Accounts and Addresses

Accounts and addresses - the unit of state on Solana. Results appear in the same fence: same-line // comments when short, multiline // blocks below the sample when not. On-chain samples are Rust; client samples use TypeScript where noted.

Pubkey From String

Parse a base58 public key.

use solana_sdk::pubkey::Pubkey;
use std::str::FromStr;
let system = Pubkey::from_str("11111111111111111111111111111111").unwrap();
system.to_string().starts_with("111")  // true

AccountMeta

Describe accounts for an instruction.

// AccountMeta::new(pubkey, is_signer)
// AccountMeta::new_readonly(pubkey, is_signer)

is_signer is_writable

Account privileges on the instruction.

// meta.is_signer / meta.is_writable flags
// runtime enforces signer and mutability

System Program ID

Well-known system program address.

// solana_sdk::system_program::id()
// 11111111111111111111111111111111

Rent Exempt

Accounts need enough lamports to be rent-exempt.

// Rent::default().minimum_balance(data_len)

Owner Program

Only the owner program may change account data.

// account.owner == program_id for program state

Executable Flag

Programs are executable accounts.

// account.executable == true for program accounts

Lamports

Balance in lamports (1 SOL = 1e9 lamports).

// 1_000_000_000u64 // 1 SOL

Account Data Slice

Account data is a byte vector.

// &account.data[..]

Keypair New

Generate a new keypair (client/tools).

// let kp = Keypair::new();
// kp.pubkey()

Pubkey Create With Seed

CreateWithSeed derived addresses (legacy).

// Pubkey::create_with_seed(&base, seed, &owner)

Max Account Size

Practical account data size limits apply (10MB class constraints historically 10MB).

// keep state small; prefer PDAs per entity

Sysvar Clock

Read Clock sysvar for slot/unix time.

// Clock::get()?.unix_timestamp

Sysvar Rent

Rent sysvar parameters.

// Rent::get()?.lamports_per_byte_year

Fee Payer

First account meta is often fee payer/signer.

// transaction fee payer must sign and be writable

Related

• PDAs and Seeds - derived addresses
• Transactions and Instructions - account metas in ixs
• System and SPL Token - system-owned accounts

Stack versions: This page was written for Agave 4.1.1, Solana CLI 3.0.10, Anchor 0.32.1, Rust 1.91.1, and @solana/kit 7.0.0.