Pipes sdk

Pipes SDK

One skill for the full Pipes SDK lifecycle: scaffold new indexers, diagnose runtime errors, optimize sync performance, and validate data quality.

When to Use This Skill

Activate when the user wants to:

• Create a new indexer — scaffold EVM or Solana projects with the CLI; set up Tron, Bitcoin, or Hyperliquid indexers manually with the SDK
• Fix runtime errors — compilation failures, DB issues, Portal timeouts, decoding errors
• Optimize sync performance — slow indexing, high memory, large ranges
• Validate data quality — NULL checks, gaps, malformed addresses, duplicate events
• Deploy an indexer — local Docker or ClickHouse Cloud
• Write to analytics sinks — ClickHouse, PostgreSQL (Drizzle), BigQuery, Parquet files
• Turn a Portal handoff into durable infrastructure — when a Portal MCP answer or curl export is not enough

Common trigger phrases: "create a new indexer", "my indexer crashed", "error", "not working", "slow", "optimize", "deploy to ClickHouse Cloud", "track X events on Ethereum/Solana/Tron/Bitcoin/Hyperliquid".

Portal Handoff Workflow

Use Pipes when a Portal MCP or raw Stream API workflow crosses from exploration into a maintained data product.

Good Pipes triggers:

• long historical backfills
• recurring syncs or scheduled refresh
• protocol-specific joins
• normalized tables for an app/backend
• custom metrics, alerts, or dashboards
• transforms that should be versioned and tested
• data too large for MCP chat responses or one-off curl files

If the input includes a Portal pipes_handoff recipe, preserve its network, filters, time window, outputs, and validation hints. Treat the Portal MCP/curl result as the baseline, scaffold the indexer, and validate the first output against the closest Portal query over the same bounded window.

Before scaffolding, say why Pipes is the right surface. Portal MCP is best for bounded answers and investigation pivots; Portal Stream API/curl is best for reproducible one-off extraction; Pipes is best for durable indexing, transforms, and storage.

Critical Environment Constraints

Node.js: v22 LTS. @subsquid/pipes declares engines.node >= 22.15.0 (v20 no longer qualifies); v25.x has zstd decompression bugs that crash during large Portal streams. See ENVIRONMENT_SETUP.md.

CLI: @subsquid/[email protected]. Always use programmatic mode via --config '{...}'. Never create indexer files manually — that bypasses scaffolding, dependency setup, and configuration.

npm dist-tags (trap): a bare npm install @subsquid/pipes resolves to the pre-1.0 0.1.0-beta.17 — a different, older API. Manual (non-CLI) setups must install @subsquid/pipes@alpha (CLI-scaffolded projects already pin "@subsquid/pipes": "alpha"). Keep the explicit [email protected] pin: the CLI's @latest is the older alpha.1.

Known CLI Quirks

1. Unknown table 'pipes.sync' on first run — harmless. SDK creates the table and continues.

Network Coverage

Network	CLI scaffolding	SDK module
EVM chains	✅ networkType: "evm"	@subsquid/pipes/evm
Solana	✅ networkType: "svm"	@subsquid/pipes/solana
Tron	❌ manual setup	@subsquid/pipes/tron — tronPortalStream, tronQuery()
Bitcoin	❌ manual setup	@subsquid/pipes/bitcoin — bitcoinPortalStream, bitcoinQuery()
Hyperliquid fills	❌ manual setup	@subsquid/pipes/hyperliquid — hyperliquidFillsPortalStream

Manual setup patterns for Tron, Bitcoin, and Hyperliquid are in TEMPLATES.md; stream/query APIs in SDK_FEATURES.md.

Scaffolding an Indexer

See TEMPLATES.md for the full catalog: erc20Transfers, uniswapV3Swaps, custom for EVM; tokenBalances, custom for Solana (networkType: "svm"); manual setup for Tron, Bitcoin, and Hyperliquid.

Step 0: Research Protocol (MANDATORY)

Before writing any code, run through RESEARCH_CHECKLIST.md:

• Identify which contract emits the target events
• Check for proxy contracts — #1 failure mode; ~6 of 9 real indexers need manual proxy resolution
• Find the deployment block (for full history) or pick a recent start block (for faster tests)
• Decide on sink (ClickHouse recommended, PostgreSQL with Drizzle, CSV)
• Name the project

Step 1: Inspect templates (optional)

pnpx @subsquid/[email protected] init --schema

Shows all template IDs (camelCase!), required params, and sink configs.

