alchemy-sdk-pro v2.2.3
Alchemy SDK for Javascript
The Alchemy SDK is the most comprehensive, stable, and powerful Javascript SDK available today to interact with the blockchain.
It supports the exact same syntax and functionality of the Ethers.js AlchemyProvider
and WebSocketProvider
, making it a 1:1 mapping for anyone using the Ethers.js Provider
. However, it adds a significant amount of improved functionality on top of Ethers, such as easy access to Alchemy’s Enhanced and NFT APIs, robust WebSockets, and quality-of-life improvements such as automated retries.
The SDK leverages Alchemy's hardened node infrastructure, guaranteeing best-in-class node reliability, scalability, and data correctness, and is undergoing active development by Alchemy's engineers.
🙋♀️ FEATURE REQUESTS:
We'd love your thoughts on what would improve your web3 dev process the most! If you have 5 minutes, tell us what you want on our Feature Request feedback form, and we'd love to build it for you.
The SDK currently supports the following chains:
- Ethereum: Mainnet, Goerli
- Polygon: Mainnet, Mumbai
- Optimism: Mainnet, Goerli, Kovan
- Arbitrum: Mainnet, Goerli, Rinkeby
- Astar: Mainnet
You can find per-method documentation of the Alchemy SDK endpoints at the Alchemy Docs linked in the sidebar.
Getting started
npm install alchemy-sdk
After installing the app, you can then import and use the SDK:
import { Alchemy, Network } from 'alchemy-sdk';
// Optional config object, but defaults to the API key 'demo' and Network 'eth-mainnet'.
const settings = {
apiKey: 'demo', // Replace with your Alchemy API key.
network: Network.ETH_MAINNET // Replace with your network.
};
const alchemy = new Alchemy(settings);
ℹ️ Creating a unique Alchemy API Key
The public "demo" API key may be rate limited based on traffic. To create your own API key, sign up for an Alchemy account here and use the key created on your dashboard for the first app.
The Alchemy
object returned by new Alchemy()
provides access to the Alchemy API. An optional config object can be passed in when initializing to set your API key, change the network, or specify the max number of retries.
Using the Alchemy SDK
The Alchemy SDK currently supports five different namespaces, including:
core
: All commonly-used Ethers.js Provider methods and Alchemy Enhanced API methodsnft
: All Alchemy NFT API methodsws
: All WebSockets methodstransact
: All Alchemy Transaction API methodsnotify
: CRUD endpoints for modifying Alchemy Notify Webhooks
If you are already using Ethers.js, you should be simply able to replace the Ethers.js Provider object with alchemy.core
and it should work properly.
ℹ️ ENS Name Resolution
The Alchemy SDK now supports ENS names (e.g.
vitalik.eth
) for every parameter where you can pass in a Externally Owned Address, or user address (e.g.0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045
).
import { Alchemy, AlchemySubscription } from 'alchemy-sdk';
// Using default settings - pass in a settings object to specify your API key and network
const alchemy = new Alchemy();
// Access standard Ethers.js JSON-RPC node request
alchemy.core.getBlockNumber().then(console.log);
// Access Alchemy Enhanced API requests
alchemy.core
.getTokenBalances('0x3f5CE5FBFe3E9af3971dD833D26bA9b5C936f0bE')
.then(console.log);
// Access the Alchemy NFT API
alchemy.nft.getNftsForOwner('vitalik.eth').then(console.log);
// Access WebSockets and Alchemy-specific WS methods
alchemy.ws.on(
{
method: AlchemySubscription.PENDING_TRANSACTIONS
},
res => console.log(res)
);
The Alchemy SDK also supports a number of Ethers.js objects that streamline the development process:
Utils
: Equivalent toethers.utils
, this provides a number of common Ethers.js utility methods for developers.Contract
: An abstraction for smart contract code deployed to the blockchain.ContractFactory
: Allows developers to build aContract
object.Wallet
: An implementation ofSigner
that can sign transactions and messages using a private key as a standard Externally Owned Account.
Alchemy Core
The core namespace contains all commonly-used Ethers.js Provider methods. If you are already using Ethers.js, you should be simply able to replace the Ethers.js Provider object with alchemy.core
when accessing provider methods and it should just work.
It also includes the majority of Alchemy Enhanced APIs, including:
getTokenMetadata()
: Get the metadata for a token contract address.getTokenBalances()
: Gets the token balances for an owner given a list of contracts.getAssetTransfers()
: Get transactions for specific addresses.getTransactionReceipts()
: Gets all transaction receipts for a given block.
You will also find the following utility methods:
findContractDeployer()
: Find the contract deployer and block number for a given contract address.
