trace_replayTransaction

trace_replayTransaction replays one historical Arbitrum One transaction and returns whichever combination of trace (the call tree), vmTrace (opcode-level VM trace), and stateDiff (per-address balance, nonce, code, and storage changes) you request in traceTypes. The stateDiff is the differentiator: it shows precisely which slots a transaction created, deleted, or modified. Arbitrum One is a Nitro Optimistic Rollup (chain ID 42161) that meters gas in ETH and settles to Ethereum L1, so this reconstructs the exact L2 ledger effect of any tx on Arbiscan. Send requests to https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY.

Use cases

• Reconstruct the exact storage changes a historical Arbitrum One transaction caused, for forensic analysis of a DeFi incident.
• Debug a revert by reading the stateDiff to see which storage slot or balance triggered the failure.
• Produce a complete audit trail of ETH balance and contract-storage changes for compliance and accounting on Arbitrum One.

Parameters

Response

Example request

1curl https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
4  -d '{
5    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
6    "method": "trace_replayTransaction",
7    "params": [
8        "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
9        [
10          "trace"
11        ]
12      ],
13    "id": 1
14  }'

Try it live in the Arbitrum One playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Requesting vmTrace on a complex Arbitrum One transaction produces enormous output — prefer trace or stateDiff when you do not need opcode-level detail.
• Requires a trace-enabled archive node holding that block's ArbOS state; pruned and most public Arbitrum endpoints will not serve it.
• The vmTrace format is Parity-specific — do not confuse it with Geth's debug_traceTransaction structLog format when parsing the response.

Supported networks

• Mainnet — Chain ID: 42161
• Sepolia — Chain ID: 421614

See also

• trace_transaction
• trace_replayBlockTransactions
• trace_call
• debug_traceTransaction

1curl https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
4  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"trace_replayTransaction","params":["0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",[]]}'