Geyser Plugin
A Solana validator plugin interface that streams account updates, transactions, and slot changes out of the validator in real time, used to feed external indexers and gRPC servers like Yellowstone.
In detail
Geyser is Solana's native extension point for exporting state changes out of a running validator. When an account is updated or a transaction processes, the validator calls into any loaded Geyser plugin before the slot advances. This is how modern Solana streaming infrastructure works: a validator node runs Yellowstone-grpc as a Geyser plugin, and downstream clients subscribe to that plugin's gRPC server. Running your own Geyser plugin on your own validator is the lowest-latency option but requires significant ops investment — most teams rent gRPC access from a provider running it for them.
Key points
- Native Solana validator extension interface
- Called synchronously during slot processing
- Source of account/txn/slot streams used by indexers
- Yellowstone gRPC is itself a Geyser plugin
- Self-hosting Geyser requires a dedicated validator