Accessing the full Ethers.js Provider
To keep the package clean, we don't support certain uncommonly-used Ethers.js Provider methods as top-level methods in the Alchemy core
namespace - for example, provider.formatter
. If you'd like to access these methods, simply use the alchemy.config.getProvider()
function to configure the
Ethers.js Provider AlchemyProvider and return it.
import { Alchemy } from 'alchemy-sdk';
const alchemy = new Alchemy();
async function runAlchemy() {
const ethersProvider = await alchemy.config.getProvider();
console.log(ethersProvider.formatter);
}
runAlchemy();
Alchemy WebSockets
In addition to the built-in Ethers.js listeners, the Alchemy SDK includes support for Alchemy's Subscription API. This allows you to subscribe to events and receive updates as they occur.
The alchemy.ws
instance can be used like the standard Ethers.js WebSocketProvider to add listeners for Alchemy events:
import { Alchemy, AlchemySubscription } from 'alchemy-sdk';
const alchemy = new Alchemy();
// Listen to all new pending transactions.
alchemy.ws.on('block', res => console.log(res));
// Listen to only the next transaction on the USDC contract.
alchemy.ws.once(
{
method: AlchemySubscription.PENDING_TRANSACTIONS,
toAddress: 'vitalik.eth'
},
res => console.log(res)
);
// Remove all listeners.
alchemy.ws.removeAllListeners();
The SDK brings multiple improvements to ensure correct WebSocket behavior in cases of temporary network failure or dropped connections. As with any network connection, you should not assume that a WebSocket will remain open forever without interruption, but correctly handling dropped connections and reconnection by hand can be challenging to get right. The Alchemy SDK automatically handles these failures with no configuration necessary. The main benefits are:
- Resilient event delivery: Unlike standard Web3.js or Ethers.js, you will not permanently miss events which arrive while the backing WebSocket is temporarily down. Instead, you will receive these events as soon as the connection is reopened. Note that if the connection is down for more than 120 blocks (approximately 20 minutes), you may still miss some events that were not part of the most recent 120 blocks.
- Lowered rate of failure: Compared to standard Web3.js or Ethers.js, there are fewer failures when sending requests over the WebSocket while the connection is down. The Alchemy SDK will attempt to send the requests once the connection is reopened. Note that it is still possible, with a lower likelihood, for outgoing requests to be lost, so you should still have error handling as with any network request.
Alchemy Transact
The transact
namespace contains methods used for sending transactions. The unique methods to the transact
namespace are:
sendPrivateTransaction()
: Send a private transaction through Flashbots.cancelPrivateTransaction()
: Cancel a private transaction sent with Flashbots.
The transact
namespace also aliases over several commonly used methods from the core
namespace for convenience:
getTransaction()
: Returns the transaction for the given transaction hash.sendTransaction()
: Sends a standard transaction to the network to be mined.waitForTransaction()
: Waits for a transaction to be mined and returns the transaction receipt.
Alchemy NFT API
The SDK currently supports the following NFT API endpoints
under the alchemy.nft
namespace:
getNftMetadata()
: Get the NFT metadata for a contract address and tokenId.getContractMetadata()
: Get the metadata associated with an NFT contractgetNftsForOwner()
: Get NFTs for an owner address.getNftsForOwnerIterator()
: Get NFTs for an owner address as an async iterator (handles paging automatically).getNftsForContract()
: Get all NFTs for a contract address.getNftForContractIterator()
: Get all NFTs for a contract address as an async iterator (handles paging automatically).getOwnersForNft()
: Get all the owners for a given NFT contract address and a particular token ID.getOwnersForContract()
: Get all the owners for a given NFT contract address.verifyNftOwnership()
: Check whether the provided owner address owns the provided NFT contract addresses.isSpamContract()
: Check whether the given NFT contract address is a spam contract as defined by Alchemy (see the NFT API FAQ)getSpamContracts()
: Returns a list of all spam contracts marked by Alchemy.refreshNftMetadata()
: Refresh the cached NFT metadata for a contract address and a single tokenId.refreshContract()
: Enqueues the specified contract address to have all token ids' metadata refreshed.getFloorPrice()
: Return the floor prices of a NFT contract by marketplace.computeRarity()
: Get the rarity of each attribute of an NFT.summarizeNftAttributes()
: Get the summary of attribute prevalence for all NFTs in a contract.searchContractMetadata()
: Search for a keyword across metadata of all ERC-721 and ERC-1155 smart contracts.
Using BaseNft
and Nft
The SDK currently uses the BaseNft
and Nft
classes to represent NFTs returned by the Alchemy. The BaseNft
object
does
not hold any metadata information and only contains the NFT contract and token ID. The Nft
object additionally
contains the NFT metadata, token URI information, and media.
By default, the SDK will return the Nft
object. You can optionally choose to fetch the BaseNft
object instead by
setting the omitMetadata
parameter to true
. The SDK documentation describes the different parameter and response
interfaces in more detail.
