Ledger Live Integrations - Ledger Developer Portal

Why integrate with Ledger Live?

Ledger Live is the primary interface for millions of hardware wallet users. Integrating your service with Ledger Live means your app can reach users where they manage keys, balances, and security settings. It also allows you to rely on Ledger's strong device-backed security model while delivering your product's unique value.

Benefits to product and engineering

There are three high-level benefits of a tight Ledger Live integration:

1. Trust & adoption

Users trust Ledger devices to secure private keys. When your app integrates with Ledger Live, users get the comfort that their key operations are happening inside a device they control. This increases conversion and lowers friction when asking for signature approvals.

2. Reduced security overhead

Ledger Live handles device connections, firmware checks, and most cryptographic signing flows. Your integration can focus on product logic instead of low-level USB/BLE protocols or firmware compatibility.

3. Better UX for private key flows

Users expect to confirm sensitive actions on-device. Integrations that leverage Ledger Live keep sign flows consistent with the rest of the user's wallet experience and avoid having apps reinvent device prompts or confirmations.

Integration patterns

There are a handful of recurring patterns when integrating with Ledger Live. Choosing the right pattern depends on whether your product is a custodial service, a dApp, a self-custody wallet, an exchange, or tooling for developers.

Pattern A — External app delegation (recommended for dApps)

In this model the dApp delegates signing to Ledger Live via a connector/bridge. The dApp requests a signature; Ledger Live opens or bridges to the device, obtains user approval, and returns the signature. This pattern keeps the dApp stateless regarding private keys.

// dApp requests Ledger Live to sign
POST /connect -> returns: sessionToken
POST /sign {sessionToken, txPayload} -> returns: signature

Pattern B — Integration via SDKs (recommended for native apps)

Use Ledger's SDKs (JavaScript, Rust, Swift, Kotlin) when building a native integration. SDKs wrap transport layers (USB, BLE) and provide convenience functions for constructing and signing transactions. This is ideal for wallets that want deeper control over flows.

Pattern C — Hosted custody + hardware key escrow

For enterprises offering custodial or managed services, ledger integrations can combine server-side policy with hardware-backed signing. Ensure your compliance team approves any key custody arrangement before proceeding.

Developer experience & SDKs

Developer experience (DX) matters. A successful integration means clear onboarding, reproducible examples, robust test suites, and predictable error messages. Below are practical tips to keep DX excellent.

Provide example projects

Ship small runnable examples: a minimal web connector, a React example, and a Node CLI. Developers appreciate a "copy-paste-and-run" experience.

Document common errors and recovery

Document scenarios like device locked, wrong app open on device, firmware out-of-date, and transport failure (e.g., USB permission denied). Offer explicit remediation steps developers can show to users.

Use semantic versioning and changelogs

Keep SDK releases predictable. Semver + clear changelogs reduce integration breakage.

Security and UX considerations

Security must be the leading concern. Ledger's security model centers on the device as the authority for private keys. Integration should respect and preserve that mental model.

Explicit user intent

Always surface what action the signature will do. Replace opaque labels like "Sign" with explicit descriptions such as "Approve transfer of 0.35 ETH to 0x...". When possible, paginate and chunk multi-field payloads so devices with limited screens can display meaningfully.

Minimize replay and injection risks

Use explicit nonces, chain IDs, and domain separation where applicable. Validate server-signed payloads before sending them to hardware for signature. Never show a raw binary blob as the only confirmation prompt.

Progressive disclosure for permissions

Only request the permissions you need. If your integration asks for address list access, explain why and show a clear path to revoke permissions.

Testing, CI, and release

Automated testing is challenging when hardware is involved, but it's solvable with a layered approach.

Unit tests for policy & serialization

Keep heavy business logic and payload serialization in pure functions and unit-test them thoroughly. These tests don't depend on devices and run fast in CI.

Integration tests with simulated devices

Use emulators or mocked transport layers to simulate device responses. Ledger's tooling and many community libraries provide ways to stub signing responses so CI can run deterministically.

Manual smoke tests with real devices

Retain a small fleet of test devices for manual or semi-automated acceptance tests. Run these tests on release candidates and before major version bumps.

Performance & scale

Design your integration for latency, concurrency, and offline resilience.

Connection pooling & transport reuse

Opening a USB/BLE session has overhead. Reuse transports where possible and design your client to batch operations when it makes sense for UX and device limitations.

Graceful backoff

When device connectivity is intermittent, implement exponential backoff for retries and inform users with clear status messages. Don't overwhelm devices with repeated signing requests.

Case studies & examples

This section outlines practical, short case studies showing how different products integrate with Ledger Live. These are fictionalized but realistic scenarios.

Example 1 — A DeFi aggregator (dApp)

A DeFi aggregator uses the External App Delegation pattern. The aggregator launches a background Ledger Live connector for signing. The UX shows a dedicated "Sign with Ledger" button; if Ledger Live isn't installed, the dApp shows a graceful fallback with clear links to install instructions. The integration minimizes the data sent to the device — only the human-readable summary and essential fields are shown on-device.

Example 2 — A mobile native wallet

A mobile wallet embeds the Ledger SDK to support Bluetooth Ledger devices. The wallet reuses transport sessions, provides clear firmware-check UI, and implements fallback flows when the user is offline. Critical flows include push notifications and deep linking back to the calling app after a successful signature.

Example 3 — Enterprise custody API

An enterprise custody provider integrates Ledger hardware into a server-side policy engine. Signing operations require multi-sig and policy approval, and the server orchestrates signatures across a pool of hardware devices. The team ensures strict logging, role-based access, and scheduled key rotation.

Developer checklist

Before launching your Ledger Live integration, run through this checklist:

✅ Ship example projects (web, native, CLI)
✅ Document common device errors and recovery
✅ Include firmware and app-version checks
✅ Add unit tests for serialization & policy logic
✅ Provide SDK wrappers for common languages
✅ Implement privacy & permission explanations for users
✅ Test with a small fleet of devices before release

Conclusion & next steps

This guide covered high-level motivations, patterns, and practical developer advice for integrating with Ledger Live. Treat device-backed signing as a user-facing, security-critical flow — design carefully, document thoroughly, and test aggressively. A good integration doesn't just "work" — it feels trustworthy and predictable to users.

Resources & official links

Below are ten official and practical links to help you get started quickly. These are intentionally broad anchors to the Ledger ecosystem and developer tooling.

Styling note

The HTML provided here includes a colorful, accessible visual treatment intended for a dev-focused blog section. Adjust the palette and typography to match your brand. Consider adding code highlighting libraries for richer code blocks and an interactive playground for SDK examples.

Ready to ship? Start by cloning one of the example repos, wire your first sign flow, and run acceptance tests on a real device. Ledger Live integrations are a force-multiplier for trust — do the UX justice and you'll see better user retention and fewer support tickets.

Overview