Account Subscription

Overview

Meaning and scope

Account Subscription is a standing API or RPC subscription that sends notifications when the observed state of an account changes. It is used to avoid repeated polling and deliver near-real-time updates to wallets, payment systems, or monitoring tools. It differs from an account query, which returns a point-in-time response and does not continue watching.

Mechanism and operation

The client opens a streaming or socket connection, registers the account and commitment, receives update messages, and reconnects or backfills after interruption. Important failure modes include dropped connections, duplicate or reordered notifications, reorganization effects, provider limits, and missed updates during reconnect. A receiver should treat transport acknowledgement and successful downstream processing as separate states for Account Subscription. Operational evidence should include subscription ID, account, connection, commitment, sequence or slot, last event, reconnect count, and backfill result. Account Subscription should be documented alongside Account Query, Address Monitor, and Callback Event.

Practical payment example

A wallet service subscribes to account-change notifications. It handles reconnection and duplicate messages, then checks authoritative state before crediting a newly detected token transfer.

Operational checks

The Account Subscription path should preserve ordering and duplicate evidence so delayed delivery cannot silently overwrite a newer state. Recovery for Account Subscription should combine replay controls with an authoritative status check rather than trusting delivery history alone. A Account Subscription handler should acknowledge only after durable receipt when the provider’s retry contract depends on the response.

Distinctions and limits

Replay of Account Subscription should preserve original identifiers and timestamps so historical processing cannot masquerade as a new event. Common risks include dropped connections and duplicate or reordered notifications.

Related reading

Related definitions: Account Query, Address Monitor.