How to Stream Solana Slots in Real Time With gRPC (+ Free Repo)

Clone the free repo solana-grpc-subscribe-slots, install dependencies, point the endpoint to https://grpc.gsnode.io, and you’ll have every new Solana slot hitting your terminal in < 50 ms.

A slot is the heartbeat of Solana. Every 400 ms (≈ 2,500 slots/hour) a validator may produce a block. If you can see the next slot before everybody else, you can:

• Front-run MEV bots (or build your own).
• Fire sniping transactions one slot earlier.
• Benchmark validator lag and RPC latency for your infra dashboard.

Who benefits?

Requirements & Quick Setup

Before start, you need the next requirements:

How to suscribe Solana Slots step by step

This is how to suscribe Solana slots in 3 steps only cloning a github repo:

1. Clone (or copy) the repo

No Git? Copy index.ts into your own project and install the same dependencies.

2. Point to GS Node

Create a .env file:

3. Run it

You should see a stream like:

Under the Hood: The 15-Line gRPC Call

CommitmentLevel.PROCESSED means you get the event as soon as a validator votes, not when it’s finalized, exactly what bots need.

Pro Tips From Infra Engineers

1. Parallel streams > single streamSpin up 3–5 workers, round-robin endpoints, and merge events. No single connection bottleneck.
2. Back-pressure with queuesPipe slots into BullMQ (or Redis streams). Avoid dropping events during GC pauses.
3. Track “slot lag”(network_latest – local_latest) > 100? Your VPS is falling behind—time to relocate or upgrade NIC.
4. Store minimal dataA slot, timestamp, and maybe leaderPubkey is enough. Save disk; replay later via blocks if needed.

Common Pitfalls

1. Mixing REST & gRPC leads to unpredictable latencies. Stick to one transport for mission-critical flows.
2. Neglecting commitment levels: FINALIZED adds up to ~3 s delay—great for analytics, awful for MEV.
3. Assuming slots == blocks: not every slot becomes a block; handle skipped slots in your logic.

Next Tutorials (Clone-and-Go)

(Full index in the GS Node README)

Final CTA

1. Star the repo if it saved you time.
2. Fork & adapt the code; add metrics, queues, Redis—whatever your stack needs.
3. Join us on Discord for latency tips, bot best-practices, and RPC status alerts → https://discord.gg/M8778yHKcV