RPC Error

Overview

An RPC Error is a protocol, transport, provider, node, or method-level failure returned or observed when a client invokes a remote procedure. It differs from a blockchain transaction failure because the RPC request can fail before a transaction is accepted or executed, and some RPC errors leave the operation outcome uncertain.

The main risks include retrying permanent errors, hiding provider-specific causes, leaking sensitive data, and assuming every timeout means no action occurred. In JSON-RPC it may include a standardized error object with a code, message, and optional data. When nodes disagree during RPC Error, the application should preserve both observations and defer irreversible action until the authoritative chain state is clear.

In production, teams should define ownership and apply error classification, provider code mapping, request IDs, safe logging, retryability rules, status queries, and alert thresholds. An RPC Error client should validate network identity, units, encoding, and method semantics before acting on provider data.

Useful measures include RPC error rate by method and code, unknown error count, retry success rate, and indeterminate request rate. RPC Error is closely connected to RPC Retry, RPC Timeout, and RPC Monitoring. The RPC Error implementation should distinguish node acceptance, transaction broadcast, execution, confirmation, and indexed visibility where those stages apply.

The RPC Error recovery procedure should distinguish a rejected RPC call from a transaction that was broadcast but not acknowledged. For RPC Error, the client should retain chain, method, block or transaction reference, provider response, and the final on-chain observation.

Provider failover for RPC Error should not create a second transaction or replace a verified chain result with stale node data.