Providers

Starkli connects to Starknet through "providers". Many commands require a provider to be supplied.

Previously, Starkli supported using both JSON-RPC and the sequencer gateway for accessing the network. However, following the deprecation of the sequencer gateway, support for using the sequencer gateway has been dropped. Therefore, the only provider supported now is JSON-RPC.

There are two ways to specify a JSON-RPC provider, either directly or through predefined networks.

💡 Tips

Each Starkli version only works with one specific JSON-RPC specification version. To check the supported JSON-RPC version, run the verbose version output command:

starkli -vV

ℹ️ Note

When no provider option is supplied, Starkli falls back to using the sepolia network. If the network is not already defined, a free RPC vendor is used.

You're advised against relying on the fallback to use the sepolia network, as the default network might change over time. Therefore, a warning is shown each time the fallback is used.

Using an RPC URL directly

There are a few options to obtain access to a JSON-RPC endpoint:

Once you have a URL to a JSON-RPC endpoint, you can use it via the --rpc <URL> option for commands that expect it. For example:

starkli block-number --rpc http://localhost:9545/

Alternatively, you can set the STARKNET_RPC environment variable to make command invocations easier:

export STARKNET_RPC="http://localhost:9545/"

and then, simply run:

starkli block-number

which is the same as the running with the --rpc option.

💡 Tips

While using --rpc or STARKNET_RPC is convenient for one-off command invocations, using predefined networks is recommended for more complicated use cases.

Using a predefined network

Networks can be defined in profiles. Each network is uniquely identified by an identifier within a profile. When the --network option, or the STARKNET_NETWORK environment variable, is used, Starkli looks up the network identifier in the current active profile, and uses its provider settings to connect to the network. See the profiles page for details on defining networks.

If the supplied network identifier is not found, Starkli terminates with an error, unless the network is eligible for free RPC vendors, in which case Starkli automatically creates the network and persists it into the profile.

For example, to check the block height of a predefined network mainnet:

starkli block-number --network mainnet

Alternatively, you can set the STARKNET_NETWORK environment variable to make command invocations easier:

export STARKNET_NETWORK="mainnet"

and then, simply run:

starkli block-number

which is the same as the running with the --network option.

ℹ️ Note

--rpc or STARKNET_RPC take precedence over --network or STARKNET_NETWORK. When both options are supplied, --network (STARKNET_NETWORK) is ignored, and a warning message is shown.

Free RPC vendors

Historically, the now-deprecated-and-removed sequencer gateway provider allowed new Starkli users to start interacting with Starknet without going through the hassle of obtaining a JSON-RPC endpoint. However, following the deprecation of the sequencer gateway, this is no longer an option. To maintain the same zero-setup experience, support for free RPC vendors was added.

The following 3 networks are eligible for free RPC vendors:

  • mainnet
  • sepolia

When using these networks, and when the network is not already defined in the active profile, a free vendor will be randomly chosen from below:

Once selected, the vendor choice is persisted in the profile. A message is printed to the console when this happens. All subsequent invocations under the same network use the already chosen vendor automatically.

💡 Tips

You can always change the automatically assigned free RPC vendor for a network by editing the profiles.