Radix Node APIs

API Overview

The Node exposes two APIs:

The Core API is designed to run on a private network, and be used for low level access to the ledger state. It provides an optional transaction stream, and inefficient queries of current ledger state. It also provides transaction construction capabilities, and allows for signing messages with the node’s private key, where enabled. It does not expose the ability to efficiently query account balances.
The System API is designed for monitoring and use by node runners.

If you’re looking to query account balances, or extract high level insights into the data on ledger, the Gateway API exposed by a Network Gateway is likely a better fit.

Node API Endpoints

With the 1.1.0 release, the Node APIs has been overhauled, and some have moved and others have changed. The specifications give updated information on the new endpoints and their schemas.

The Node API is made of several endpoints that are offered by different types of Radix nodes for different purposes. Each endpoint offers a variety of methods for specific queries or actions.

If you are running a node yourself, the different endpoints use different usernames, passwords, and ports (more on Radix Node ports here). This is so you can separate critical node operations from informational endpoints.

API endpoints intended primarily for node-runners are mostly easily used via the radixnode CLI tool.

Here is a summary of the different endpoints of the Node API:

Table 1. Radix Node API endpoint groupings by prefix
API	Prefix	Purpose	Notes	Nginx User
Core	`/network`	Used for retrieving the network configuration and the node’s current sync status		admin
Core	`/entity`	Used for reading the balance of a ledger entity, at the Core API abstraction level		admin
Core	`/mempool`	Used for examing the list of transactions in the mempool, and read the transaction content		admin
Core	`/transactions`	Used for reading transactions from the transaction stream	Enabled with a flag	admin
Core	`/construction`	Used for building, parsing, finalizing and submitting transactions, at the Core API abstraction level		admin
Core	`/engine`	Used for looking up the current engine status		admin
Core	`/key`	Used for reading the public keys, and signing transactions with the node’s private key	Enabled with a flag	superadmin
System	`/system`	Provides a number of endpoints to monitor a system and check system health and status, as part of the System API		admin
System	`/prometheus`	Provides node and network operation metrics data in the Prometheus text format		metrics

For a more complete rundown of the Node APIs and their respective schemas, see the specification of the Radix APIs.