FAQ

Authentication & Access

• How do I get an API key? Sign up at TheRPC.io, open your dashboard (your account cabinet), go to the API Keys section, and generate a key. Use it in your Solana endpoint URL.
• Can I have multiple keys? Yes. Issuing a separate key per application and per environment (mainnet vs. devnet, staging vs. production) lets you track usage independently and revoke one without disrupting the others.
• What if a key is compromised? Revoke it immediately from the dashboard, then generate a fresh key and update your apps. Revoking takes effect right away, so the leaked key can no longer reach your Solana endpoint.

API Usage

• HTTP vs. WebSocket? Use the HTTP endpoint for single, request/response calls — all the reads and sendTransaction. Use the WebSocket PubSub endpoint for the *Subscribe methods when you need real-time push notifications (account changes, logs, slots) instead of polling.
• How do I handle rate limits? Retry -32029 errors with exponential backoff, cache slowly-changing data, and move polling to subscriptions; if you hit limits regularly, consider a plan upgrade.
• What timeouts should I set? A reasonable starting point is a 30-second timeout on HTTP requests, a 60-second WebSocket ping/pong keep-alive, and a 30-second timeout on subscription setup operations.

Error Handling

Solana errors come back as standard JSON-RPC error objects, and the table below lists the codes you'll meet: -32700 parse error, -32600 invalid request, -32601 method not found, -32602 invalid params, -32603 internal error, and the -32000 to -32099 server-error range (which includes the -32029 rate-limit code). One Solana-specific case worth knowing: when sendTransaction fails its preflight, the error carries Simulation-Results data — the simulation logs and the underlying instruction error — so you can inspect exactly why the transaction was rejected before it ever landed. Four habits keep error handling robust: always check the error field before reading result, retry transient failures with exponential backoff, log the code and message for debugging, and set sensible timeouts so a hung call doesn't stall your app.

Common Error Response

1{
2  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
3  "error": {
4    "code": -32601,
5    "message": "Method not found"
6  },
7  "id": 1
8}

Standard JSON-RPC Error Codes

Technical Questions

• How do I confirm a transaction? sendTransaction returns a signature meaning the transaction was accepted, not yet confirmed. Poll getSignatureStatuses with that signature until confirmationStatus reaches your target commitment (and err is null), or subscribe with signatureSubscribe to be notified instead of polling.
• How do I avoid an expired blockhash? Fetch getLatestBlockhash immediately before signing, and watch its lastValidBlockHeight against the current getBlockHeight. Once the chain passes that height, the blockhash is no longer valid and the transaction will be dropped, so refresh and resign if needed.
• How do I fetch a versioned transaction? Pass maxSupportedTransactionVersion: 0 to getTransaction and getBlock; without it, the call errors on any versioned (v0) transaction it encounters.

Transaction Confirmation Example

1// Poll signature status after sendTransaction
2const { value } = await connection.getSignatureStatuses([signature]);
3const status = value[0];
4if (status && status.confirmationStatus === 'finalized' && !status.err) {
5  console.log('Transaction finalized in slot', status.slot);
6}

Performance

• How do I optimize API usage? Replace many getAccountInfo calls with one getMultipleAccounts, push real-time needs to WebSocket subscriptions instead of polling, cache static config like getGenesisHash and getEpochSchedule, and pick the lightest commitment that still meets your correctness needs (processed or confirmed over finalized where appropriate).
• What about high throughput? Pool connections and reuse them, queue requests so you stay under your rate limit, monitor the rate-limit headers and dashboard metrics, and always narrow getProgramAccounts with filters (memcmp/dataSize) so it doesn't scan an entire program's account set.

Network Specific

• How do I switch between clusters? Just change the endpoint URL. The same API key and the same JSON-RPC request format work across Solana mainnet, devnet, and testnet — there's no chainId to set on Solana.
• How do I confirm which cluster I'm on? Call getGenesisHash; each cluster has a distinct genesis hash, so it uniquely identifies mainnet, devnet, or testnet. Note that requestAirdrop only funds accounts on devnet and testnet — it does not work on mainnet.

Development & Integration

• Which libraries should I use? JavaScript/TypeScript: @solana/web3.js. Python: solana-py with solders. Rust: the solana-client crate. Go: gagliardetto/solana-go. See Tools & SDKs for other languages.
• How do I test my integration? Start on devnet, fund a test wallet with requestAirdrop, build in error handling from the start, validate connectivity with getHealth and getSlot, then monitor performance before promoting your key to mainnet.