Receive Payments

Prepare to receive token payments by loading cold accounts and sharing your associated token account address.

1. Share the associated token account address with the sender.
2. We recommend to prepend a load instruction before. Load creates the associated token account if needed and loads any cold balance into it.

About loading: Light Token accounts reduce account rent ~200x by auto-compressing inactive accounts. Before any action, the SDK detects cold balances and adds instructions to load them. This almost always fits in a single atomic transaction with your regular transfer. APIs return TransactionInstruction[][] so the same loop handles the rare multi-transaction case automatically.

Agent skill

Use the payments agent skill to add light-token payment support to your project:

Claude Code

Add the marketplace and install:

/plugin marketplace add Lightprotocol/skills
/plugin install solana-rent-free-dev

Cursor

1. Open Settings (Cmd+Shift+J / Ctrl+Shift+J)
2. Navigate to Rules & Commands → Project Rules → Add Rule → Remote Rule (GitHub)
3. Enter: https://github.com/Lightprotocol/skills.git

Any Agent

npx skills add Lightprotocol/skills

For orchestration, install the general skill:

npx skills add https://zkcompression.com

Guide

Setup

npm install @lightprotocol/compressed-token@beta \
            @lightprotocol/stateless.js@beta

import { createRpc } from "@lightprotocol/stateless.js";

const rpc = createRpc(RPC_ENDPOINT);

Derive the associated token account address

Share this address with the sender so they know where to send tokens.

import { getAssociatedTokenAddressInterface } from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token/unified";

const ata = getAssociatedTokenAddressInterface(mint, recipient);

Load the associated token account

Find a full code example here.

Instruction

import { Transaction, sendAndConfirmTransaction } from "@solana/web3.js";
import {
  createLoadAtaInstructions,
  getAssociatedTokenAddressInterface,
} from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token/unified";

const ata = getAssociatedTokenAddressInterface(mint, recipient);

// Returns TransactionInstruction[][].
// Each inner array is one transaction.
// Almost always returns just one.
const instructions = await createLoadAtaInstructions(
  rpc,
  ata,
  recipient,
  mint,
  payer.publicKey
);

for (const ixs of instructions) {
  const tx = new Transaction().add(...ixs);
  await sendAndConfirmTransaction(rpc, tx, [payer]);
}

Action

import {
  loadAta,
  getAssociatedTokenAddressInterface,
} from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token/unified";

const ata = getAssociatedTokenAddressInterface(mint, recipient);

const sig = await loadAta(rpc, ata, recipient, mint, payer);
if (sig) console.log("Loaded:", sig);

Compare to SPL

import {
  createAssociatedTokenAccountInstruction,
  getAssociatedTokenAddressSync,
  getOrCreateAssociatedTokenAccount,
} from "@solana/spl-token";

const ata = getAssociatedTokenAddressSync(mint, recipient);

// Instruction:
const tx = new Transaction().add(
  createAssociatedTokenAccountInstruction(payer.publicKey, ata, recipient, mint)
);

// Action:
const ata = await getOrCreateAssociatedTokenAccount(
  connection, payer, mint, recipient
);

AI Prompt

Integrate light-token APIs for stablecoin payments

CopiedCopy promptOpen in Cursor

---
description: Integrate light-token APIs for stablecoin payments
allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, WebFetch, AskUserQuestion, Task, TaskCreate, TaskGet, TaskList, TaskUpdate, TaskOutput, mcp__deepwiki, mcp__zkcompression
---

## Integrate light-token APIs for stablecoin payments

Context:
- Guide: https://zkcompression.com/light-token/payments/integration-guide
- Skills and resources index: https://zkcompression.com/skill.md
- SPL to Light reference: https://zkcompression.com/api-reference/solana-to-light-comparison
- Dedicated skill: https://github.com/Lightprotocol/skills/tree/main/skills/payments
- Packages: @lightprotocol/compressed-token, @lightprotocol/stateless.js
- Full examples: https://github.com/Lightprotocol/examples-light-token/tree/main/toolkits/payments

SPL → Light Token API mapping:
| Operation    | SPL                               | Light Token                              |
| Receive      | getOrCreateAssociatedTokenAccount() | createLoadAtaInstructions() / loadAta()  |
| Transfer     | createTransferInstruction()        | createTransferInterfaceInstructions()    |
| Delegated Transfer | transfer() (delegate signs)  | transferDelegatedInterface()             |
| Get Balance  | getAccount()                      | getAtaInterface()                        |
| Tx History   | getSignaturesForAddress()         | getSignaturesForOwnerInterface()         |
| Wrap SPL     | N/A                               | createWrapInstruction() / wrap()         |
| Unwrap       | N/A                               | createUnwrapInstructions() / unwrap()    |

### 1. Index project
- Grep `@solana/spl-token|@lightprotocol|createTransferInstruction|getAccount|Connection|Keypair|stablecoin|payment` across src/
- Glob `**/*.ts` and `**/*.tsx` for project structure
- Identify: RPC setup, existing token operations, payment flow, wallet signing pattern
- Check package.json for existing @lightprotocol/* or @solana/spl-token dependencies
- Task subagent (Grep/Read/WebFetch) if project has multiple packages to scan in parallel

### 2. Read references
- WebFetch the guide above — review Instruction and Action tabs for each operation
- WebFetch skill.md — check for a dedicated skill and resources matching this task
- TaskCreate one todo per phase below to track progress

### 3. Clarify intention
- AskUserQuestion: what is the goal? (new payment integration, migrate existing SPL payment flow, add alongside existing SPL)
- AskUserQuestion: which operations? (receive, send, balance, history, wrap, unwrap — or all)
- AskUserQuestion: instruction-level API (build your own transactions) or action-level API (high-level, fewer lines)?
- Summarize findings and wait for user confirmation before implementing

### 4. Create plan
- Based on steps 1–3, draft an implementation plan: which files to modify, what code to add, dependency changes
- Verify existing connection/signer setup is compatible (createRpc with ZK Compression endpoint)
- Key pattern: import from `@lightprotocol/compressed-token/unified` for all interface APIs
- If anything is unclear or ambiguous, loop back to step 3 (AskUserQuestion)
- Present the plan to the user for approval before proceeding

### 5. Implement
- Add deps if missing: Bash `npm install @lightprotocol/compressed-token @lightprotocol/stateless.js`
- Set up RPC: `createRpc(RPC_ENDPOINT)` with a ZK Compression endpoint (Helius, Triton)
- Import from `@lightprotocol/compressed-token/unified` for the interface APIs
- Follow the guide and the approved plan
- Write/Edit to create or modify files
- TaskUpdate to mark each step done

### 6. Verify
- Bash `tsc --noEmit`
- Bash run existing test suite if present
- TaskUpdate to mark complete

### Tools
- mcp__zkcompression__SearchLightProtocol("<query>") for API details
- mcp__deepwiki__ask_question("Lightprotocol/light-protocol", "<q>") for architecture
- Task subagent with Grep/Read/WebFetch for parallel lookups
- TaskList to check remaining work

Related guides

Verify payments

Check balances and transaction history.

Gasless transactions

Abstract SOL fees so users never hold SOL.

Basic payment

Send a single token transfer.

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