Pagination
The Alchemy NFT endpoints return 100 results per page. To get the next page, you can pass in the pageKey
returned by
the
previous call. To simplify paginating through all results, the SDK provides the getNftsIterator()
and getNftsForContractIterator()
functions that automatically paginate through all NFTs and yields them via
an AsyncIterable
.
Here's an example of how to paginate through all the NFTs in Vitalik's ENS address:
import { Alchemy } from 'alchemy-sdk';
const alchemy = new Alchemy();
async function main() {
const ownerAddress = 'vitalik.eth';
for await (const nft of alchemy.nft.getNftsForOwnerIterator(ownerAddress)) {
console.log('ownedNft:', nft);
}
}
main();
SDK vs API Differences
The NFT API in the SDK standardizes response types to reduce developer friction, but note this results in some differences compared to the Alchemy REST endpoints:
- Methods referencing
Collection
have been renamed to use the nameContract
for greater accuracy: e.g.getNftsForContract
. - Some methods have different naming that the REST API counterparts in order to provide a consistent API interface (
e.g.
getNftsForOwner()
isalchemy_getNfts
,getOwnersForNft()
isalchemy_getOwnersForToken
). - SDK standardizes to
omitMetadata
parameter (vs.withMetadata
). - Standardization to
pageKey
parameter for pagination (vs.nextToken
/startToken
) - Empty
TokenUri
fields are omitted. - Token ID is always normalized to an integer string on
BaseNft
andNft
. - Some fields omitted in the REST response are included in the SDK response in order to return an
Nft
object. - Some fields in the SDK's
Nft
object are named differently than the REST response.
Alchemy Notify
The Alchemy Notify API helps developers set up webhooks in their apps. The namespace provides methods to programmatically create, read, update, and delete your webhooks along with typings for the different webhooks. To learn more about Webhooks, please refer to the Alchemy documentation.
Methods on the NotifyNamespace
can be accessed via alchemy.notify
. To use the methods, you must include your team's auth token in the authToken
field of AlchemySettings
when instantiating the SDK. The auth token can be found on the Alchemy Dashboard in the Notify Tab.
Methods include:
getAllWebhooks()
: Get all webhooks on your team.getAddresses()
: Get all addresses tracked for the provided Address Activity Webhook.getNftFilters()
: Get all NFT filters tracked for the provided NFT Activity Webhook.createWebhook()
: Create a new webhook.updateWebhook()
: Update an existing webhook's active status or tracked addresses and NFT filters.deleteWebhook()
: Delete the provided webhook.
Documentation
The SDK is documented via tsdoc
comments in the source code. The generated types and documentation are included when
using an IDE. To browse the documentation separately, you can view the generated API interfaces
in etc/alchemy-sdk.api.md
. You can view generated Markdown files for each endpoint in the docs-md
directory,
or as a webpage by opening docs/index.html
in your browser.
Usage Examples
Below are a few usage examples.
ℹ️ More Examples
You can also go here: Examples Using the Alchemy SDK.
Getting the NFTs owned by an address
import { Alchemy, NftExcludeFilters } from 'alchemy-sdk';
const alchemy = new Alchemy();
// Get how many NFTs an address owns.
alchemy.nft.getNftsForOwner('vitalik.eth').then(nfts => {
console.log(nfts.totalCount);
});
// Get all the image urls for all the NFTs an address owns.
async function main() {
for await (const nft of alchemy.nft.getNftsForOwnerIterator('vitalik.eth')) {
console.log(nft.media);
}
}
main();
// Filter out spam NFTs.
alchemy.nft
.getNftsForOwner('vitalik.eth', {
excludeFilters: [NftExcludeFilters.SPAM]
})
.then(console.log);
Getting all the owners of the BAYC NFT
import { Alchemy } from 'alchemy-sdk';
const alchemy = new Alchemy();
// Bored Ape Yacht Club contract address.
const baycAddress = '0xBC4CA0EdA7647A8aB7C2061c2E118A18a936f13D';
async function main() {
for await (const nft of alchemy.nft.getNftsForContractIterator(baycAddress, {
// Omit the NFT metadata for smaller payloads.
omitMetadata: true
})) {
await alchemy.nft
.getOwnersForNft(nft.contract.address, nft.tokenId)
.then(response =>
console.log('owners:', response.owners, 'tokenId:', nft.tokenId)
);
}
}
main();
Get all outbound transfers for a provided address
import { Alchemy } from 'alchemy-sdk';
const alchemy = new Alchemy();
alchemy.core
.getTokenBalances('vitalik.eth')
.then(console.log);
Questions and Feedback
If you have any questions, issues, or feedback, please file an issue on GitHub, or drop us a message on our Discord channel for the SDK.