Step 2: Generate the project

pnpx @subsquid/[email protected] init --config '{
  "projectFolder": "/path/to/my-indexer",
  "packageManager": "npm",
  "networkType": "evm",
  "network": "ethereum-mainnet",
  "templates": [{"templateId": "erc20Transfers", "params": {"contractAddresses": ["0xA0b86991c6218b36c1d19D4a2e9Eb0cE3606eB48"]}}],
  "sink": "clickhouse"
}'

Template IDs must be camelCase: uniswapV3Swaps (not uniswap-v3-swaps), erc20Transfers (not erc20-transfers).

Step 3: Post-generation checklist

Proxy check is #1 priority — see ABI_GUIDE.md for full proxy handling.

1. Proxy contract check (custom template):

   grep "export const events" <project>/src/contracts/*.ts
   

   If only Upgraded, it's a proxy. Regenerate types from the implementation and update the import in src/index.ts — but keep the proxy address in contracts:.

2. Project-specific database (MANDATORY): CLI defaults the database to pipes. On @subsquid/pipes ≤ alpha.14, two indexers sharing pipes collide on the sync cursor (second one resumes from the first's position). alpha.15+ keys the cursor by pipe id, but identically named data tables (e.g. two erc20_transfers) still collide — keep one database per project.

   DB_NAME=$(basename <project-folder> | tr '-' '_')
   docker exec <container> clickhouse-client --password <pw> \
     --query "CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS $DB_NAME"
   sed -i '' "s/CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE=.*/CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE=$DB_NAME/" <project-folder>/.env
   

3. ClickHouse password matches container:

   grep CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD <project-folder>/.env
   # For an existing standalone container: match the container's password
   # For the generated docker-compose: "password" is correct
   

4. Contract addresses present (custom template):

   grep "contracts:" <project>/src/index.ts
   

5. Know your table names (custom template): one table per event, named {contractName}_{eventName} in snake_case. There is no combined table.

Step 4: Start and validate

cd <project-folder>
npm run dev

Verify the first log line shows your intended start block. If it says Resuming from X, decide whether resume is correct:

Scenario	Action
Indexer crashed mid-sync, want to continue	Keep it — verify X is near where it stopped
Changed start block or contract address	Drop sync (DROP TABLE IF EXISTS <db>.sync)
Different indexer on same database	Drop sync OR use a separate database
Brand new project, first run	Drop sync — shouldn't exist
Re-index from scratch	Drop sync + data tables

Full deployment (local Docker, ClickHouse Cloud, Railway) in DEPLOYMENT.md.

Troubleshooting

Match the user's symptom to a pattern. Full diagnostics in TROUBLESHOOTING.md.

Symptom	Root cause	See
Type 'LogParams' not assignable	@subsquid/evm-abi v1 instead of v0.3.1	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
Portal 429 / timeout / ECONNREFUSED	Rate limit or network	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
ClickHouse authentication failed	DB creds / not started	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'topic')	Proxy ABI loaded	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
DB empty after run	Start block / proxy / filter / sync conflict	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
Factory indexer: 0 rows for 30–60s	Cold-start from range.from forward	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
Timestamps show 1970	JS value precision doesn't match column precision	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
heap out of memory / killed	Batch too large	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
Table already exists / type mismatch	Schema drift	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
ZSTD_error_prefix_unknown	Node v25+ zstd bug	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
Hyperliquid validate counts wildly off	SDK vs Portal block batching	TROUBLESHOOTING.md
addFill ... reading 'from'	Missing range on addFill()	TROUBLESHOOTING.md

Standard diagnostic flow: read error → match pattern → read src/index.ts, package.json, .env → apply fix → restart → validate data.

Key SDK Patterns

The Pipes SDK is feature-rich — a handful of patterns cover 80% of use cases.

