Connecting to a Solana RPC

To start Kite, you need to connect to a Solana RPC - RPCs are how your code communicates with the Solana blockchain.

To use the local cluster (ie, solana-test-validator running on your machine):


import { connect } from "solana-kite";
 
const connection = connect();

You can also specify a cluster name. The connection object defaults to localnet but any of the following cluster names are supported:

devnet - Development network for testing with fake SOL. This is where Solana apps developers typically deploy first.
mainnet-beta (or mainnet) - Main Solana network where transactions involving real value occur.
testnet - Used to test future versions of the Solana blockchain.
quicknode-mainnet, quicknode-devnet - the QuickNode names require the environment variables QUICKNODE_SOLANA_MAINNET_ENDPOINT (for mainnet) or QUICKNODE_SOLANA_DEVNET_ENDPOINT (for devnet) to be set in your environment. You can get an API key from QuickNode .


const connection = connect("quicknode-devnet");

helius-mainnet, helius-testnet, or helius-devnet - the Helius names require the environment variable HELIUS_API_KEY to be set in your environment. You can get an API key from Helius .

You can also specify an arbitrary RPC URL and RPC subscription URL:


const connection = connect("https://mainnet.example.com/", "wss://mainnet.example.com/");

After you’ve made a connection Kite is ready to use.

If you’re used to raw @solana/kit you don’t need to set up any factories, they’re already configured.