trace_transaction

trace_transaction returns the flattened call tree of a single historical Polygon PoS transaction in the OpenEthereum/Nethermind format. Each entry's traceAddress encodes its path through the tree, so you can reconstruct exactly how a MATIC-fee transaction fanned out across contracts — without the opcode-by-opcode weight of the debug_* tracers. Send the request to https://polygon.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY (chain ID 137, 0x89) with the transaction hash. It returns the OpenEthereum/Nethermind-style call tree for the historical transaction, showing every internal call, create, and self-destruct action.

Use cases

• Enumerate every internal MATIC transfer in a Polygon transaction, including transfers that emit no event.
• Trace fund flows across multiple contracts in a Polygon DeFi interaction — for example a QuickSwap swap routed through several pools.
• Identify which sub-call caused a revert in a multi-hop Polygon transaction by walking traceAddress.
• Index internal transactions for a Polygon block explorer or wallet activity feed.

Parameters

Response

Example request

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

Try it live in the Polygon playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• It needs a trace-enabled archive node — Bor with archive mode plus the trace API, or an Erigon/Nethermind node exposing it — so most public light Polygon endpoints will not serve it.
• The output differs from debug_traceTransaction: there is no opcode-level data, only call, create, and self-destruct actions, so use the debug_* tracers when you need stack or storage detail.
• A failed Polygon transaction yields a truncated trace up to the revert point, so do not expect a full call tree for reverted transactions.

Supported networks

• Mainnet — Chain ID: 137
• Amoy — Chain ID: 80002

See also

• trace_replayTransaction
• trace_block
• trace_filter
• debug_traceTransaction

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