• Event parameter filtering (server-side): filter by indexed params at the decoder for max throughput — see PATTERNS.md.
• Factory pattern: track dynamically deployed children (Uniswap pools, MetaMorpho vaults). Includes SQLite cache, cold-start delay, d.factory?.event.* metadata — see PATTERNS.md.
• Topic0-only filtering: track events across ALL contracts that emit a specific signature, no address list needed. Best for protocol-unique events — see PATTERNS.md.
• Multi-output decoders: run multiple named decoders in one pipeline via outputs: { transfers: ..., swaps: ... } — see PATTERNS.md.
• SDK 1.0 features: time-based ranges, defineAbi, typed errors, testing library — see SDK_FEATURES.md.
• Tron & Bitcoin streams: native query builders and portal streams for tron-mainnet and bitcoin-mainnet — see SDK_FEATURES.md.
• BigQuery & Parquet targets: bigqueryTarget (auto-created partitioned tables, fork-safe DELETEs) and parquetTarget (finalized-only rotating files for DuckDB/Spark/Athena) — see SDK_FEATURES.md.
• Pipe-id-keyed cursors (alpha.15+): targets key sync state by the pipe id, so multiple pipes can share one database. Legacy ClickHouse cursors migrate automatically — see SDK_FEATURES.md.
• evmPortalSource alias: CLI-scaffolded src/index.ts calls evmPortalSource(...), an exported alias of evmPortalStream — same function, no behavioral difference.
• Portal response cache: portalSqliteCache (from @subsquid/pipes/portal-cache/node) caches Portal stream responses on disk (SQLite + zstd) to speed up re-runs and backfills over the same range; wire it via the stream's cache option — see SDK_FEATURES.md.
• Observability: Prometheus metrics via metricsServer() (@subsquid/pipes/metrics/node, stream metrics option) and OpenTelemetry tracing via opentelemetryProfiler() (@subsquid/pipes/opentelemetry, stream profiler option) — see SDK_FEATURES.md.

DeFi Protocol Forks

Many DeFi protocols share ABIs across forks — reuse saves time:

• Aave V3 forks (same Pool ABI): SparkLend, Radiant, Seamless, Granary
• Uniswap V2 forks (same Pair/Factory): SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, TraderJoe, Camelot
• Compound V2 forks (same cToken): Venus, Benqi, Tectonic

Detect by matching topic0 hashes or checking "forked from" in protocol docs.

Performance

Full benchmarks and tuning in PERFORMANCE.md.

Sync speed factors:

• Block range: 1M blocks ≈ 5–10 min, 5M ≈ 30–60 min, full chain ≈ 2–4 hours
• Filtering: contract events (fastest) > factory (medium) > address (slowest)
• Contract count: fewer = faster

Quick testing strategy:

1. Start with recent blocks (range.from: '21,000,000')
2. Limit to 1–3 contracts first
3. Expand once working

Data Validation

Before declaring an indexer production-ready, run the checks in VALIDATION.md:

• Table structure matches design
• No NULLs in required fields
• Addresses match ^0x[0-9a-fA-F]{40}$
• Transaction hashes are 66 chars
• Block range complete (no gaps)
• Data increases over time
• Sample rows match block explorer

Long-Running Indexers

For production indexers that must survive crashes and reboots, see STREAM_RESILIENCE.md: retry patterns, pm2 supervisor, nohup for dev sessions.

Analytics Queries

Dashboard-grade ClickHouse patterns (time bucketing, conditional aggregation, parameterized WHERE) in CLICKHOUSE_ANALYTICS.md.

Reference Files

File	Purpose
ENVIRONMENT_SETUP.md	Prerequisites, Node version, platform notes
RESEARCH_CHECKLIST.md	Protocol research workflow before scaffolding
TEMPLATES.md	EVM/Solana/Hyperliquid template catalog and manual setup
ABI_GUIDE.md	Fetching ABIs, commonAbis, proxy handling
SCHEMA_GUIDE.md	ClickHouse engine selection, ORDER BY, BigInt handling
HYPERLIQUID_GUIDE.md	Hyperliquid fills: manual setup, coins, benchmarks
DEPLOYMENT.md	Local Docker and ClickHouse Cloud deployment
SDK_FEATURES.md	SDK 1.0 features, testing library, event field access
PATTERNS.md	Factory, topic0-only, multi-output, aggregations
TROUBLESHOOTING.md	Full error catalog with diagnostics and fixes
VALIDATION.md	Data quality SQL checks and final checklist
PERFORMANCE.md	Sync speed tuning, benchmarks
STREAM_RESILIENCE.md	pm2, nohup, retry patterns for production
CLICKHOUSE_ANALYTICS.md	Dashboard query patterns

Official Docs

• llms.txt quick reference: docs.sqd.dev/llms.txt
• Full documentation: docs.sqd.dev/llms-full.txt
• Comprehensive SDK guide: docs.sqd.dev/skill.md
• Available datasets: portal.sqd.dev/datasets

Related

• portal — query blockchain data across 230+ chains via Portal MCP or the SQD Portal Stream API. Use it to verify contract events, discover dataset names, cross-check indexed data, and decide when a query should become a Pipes/Squid pipeline.