⚡gRPC Docs

gRPC 101 for streaming low-latency Solana updates.

A geyser plugin on Solana allows you to push real-time updates from a Solana RPC node to an external source. Yellowstone gRPC is one such high-performance Solana Geyser plugin that allows you to stream real-time blockchain data via gRPC interfaces. This powerful tool enables developers to:

• Monitor on-chain activities: Track token mints, program interactions, and state changes.

• Stream account states: Efficiently retrieve account information.

• Stream transactions: Monitor transactions with minimal latency.

• Indexers: Build indexingh pipelines

In short, this can be used to build applications that can respond quickly to changes on the blockchain.

Resources and replits on Shyft gRPCs

You can explore examples of gRPC Subscriptions on

• Shyft GitHub

• Shyft Replit

• Shyft Blogs

You can also join Shyft's discord for support and more resources.

Unlike regular RPCs which are used to interact with the Solana blockchain by sending HTTP POST requests, gRPCs are only used for streaming real-time updates on Solana with minimum latency.

Authentication

There are two ways to authenticate your server or connection when connecting to Shyft’s gRPC network:

1. Using X-Token:

x-token is available in the gRPC section of the dashboard

After purchasing the gRPC service on Shyft, you can find your x-token in the gRPC section of your Shyft dashboard. This token is used to establish a gRPC connection through the Yellowstone client. The advantage of this method is that it doesn’t require IP whitelisting.

const client = new Client(
  <YOUR-GRPC-ENDPOINT>,
  <YOUR-X-TOKEN>,
  undefined
); //initializing yellowstone client

1. By Whitelisting Your IP:

In certain scenarios, like when setting up bots, you may need to connect directly to the gRPC network via the connection URL. In such cases, you’ll need to whitelist your server’s IP address (the one used to receive streamed data). Once the IP is whitelisted, you can connect directly using the URL without needing an X-token. IP whitelisting can be easily managed through the gRPC section of the dashboard.

Whitelist your server IP to directly use without X-TOKEN

Please note, gRPC connections can be made from any IP address using x-token. Once an IP address is whitelisted, x-tokens are no longer required for connection from that IP.

What are Subscribe Requests?

Real-time updates in Solana’s Yellowstone gRPC plugins rely on Subscription streams. These streams let you receive updates like account changes, transactions, new blocks, or slot updates directly to your backend. To keep things focused and avoid unnecessary data, a subscription request lets you specify different kind of filters. using these filters you can specify exactly what type of updates you need.

Subscribe requests on gRPC look somewhat like this.

import { CommitmentLevel } from "@triton-one/yellowstone-grpc";

const req: SubscribeRequest = {
  accounts: {},
  slots: {},
  transactions: {},
  transactionsStatus: {},
  entry: {},
  blocks: {},
  blocksMeta: {},
  accountsDataSlice: [],
  ping: undefined,
  commitment: CommitmentLevel.CONFIRMED,
};

Most of the request parameters here are self-explanatory, working exactly with what they are named,

• accounts: You can subscribe to specific accounts (e.g., SOL-USDC OpenBook) by specifying this parameter and receive updates based on commitment levels (processed, confirmed, finalized).

• accountDataSlice: This field helps you to filter your gRPC stream, so that you receive only the relevant portion of streamed data. For example you are streaming accounts, for which the data size is 200bytes, but you only need 40 bytes after a certain offset. This field can help you filter those 40 bytes for every update in the stream.

• transactions & transactionsStatus: You can receive updates on all transactions or filter them based on specific criteria (vote/failed transactions, including/excluding accounts). Programs can also be monitored using this.

• slots, blocks & blocksMeta : Stay informed about new blocks and slots being produced on the blockchain.

• commitment: This specifies the commit level for any update, either processed, confirmed or finalized.