Yellowstone gRPC — Real-Time Solana Streaming

Stream every transaction, account update, slot, and block on Solana in real-time using Yellowstone gRPC. This is the foundation for any latency-sensitive Solana trading system — replacing REST polling with push-based streaming at ~5ms slot latency.

Why Yellowstone gRPC

Yellowstone is a Geyser plugin that exposes Solana validator data over gRPC. Every major RPC provider runs it. You subscribe to filtered streams of transactions, account changes, slots, blocks, and entries — and the data pushes to you.

Quick Start

1. Get Access

You need a gRPC-enabled RPC provider. See references/providers.md for full comparison.

2. Install Dependencies

# Python
uv pip install grpcio grpcio-tools protobuf base58 solders python-dotenv

# Generate Python stubs from proto files
git clone https://github.com/rpcpool/yellowstone-grpc.git
python -m grpc_tools.protoc \
  -I./yellowstone-grpc/yellowstone-grpc-proto/proto/ \
  --python_out=./generated \
  --pyi_out=./generated \
  --grpc_python_out=./generated \
  ./yellowstone-grpc/yellowstone-grpc-proto/proto/*.proto

# Rust — Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
yellowstone-grpc-client = "6.0.0"
yellowstone-grpc-proto = "6.0.0"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt-multi-thread", "macros"] }
futures = "0.3"
bs58 = "0.5"

# TypeScript
npm install @triton-one/yellowstone-grpc @solana/web3.js

3. Environment Setup

export GRPC_ENDPOINT="https://grpc.ny.shyft.to"  # your provider endpoint
export GRPC_TOKEN="your-x-token-here"              # from provider dashboard

4. Connect and Subscribe

import grpc
import os
from generated import geyser_pb2, geyser_pb2_grpc

endpoint = os.environ["GRPC_ENDPOINT"].replace("https://", "")
token = os.environ["GRPC_TOKEN"]

# Authenticated TLS channel
auth_creds = grpc.metadata_call_credentials(
    lambda ctx, cb: cb((("x-token", token),), None)
)
channel = grpc.secure_channel(
    endpoint,
    grpc.composite_channel_credentials(
        grpc.ssl_channel_credentials(), auth_creds
    ),
    options=[("grpc.max_receive_message_length", 64 * 1024 * 1024)],
)
stub = geyser_pb2_grpc.GeyserStub(channel)

Core Concepts

Subscription Types

Filter Logic

• Multiple filter types (transactions + accounts) = AND — you get updates matching any type
• Values within arrays (multiple addresses in account_include) = OR
• Named filters let you distinguish which filter matched in the response
• Sending a new SubscribeRequest replaces all previous filters

Commitment Levels

Common Subscription Patterns

Watch All Swaps on a DEX Program

# Filter: all non-vote, non-failed transactions involving PumpFun
request = geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequest(
    transactions={
        "pumpfun": geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequestFilterTransactions(
            account_include=["6EF8rrecthR5Dkzon8Nwu78hRvfCKubJ14M5uBEwF6P"],
            vote=False,
            failed=False,
        )
    },
    commitment=geyser_pb2.CommitmentLevel.PROCESSED,
)

Track Specific Wallets

request = geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequest(
    transactions={
        "whales": geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequestFilterTransactions(
            account_include=[
                "WalletAddress1...",
                "WalletAddress2...",
            ],
            vote=False,
            failed=False,
        )
    },
    commitment=geyser_pb2.CommitmentLevel.CONFIRMED,
)

Monitor Pool Reserves (Account Subscription)

request = geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequest(
    accounts={
        "raydium_pools": geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequestFilterAccounts(
            account=["PoolAddress1...", "PoolAddress2..."],
        )
    },
    commitment=geyser_pb2.CommitmentLevel.PROCESSED,
)

Reduce Bandwidth with Data Slicing

# Only get the first 40 bytes of account data (e.g., just the discriminator + key fields)
request = geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequest(
    accounts={
        "token_accounts": geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequestFilterAccounts(
            owner=["TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA"],
            filters=[
                geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequestFilterAccountsFilter(
                    token_account_state=True
                )
            ],
        )
    },
    accounts_data_slice=[
        geyser_pb2.SubscribeRequestAccountsDataSlice(offset=0, length=40)
    ],
)

Parsing Transaction Updates

When you receive a SubscribeUpdateTransaction, extract:

for update in stream:
    if update.HasField("transaction"):
        tx = update.transaction
        info = tx.transaction
        sig = base58.b58encode(info.signature).decode()
        slot = tx.slot

        msg = info.transaction.message
        account_keys = [base58.b58encode(k).decode() for k in msg.account_keys]

        # Instructions
        for ix in msg.instructions:
            program = account_keys[ix.program_id_index]
            accounts = [account_keys[i] for i in ix.accounts]
            data = ix.data  # bytes — decode per program IDL

        # Token balance changes (post-execution)
        meta = info.meta
        for tb in meta.post_token_balances:
            mint = tb.mint
            owner = tb.owner
            amount = tb.ui_token_amount.ui_amount

See references/proto_reference.md for complete field documentation.

Production Architecture

[gRPC Stream] → [Bounded Channel] → [Processing Workers]
                   (1K-100K cap)      ├─ Parse instructions
                                      ├─ Update state / DB
                                      └─ Trigger actions

Critical patterns:

• Decouple I/O from processing — never block the gRPC stream
• Reconnect with exponential backoff (100ms → 60s cap)
• Use from_slot to resume after disconnection (subtract ~32 slots for reorg safety)
• Ping every 15-30 seconds to keep connection alive
• Filter vote: false always — vote transactions are ~70% of all traffic
• Set maxreceivemessage_length to 64MB+ (default 4MB is too small)

See references/performance.md for full production checklist.

Key Program IDs for Trading

Files

References

• references/providers.md — Provider comparison: endpoints, pricing, auth, features
• references/subscription_filters.md — Complete filter reference with examples for every filter type
• references/proto_reference.md — Key protobuf message definitions and field documentation
• references/performance.md — Connection management, reconnection, backpressure, production checklist

Scripts

• scripts/subscribe_transactions.py — Stream and parse transactions filtered by program ID
• scripts/monitor_wallets.py — Watch specific wallets for on-chain activity