Chainstack documentation

# Debug and trace APIs

# Elastic nodes

You can deploy an elastic Ethereum archive node with the enabled debug and trace APIs starting from the Business plan as the Erigon client implementation.

An elastic Ethereum archive node deployed as Erigon with the enabled debug and trace APIs exposes the debug_* and trace_* methods.

For the full list of the available debug and trace API methods, see Erigon: RPC implementation status (opens new window).

# Dedicated nodes

You can deploy dedicated Ethereum nodes starting from the Growth plan as the Geth or Erigon client implementation.

A dedicated Ethereum node deployed as Geth exposes the debug_* API methods.

A dedicated Ethereum node deployed as Erigon exposes the debug_* and trace_* API methods.

For the full list of the available debug and trace API methods, see:

Note that to debug and trace transactions, you need to have historical states on the node. Ethereum full nodes keep historical states for the immediately previous 128 blocks. Ethereum archive nodes keep historical states for the entire chain.

# Usage examples

You can debug and trace transactions by replaying them in the Ethereum Virtual Machine to get the execution details in the exact same way as they happened on the chain.

# debug_traceBlockByNumber

Trace all transactions included in a block with debug_traceBlockByNumber:

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id": 1, "method": "debug_traceBlockByNumber", "params": ["BLOCK_NUMBER", {"tracer": "callTracer"}]}' ENDPOINT

where

  • BLOCK_NUMBER — the number of the block to get the traces of included transactions. For Geth, you need to provide the block number in hex.
  • ENDPOINT — your node HTTPS endpoint.

See View node access and credentials.

For example, trace all smart contract interactions in block 14976695 (opens new window):

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id": 1, "method": "debug_traceBlockByNumber", "params": ["0xE486B7", {"tracer": "callTracer"}]}' https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com/3c6e0b8a9c15224a8228b9a98ca1531d

See a reverted transaction in the output:

"calls": [
        {
          "type": "DELEGATECALL",
          "from": "0x68b3465833fb72a70ecdf485e0e4c7bd8665fc45",
          "to": "0x68b3465833fb72a70ecdf485e0e4c7bd8665fc45",
          "gas": "0x38ed0",
          "gasUsed": "0x31147",
          "input": "0x472b43f30000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000429d069189e00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000160d962fcdfd0bb02400000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000800000000000000000000000000b5ec97d9a8a9941a28a88084a1f670c62bd8bf40000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002000000000000000000000000c02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2000000000000000000000000b00b2e950d7ef8bdc49377c49676d1550deab982",
          "error": "execution reverted"

# trace_block

Trace all transactions included in a block with trace_block (opens new window):

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id": 1, "method": "trace_block", "params": ["BLOCK_NUMBER"]}' ENDPOINT

where

  • BLOCK_NUMBER — the number of the block to get the traces of included transactions.
  • ENDPOINT — your node HTTPS endpoint.

See View node access and credentials.

For example, trace all smart contract interactions in block 14976695 (opens new window):

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id": 1, "method": "trace_block", "params": ["14976695"]}' https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com/3c6e0b8a9c15224a8228b9a98ca1531d

See a reverted transaction in the output:

 "action": {
        "from": "0x68b3465833fb72a70ecdf485e0e4c7bd8665fc45",
        "callType": "delegatecall",
        "gas": "0x38ed0",
        "input": "0x472b43f30000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000429d069189e00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000160d962fcdfd0bb02400000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000800000000000000000000000000b5ec97d9a8a9941a28a88084a1f670c62bd8bf40000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002000000000000000000000000c02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2000000000000000000000000b00b2e950d7ef8bdc49377c49676d1550deab982",
        "to": "0x68b3465833fb72a70ecdf485e0e4c7bd8665fc45",
        "value": "0x429d069189e0000"
      },
      "blockHash": "0x03a83bf066e81498804f26caf5d49e47820f6a0e92fd1c9cb7dc3b87bf46cf0f",
      "blockNumber": 14976695,
      "error": "Reverted"

See also