The BOLTs are dense but they’re the only document that’s actually authoritative — every implementation-specific guide is downstream of them and occasionally drifts from them. Worth reading the relevant BOLT before trusting a blog post’s summary of it, including mine.
- BOLT specifications — The source of truth — read this before any secondary explainer.
- LDK (Lightning Dev Kit) — Library-first approach to building Lightning nodes/apps.
- LND
- Core Lightning
- Mastering the Lightning Network (book) — Still the best single-source overview for newcomers.