RPC Commands Reference

This document provides a guide for interacting with your Bitcoin node using both curl and bitcoin-cli commands via RPC.

Try it live! Test these commands directly in the Bitcoin CLI Terminal. Connected to mainnet, no setup required.

RPC Configuration

bitcoin.conf Setup

Add these settings to your bitcoin.conf file:

# RPC Server Settings
server=1
rpcuser=your_username
rpcpassword=your_secure_password
rpcport=8332

# Restrict RPC to localhost (recommended)
rpcbind=127.0.0.1
rpcallowip=127.0.0.1

# Optional: Enable transaction index for full tx lookups
txindex=1

Environment Variables

# Set environment variables (replace with your actual credentials)
export BITCOIN_RPC_USER="your_username"
export BITCOIN_RPC_PASSWORD="your_password"
export BITCOIN_RPC_PORT="8332"

Basic RPC Structure

# Set up alias for easier use
alias btc='bitcoin-cli -rpcuser=$BITCOIN_RPC_USER -rpcpassword=$BITCOIN_RPC_PASSWORD -rpcport=$BITCOIN_RPC_PORT'

# Then use simple commands
btc <method_name> [parameters]

Programmatic RPC Access

For building applications, you can interact with Bitcoin Core RPC programmatically:

Essential Node Information Commands

1. Blockchain Information

btc getblockchaininfo

Key fields to monitor:

• blocks: Current block height
• headers: Number of headers downloaded
• verificationprogress: Sync progress (0.0 to 1.0)
• initialblockdownload: Whether still in IBD
• pruned: Whether node is pruned

2. Network Information

btc getnetworkinfo

Key fields:

• connections: Total peer connections
• connections_in: Incoming connections
• connections_out: Outgoing connections
• version: Bitcoin Core version
• subversion: Detailed version info

3. Mempool Information

btc getmempoolinfo

Key fields:

• size: Number of transactions in mempool
• bytes: Total mempool size in bytes
• total_fee: Total fees in mempool

4. Block Information

# Get latest block hash
btc getbestblockhash

# Get block by hash
btc getblock <block_hash>

# Get block by height
btc getblockhash <height>

5. Transaction Information

# Get transaction by ID
btc getrawtransaction <txid> true

# Get transaction from mempool
btc getmempoolentry <txid>

Wallet Commands

6. Wallet Information

# List wallets
btc listwallets

# Get wallet info
btc getwalletinfo

# Get balance
btc getbalance

7. Wallet Management

# List all loaded wallets
btc listwallets

# Get info about specific wallet
btc -rpcwallet=<walletname> getwalletinfo

# Unload a wallet (removes from memory)
btc unloadwallet <walletname>

# Load a wallet
btc loadwallet <walletname>

# Get transactions from specific wallet
btc -rpcwallet=<walletname> listtransactions "*" 100

# Get balance from specific wallet
btc -rpcwallet=<walletname> getbalance

Advanced Diagnostic Commands

8. Index Information

# Check if transaction index is available
btc getindexinfo

# Calculate indexing progress percentage
btc getindexinfo | jq '.txindex.best_block_height / 880000 * 100'

# Check if indexing is complete
btc getindexinfo | jq '.txindex.synced'

# Monitor indexing in real-time (updates every 30 seconds)
watch -n 30 'btc getindexinfo | jq ".txindex.best_block_height"'

9. UTXO Set Information

The UTXO Set is the complete database of all unspent transaction outputs. These commands allow you to query information about it.

# Get UTXO set statistics (can be slow)
btc gettxoutsetinfo

# Get specific fields
btc gettxoutsetinfo | jq '{total_amount, transactions, height}'

10. Peer Information

# Get peer information
btc getpeerinfo

# Get connection summary
btc getnetworkinfo | jq '{connections, connections_in, connections_out}'

11. ZMQ Notifications

ZeroMQ provides real-time notifications for blockchain events, enabling instant detection of new blocks and transactions without polling.

Configuration

Add to your bitcoin.conf:

# ZMQ Notifications
zmqpubhashblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:28332
zmqpubhashtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:28333
zmqpubrawblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:28334
zmqpubrawtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:28335

Benefits

• Instant notifications: No polling delays
• Lower resource usage: No constant RPC calls
• Better reliability: Catches blocks even after node restarts
• Real-time monitoring: Perfect for blockchain monitoring applications

Verification

# Check if ZMQ is enabled in Bitcoin logs
grep -i zmq ~/.bitcoin/debug.log

# Check Bitcoin help for ZMQ options
bitcoind -h | grep zmq

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

# Test RPC connection
btc getblockchaininfo | jq '.chain'

# Check network status
btc getnetworkinfo | jq '{connections, connections_in, connections_out}'

# Verify wallet is accessible
btc getwalletinfo | jq '{walletname, txcount, balance}'

# Check if node is still syncing
btc getblockchaininfo | jq '{verificationprogress, initialblockdownload}'

Common RPC Error Codes

Log Monitoring

# Check recent activity in logs
tail -20 ~/.bitcoin/debug.log

# Monitor logs in real-time
tail -f ~/.bitcoin/debug.log

# Check for errors in logs
grep -i error ~/.bitcoin/debug.log | tail -10

JSON Output Formatting

To make the output more readable, pipe through jq:

# Install jq if not available
# macOS: brew install jq
# Ubuntu: apt install jq

btc getblockchaininfo | jq '{blocks, verificationprogress}'

Resources

• mempool.space: Real-time Bitcoin mempool and block explorer
• Clark Moody's Bitcoin Dashboard: Bitcoin metrics and analytics
• Bitcoin Core GitHub: Bitcoin Core source code repository
• Bitcoin Core RPC Docs: Official RPC documentation