) or just the commit hash if no tag exists.

Note: The build info is automatically generated during production builds via the webpack configuration. For local development, you need to run the script manually.

Running System Tests

The project includes comprehensive system tests that use Docker to create isolated Bitcoin regtest environments. These tests cover:

• Advanced Transactions: RBF (Replace-By-Fee) and CPFP (Child-Pays-For-Parent) scenarios
• High Index Scanning: Deep wallet address discovery for funds at high indexes
• Direct Mining: Transactions that get mined directly without mempool delays
• Two-Stage Scenarios: Complex transaction flows with multiple confirmations
• Balance Alerts: Threshold-based balance monitoring

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose installed
• Rust toolchain for building

Run All System Tests

# Run all system tests (sequential to avoid Docker conflicts)
cd backend
cargo test --test advanced_transactions --test mined_directly_scenarios --test two_stage_send_scenarios --test high_index_scanning --test balance_alert_scenarios -- --ignored --test-threads=1

Run Individual Test Categories

cd backend

# Advanced transactions (RBF, CPFP) - 3 tests
cargo test --test advanced_transactions -- --ignored

# High index scanning - 1 test
cargo test --test high_index_scanning -- --ignored

# Mined directly scenarios - 3 tests
cargo test --test mined_directly_scenarios -- --ignored

# Two-stage send scenarios - 3 tests
cargo test --test two_stage_send_scenarios -- --ignored

# Balance alert scenarios
cargo test --test balance_alert_scenarios -- --ignored

Note: System tests must run sequentially (--test-threads=1) to avoid Docker resource conflicts between parallel test environments.

Documentation

See CLAUDE.md for comprehensive documentation including:

• API endpoints
• Database schema
• Notification setup
• Stripe integration
• Architecture details

See JSON webhook notifications for the self-hosted webhook contract and deployment guidance.

See Telegram Bot notifications for bot token setup and destination rules.

License

See LICENSE.md for license information.