Reading from Network

Read data from the Solana network by fetching different accounts. This guide explains the structure of Solana accounts. Each Solana account has a unique address that is used to locate the account's onchain data. Solana accounts contain either state data or an executable program.

Fetch a wallet account

A wallet account is an account owned by the System Program. Wallet accounts are primarily used to hold SOL and sign transactions. When SOL is sent to a new address for the first time, a system account is automatically created.

The example below creates a Kit client, generates a new signer, requests SOL to fund the new address, and retrieves the account data from the client's RPC API.

Fetch account

import { createClient, generateKeyPairSigner, lamports } from "@solana/kit";
import { solanaRpc, rpcAirdrop } from "@solana/kit-plugin-rpc";
import { generatedPayer } from "@solana/kit-plugin-signer";

const client = await createClient()
  .use(generatedPayer())
  .use(
    solanaRpc({
      rpcUrl: "http://localhost:8899",
      rpcSubscriptionsUrl: "ws://localhost:8900"
    })
  )
  .use(rpcAirdrop());

const signer = await generateKeyPairSigner();
console.log(`Address: ${signer.address}`);

// Funding an address with SOL automatically creates an account
await client.airdrop(signer.address, lamports(1_000_000_000n));

const accountInfo = await client.rpc.getAccountInfo(signer.address).send();

console.log(accountInfo);

Console

Click to execute the code.

Fetch account

import { createClient, generateKeyPairSigner, lamports } from "@solana/kit";
import { solanaRpc, rpcAirdrop } from "@solana/kit-plugin-rpc";
import { generatedPayer } from "@solana/kit-plugin-signer";

const client = await createClient()
  .use(generatedPayer())
  .use(
    solanaRpc({
      rpcUrl: "http://localhost:8899",
      rpcSubscriptionsUrl: "ws://localhost:8900"
    })
  )
  .use(rpcAirdrop());

const signer = await generateKeyPairSigner();
console.log(`Address: ${signer.address}`);

// Funding an address with SOL automatically creates an account
await client.airdrop(signer.address, lamports(1_000_000_000n));

const accountInfo = await client.rpc.getAccountInfo(signer.address).send();

console.log(accountInfo);

Console

Click to execute the code.

When you fetch a wallet account with getAccountInfo(), Kit returns the RPC response shown in the example output on the right.

The response has two top-level fields: context describes when the read happened, and value contains the account fields returned by the RPC method.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}

The context field shows the slot used to read the account and the RPC API version that served the response. A later read can return a different slot or API version.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}

The value field contains the account state returned by the RPC method. The following steps walk through the fields inside value in the order the fields appear.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}

The lamports field contains the account's SOL balance, measured in lamports, the smallest unit of SOL.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}

The data field contains the account's data stored as bytes. RPC returns account data as a tuple: the encoded data string, followed by the encoding. For wallet accounts, the encoded data string is empty because the account stores 0 bytes of data.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}

The owner field shows the program that owns the account. For wallets, the owner is always the System Program, with the address 11111111111111111111111111111111.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}

The executable field tells you whether the account's address is callable. true means the address represents a program that can process instructions. false means the account stores state, such as a wallet balance or account data, and is not called as a program. Wallet accounts use false.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}

The rentEpoch field is a legacy field from a deprecated rent mechanism. The field is still returned for backward compatibility.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}

The space field shows the number of bytes contained in the data field. The space field is returned with the account-fetching response, but it is not part of the account's data type.

For the wallet account example, the space field is 0 because the data field contains 0 bytes of data.

Example output

{
  context: {
    slot: 420602714n,
    apiVersion: "3.1.6"
  },
  value: {
    lamports: 1000000000n,
    data: ["", "base64"],
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    executable: false,
    rentEpoch: 0n,
    space: 0n
  }
}