How to inspect a Solana program

Fetch program metadata, check if it's upgradeable, and retrieve the Anchor IDL. Copy the code below to add program inspection to your app.

Interactive Demo

Quick select:

Copy the code

These snippets show exactly how to inspect programs. Paste them into your project.

1. Fetch program metadata

Use getAccountInfo with jsonParsed encoding to get program details.

// Get program account info (metadata, owner, executable status)
import { createSolanaRpc } from '@solana/kit';

const rpc = createSolanaRpc('https://mainnet.helius-rpc.com/?api-key=YOUR_API_KEY');

// Fetch program account info
const programId = 'TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA';

const accountInfo = await rpc.getAccountInfo(programId, {
  encoding: 'jsonParsed'
}).send();

console.log('Executable:', accountInfo.value?.executable);
console.log('Owner:', accountInfo.value?.owner);
console.log('Lamports:', accountInfo.value?.lamports);
console.log('Space:', accountInfo.value?.space);

2. Check upgrade authority

Determine if a program is upgradeable and who controls it by fetching the ProgramData account.

// Get upgrade authority for upgradeable programs
import { createSolanaRpc } from '@solana/kit';

const rpc = createSolanaRpc('https://mainnet.helius-rpc.com/?api-key=YOUR_API_KEY');

// Step 1: Get program account to find ProgramData address
const programId = 'JUP6LkbZbjS1jKKwapdHNy74zcZ3tLUZoi5QNyVTaV4';

const programInfo = await rpc.getAccountInfo(programId, {
  encoding: 'jsonParsed'
}).send();

const programDataAddress = programInfo.value?.data?.parsed?.info?.programData;

// Step 2: Get ProgramData account for upgrade authority
const programDataInfo = await rpc.getAccountInfo(programDataAddress, {
  encoding: 'jsonParsed'
}).send();

const upgradeAuthority = programDataInfo.value?.data?.parsed?.info?.authority;
const lastDeploySlot = programDataInfo.value?.data?.parsed?.info?.slot;

console.log('Upgrade Authority:', upgradeAuthority || 'Immutable (frozen)');
console.log('Last Deploy Slot:', lastDeploySlot);

3. Retrieve Anchor IDL

Fetch the on-chain IDL for Anchor programs using @coral-xyz/anchor.

// Fetch on-chain Anchor IDL
import { Program } from '@coral-xyz/anchor';
import { Connection, PublicKey } from '@solana/web3.js';

const connection = new Connection(
  'https://mainnet.helius-rpc.com/?api-key=YOUR_API_KEY'
);

// Fetch on-chain IDL (requires program to have published IDL)
const programId = new PublicKey('whirLbMiicVdio4qvUfM5KAg6Ct8VwpYzGff3uctyCc');

const idl = await Program.fetchIdl(programId, { connection });

if (idl) {
  console.log('Program Name:', idl.name);
  console.log('Instructions:', idl.instructions.map(i => i.name));
  console.log('Accounts:', idl.accounts?.map(a => a.name));
} else {
  console.log('No IDL found on-chain');
}

RPC Methods Used

  • getAccountInfo - Fetch any account's data with jsonParsed encoding

View Solana RPC Documentation

Notes

  • - Not all programs have on-chain IDLs. Only Anchor programs with published IDLs can be fetched.
  • - Programs owned by BPFLoaderUpgradeab1e are upgradeable; their upgrade authority is stored in a separate ProgramData account.
  • - Native programs (System, Token, etc.) don't have upgrade authority - they're built into the validator.

Learn More