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

Method	Slot Latency (p90)	Use Case
REST polling (getTransaction)	~150ms+	Historical lookups
WebSocket (onLogs)	~10ms	Simple notifications
Yellowstone gRPC	~5ms	Production trading systems

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.

Provider	gRPC Entry Price	Notes
Shyft	$199/mo	Best value, 7 regions, unlimited bandwidth
Helius	$999/mo	LaserStream, DAS APIs included
Triton One	~$2,900/mo	Created Yellowstone, lowest latency
QuickNode	Plan-dependent	Marketplace add-on
Chainstack	$49/mo (1 stream)	Budget option, limited filters
Alchemy	Free tier available	Compute-unit metered

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

Type	What You Get	Use Case
transactions	Full transaction with metadata	DEX swap monitoring, copy trading
accounts	Account data on change	Pool reserve tracking, token supply
slots	Slot progression events	Block timing, confirmation tracking
blocks	Full block contents	Block-level analysis
blocks_meta	Block metadata only	Lightweight block tracking
entry	Block entries (shred groups)	Low-level validator data
transactions_status	Tx status without full data	Lightweight confirmation

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

Level	Speed	Safety	Use For
PROCESSED	Fastest	May be rolled back	Time-critical signals
CONFIRMED	~400ms slower	Supermajority voted	Most trading use cases
FINALIZED	~6-12s slower	Irreversible	Settlement verification

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 max_receive_message_length to 64MB+ (default 4MB is too small)

See references/performance.md for full production checklist.

Key Program IDs for Trading

Program	Address	What It Does
PumpFun	6EF8rrecthR5Dkzon8Nwu78hRvfCKubJ14M5uBEwF6P	Token launches, bonding curve trades
PumpSwap	PSwapMdSai8tjrEXcxFeQth87xC4rRsa4VA5mhGhXkP	PumpFun graduated token swaps
Raydium AMM	675kPX9MHTjS2zt1qfr1NYHuzeLXfQM9H24wFSUt1Mp8	Legacy AMM swaps
Raydium CLMM	CAMMCzo5YL8w4VFF8KVHrK22GGUsp5VTaW7grrKgrWqK	Concentrated liquidity
Raydium CPMM	CPMMoo8L3F4NbTegBCKVNunggL7H1ZpdTHKxQB5qKP1C	Constant product MM
Orca Whirlpool	whirLbMiicVdio4qvUfM5KAg6Ct8VwpYzGff3uctyCc	Concentrated liquidity
Meteora DLMM	LBUZKhRxPF3XUpBCjp4YzTKgLccjZhTSDM9YuVaPwxo	Dynamic liquidity MM
Jupiter V6	JUP6LkbZbjS1jKKwapdHNy74zcZ3tLUZoi5QNyVTaV4	Swap aggregator
Token Program	TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA	SPL token operations

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