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POST
Build update-margin payload
Lighter requires the wallet to be a registered account before any trade/withdraw action.If the EOA has never deposited on Lighter, this endpoint will fail. First-time setup is a two-step prerequisite:
  1. Deposit ≥ 5 USDC via /2/perp/payloads/deposit → Lighter creates an accountIndex on-chain once the bridge settles. (5 USDC is a Lighter requirement, not a Mobula limit.)
  2. Provision API key + auth token via /2/perp/payloads/create-account using that accountIndex.
Read the Build Create-Account Payload page for the full setup flow including how to discover the accountIndex after a deposit.
Adjusts margin on an open position. The exact semantics depend on the DEX:
  • Lighter — supply usdcAmount and increase to add or remove USDC collateral on the market’s position.
  • Gains — supply newLeverage to change the trade’s leverage, which effectively adjusts its collateral.

Request Body

string
required
gains or lighter.
string
required
Chain of the position.
string
Mobula market identifier.
string
Gains trade index. Required for Gains.
number
Lighter only. USDC amount to add or remove (> 0).
boolean
Lighter only. true to add margin, false to remove it.
number
Gains only. New per-trade leverage (> 0).

Authentication

Every /2/perp/payloads/<action> endpoint verifies the caller by requiring two extra fields in the request body alongside the action parameters:
number
required
Unix timestamp in milliseconds. Must be within 30 seconds of server time. Older timestamps are rejected to prevent replay.
string
required
Hex signature (EIP-191 personal_sign) of the message `${endpoint}-${timestamp}`, where endpoint is the path of this endpoint without the leading slash (e.g., for this page: api/2/perp/payloads/<this-action>). The recovered signer address becomes the user for the request. Single-use — replay returns 403 signature already used.

Authentication errors

Response envelope

Every /2/perp/payloads/<action> endpoint returns the same envelope shape. You pass these fields verbatim into POST /2/perp/execute-v2 to execute the action.
Top-level shape. Successful (2xx) responses return { data: { ... } }. A success: true flag is only present inside the body of execute-v2’s response, not on the payload-build endpoints. Parse defensively: read body.data, then check for the action-specific fields you need (e.g. data.payloadStr).
object

Endpoint-specific errors

Full flow — update margin end-to-end

Single example covering both DEXes (Lighter offchain-api with usdcAmount+increase, Gains evm-tx with newLeverage). The flow branches on data.transport.

Body

application/json
timestamp
number
required
signature
string
required
dex
enum<string>
required
Available options:
gains,
lighter
chainId
string
required
marketId
string
positionId
string

Gains trade index. Required for Gains.

usdcAmount
number

Lighter only. USDC amount to add or remove (> 0).

increase
boolean

Lighter only. true = add margin, false = remove.

newLeverage
number

Gains only. New per-trade leverage (> 0).

Response

200 - application/json

Canonical payload envelope

success
boolean
required
data
object
required