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Overview

Slot and block monitoring lets you watch Solana’s network in real-time. See when blocks are produced, track network health, and monitor transaction volume as it happens.
Start here first: Complete the Quickstart Guide to set up your stream manager.

What You Can Monitor

Watch the network heartbeatSlots are 400ms time windows. Watch them advance to see network health:
What you’ll see:
  • Slot number
  • Parent slot
  • Status (processed, confirmed, or finalized)
Good for: Network health dashboards, timing analysis, detecting problems

Real Examples

Example 1: Basic Slot Monitor

Watch slots and track network performance:

Example 2: Block Metadata Monitor

Track blocks and transaction volume:

Example 3: Filtered Block Monitor

Watch blocks that contain specific program activity:

Understanding the Data

Slots happen every ~400msStatus levels:
  • Processed: Just happened
  • Confirmed: Majority of network agrees
  • Finalized: Can’t be undone
Block time: When the block was madeRewards: What validators earned
Warning: Full blocks can be several MB

How Much Data?

Slot Monitoring

Very light
  • Minimal data usage
  • Real-time network pulse
  • Easy to process
  • Great for dashboards

Block Metadata

Medium
  • Moderate data usage
  • Block-level insights
  • Transaction counts
  • Good for analytics

Full Blocks

Heavy
  • High data usage
  • Everything included
  • Needs strong hardware
  • Use filters!

Filtered Blocks

Smart choice
  • Use accountInclude
  • Turn off what you don’t need
  • Focus on specific programs
  • Best balance

What You Can Build

Track network performance
  • Slot timing dashboards
  • Congestion alerts
  • Consensus tracking
  • Validator stats
  • Skip rate alerts

Common Problems

Problem: You see gaps in slot numbersWhy it happens:
  • Connection dropped
  • Validator went down
  • Your code is too slow
Fix it:
  • Track gaps and alert
  • Add catch-up code
  • Check your connection
Problem: Full blocks are overwhelmingFix it:
  • Use metadata instead
  • Add account filters
  • Turn off unnecessary data
  • Process async

Best Practices

Tips for production:
  • Start small - Use metadata before full blocks
  • Filter everything - Use accountInclude to reduce data
  • Watch timing - Track slots to spot problems
  • Handle gaps - Code for missing slots
  • Don’t block - Process data async
  • Match commitment - Pick the right level for your needs
  • Track yourself - Monitor your own performance
  • Set alerts - Get notified of problems

Common Questions

A slot is a 400ms time window. Solana processes transactions in slots. One slot = one potential block (though some slots get skipped).
Start with metadata. It’s way lighter and has most of what you need. Only use full blocks if you need every transaction detail.
Validators sometimes miss their turn to produce a block. This is normal and the network handles it automatically. A 5% skip rate is typical.
A busy block can be several MB. That’s why filtering is important - you don’t want to download gigabytes of data you don’t need.
  • Processed (~400ms): Just happened, might change
  • Confirmed (~1 second): Supermajority agrees, probably won’t change
  • Finalized (~13 seconds): Locked in, can’t change

Next Steps

Entry Monitoring

Even more detailed monitoring

Account Monitoring

Watch specific accounts

Real Example

See it in action

Quickstart

Get started