Accounts

Understand encoded accounts, maybe-account wrappers, jsonParsed reads, and decode flows.

Accounts are where most Solana application state lives. Solana Kit gives you a few distinct layers so you can choose the right boundary for your use case.

Core account models#

`Account<TData>`#

Represents an existing account with:

address
data
lamports
programAddress
space
executable

`MaybeAccount<TData>`#

A sealed result type for “this account may or may not exist”.

Pattern matching keeps the control flow explicit:

switch (maybeAccount) {
  case ExistingAccount<Uint8List>(:final account):
    print(account.address);
  case NonExistingAccount(:final address):
    print('Missing: $address');
}

Encoded vs parsed reads#

Encoded reads#

Use encoded reads when:

the account belongs to a custom program
you need byte-perfect control over decoding
you already have codecs/decoders for the layout

Helpers:

fetchEncodedAccount
fetchEncodedAccounts
decodeAccount
decodeMaybeAccount

Parsed reads#

Use parsed reads when:

the RPC supports jsonParsed for the account type
you want a human-readable result quickly
you are working with common system or SPL account types

Helpers:

fetchJsonParsedAccount
fetchJsonParsedAccounts

Typical decode flow#

Decode a fetched account#

Keep transport and binary-layout logic separate: fetch the encoded account first, then decode it with the codec or decoder that matches your program.

import 'package:solana_kit/solana_kit.dart';
import 'package:solana_kit_rpc_spec/solana_kit_rpc_spec.dart';

Future<void> loadDecodedAccount(
  Rpc rpc,
  Address address,
  Decoder<int> decoder,
) async {
  final maybeEncoded = await fetchEncodedAccount(rpc, address);
  final maybeDecoded = decodeMaybeAccount(maybeEncoded, decoder);

  switch (maybeDecoded) {
    case ExistingAccount<int>(:final account):
      print('Decoded value: ${account.data}');
    case NonExistingAccount():
      print('Account not found: $address');
  }
}

This boundary keeps RPC concerns, existence handling, and binary decoding easy to test independently.

This split is intentional:

transport and RPC behavior stay in the fetch layer
binary-layout knowledge stays in your decoder or codec layer

Account assertions#

The package also provides assertion helpers for workflows that expect an account to exist or decode successfully.

These helpers are useful when you want domain-specific errors instead of open-ended nullable control flow.

solana_kit_accounts: fetch, parse, and decode helpers
solana_kit_rpc_types: shared account response models
solana_kit_rpc_parsed_types: typed parsed-account models for known programs
solana_kit_codecs_*: custom binary layouts
solana_kit_program_client_core: higher-level patterns for typed program clients