admin - Parallax Technical Documentation

The admin API gives access to several non-standard RPC methods, which allows fine grained control over an Parallax client instance, including but not limited to network peer and RPC endpoint management.

admin_addnode

Ingests an address into the addrbook with source=manual. Manual entries persist across restarts, are exempt from source-aware bucket eviction, and are heavily weighted in dial selection (a 4x chance multiplier over other sources, not a strict front-of-queue guarantee). Accepts either plain ip:port (v2.0-native peers, KeyType=0x00) or the legacy enode://<nodeID>@ip:port form (v1.x peers, KeyType=0x01). Returns true if the entry was inserted or updated, false otherwise.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.addnode(address)
RPC	{method”: “admin_addnode”, “params”: [string]}

Example

> admin.addnode("69.62.94.166:32110")
true

admin_addPeer

The addPeer administrative method requests adding a new remote node to the list of tracked static nodes. The node will try to maintain connectivity to these nodes at all times, reconnecting every once in a while if the remote connection goes down. The method accepts a single argument, the enode URL of the remote peer to start tracking and returns a BOOL indicating whether the peer was accepted for tracking or some error occurred.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.AddPeer(url string) (bool, error)
Console	admin.addPeer(url)
RPC	{method”: “admin_addPeer”, “params”: [url]}

Example

> admin.addPeer("enode://a979fb575495b8d6db44f750317d0f4622bf4c2aa3365d6af7c284339968eef29b69ad0dce72a4d8db5ebb4968de0e3bec910127f134779fbcb0cb6d3331163c@52.16.188.185:32110")
true

admin_addrbookResetKey

Regenerates the addrbook’s per-node secret nKey and clears the tried table atomically. Use after a credible nKey leak — without a fresh key, an attacker who learned the old one can predict which buckets future peers will land in and skew the address selection. Destructive: every entry currently in the tried table is moved back to the new table or evicted. Returns true on success.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.addrbookResetKey()
RPC	{method”: “admin_addrbookResetKey”}

admin_addrbookStatus

Returns a read-only snapshot of the addrbook: total entry count, the new/tried split, and per-source counts (manual, dns_seed, tcp_gossip, legacy_udp, plus self_advertised when present).

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.addrbookStatus()
RPC	{method”: “admin_addrbookStatus”}

Example

> admin.addrbookStatus()
{
  total: 1247,
  new: 1118,
  tried: 129,
  perSource: {
    dns_seed: 64,
    legacy_udp: 0,
    manual: 2,
    tcp_gossip: 1181
  }
}

admin_addTrustedPeer

Adds the given node to a reserved trusted list which allows the node to always connect, even if the slots are full. It returns a BOOL to indicate whether the peer was successfully added to the list.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.addTrustedPeer(url)
RPC	{method”: “admin_addTrustedPeer”, “params”: [url]}

admin_clearbanned

Removes every entry from the persistent ban list (<datadir>/banlist.json). Does not touch the in-memory discourage filter, which is restart-cleared by design. Returns true on success.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.clearbanned()
RPC	{method”: “admin_clearbanned”}

admin_datadir

The datadir administrative property can be queried for the absolute path the running the Parallax node currently uses to store all its databases.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.Datadir() (string, error)
Console	admin.datadir
RPC	{method”: “admin_datadir”}

Example

> admin.datadir
"/home/john/.parallax"

admin_dialV2

Directly opens a BIP324-style v2 RLPx connection to the given ip:port. Bypasses the addrman routability filter, so it can target loopback / RFC1918 addresses for testing. Operator-testing entry point — peers established via admin_dialV2 are still subject to all the normal post-handshake checks (peer cap, ban list, self-endpoint guard). Returns true if the dial was launched, false otherwise.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.dialV2(address)
RPC	{method”: “admin_dialV2”, “params”: [string]}

Example

> admin.dialV2("127.0.0.1:32110")
true

admin_exportChain

Exports the current blockchain into a local file. It optionally takes a first and last block number, in which case it exports only that range of blocks. It returns a boolean indicating whether the operation succeeded.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.exportChain(file, first, last)
RPC	{method”: “admin_exportChain”, “params”: [string, uint64, uint64]}

admin_importChain

Imports an exported list of blocks from a local file. Importing involves processing the blocks and inserting them into the canonical chain. The state from the parent block of this range is required. It returns a boolean indicating whether the operation succeeded.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.importChain(file)
RPC	{method”: “admin_importChain”, “params”: [string]}

admin_listbanned

Returns the active (non-expired) entries from the persistent ban list as a JSON array, matching Bitcoin Core’s listbanned output shape. Each entry has the CIDR-formatted subnet, the Unix-second timestamps for ban_created and banned_until, plus the derived ban_duration and time_remaining in seconds. Expired entries are pruned lazily on each call.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.listbanned()
RPC	{method”: “admin_listbanned”}

Example

> admin.listbanned()
[
  {
    address: "10.0.0.0/24",
    ban_created: 1730000000,
    banned_until: 1730086400,
    ban_duration: 86400,
    time_remaining: 82500
  }
]

admin_nodeInfo

The nodeInfo administrative property can be queried for all the information known about the running the Parallax node at the networking granularity. These include general information about the node itself as a participant of the ÐΞVp2p P2P overlay protocol, as well as specialized information added by each of the running application protocols (e.g. eth).

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.NodeInfo() (*p2p.NodeInfo, error)
Console	admin.nodeInfo
RPC	{method”: “admin_nodeInfo”}

Example

> admin.nodeInfo
{
  enode: "enode://df18e0e4fea492eef74787a67368ada6200f6ed8ab01a9b105904fac442d720591aa9ab87d33c42ad1abcf24cc3eed373c3eb8dbc0df29b206615cc80a949c94@127.0.0.1:32110",
  enr: "enr:-KO4QL1FbkA2y9yCx_bXLIXApQKUgPLiCrhszQfXQH6IoCqaJYKHXCBJHm6A0G7NpvJF-MLyr1cS8imBYdgcEigzUm6GAZmWB3qcg2V0aMfGhN4LIImAgmlkgnY0gmlwhH8AAAGJc2VjcDI1NmsxoQLfGODk_qSS7vdHh6ZzaK2mIA9u2KsBqbEFkE-sRC1yBYRzbmFwwIN0Y3CCfW6DdWRwgn1u",
  id: "6c0a4611b88067d29f43e764475ec3ce70de6139c7316b960deadd29203fa358",
  ip: "127.0.0.1",
  listenAddr: "[::]:32110",
  name: "Parallax/v0.1.1-stable-d9425677/linux-amd64/go1.25.1 X:nodwarf5",
  ports: {
    discovery: 32110,
    listener: 32110
  },
  protocols: {
    parallax: {
      config: {
        berlinBlock: 0,
        byzantiumBlock: 0,
        chainId: 2111,
        constantinopleBlock: 0,
        eip150Block: 0,
        eip150Hash: "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
        eip155Block: 0,
        eip158Block: 0,
        xhash: {...},
        homesteadBlock: 0,
        istanbulBlock: 0,
        minDifficulty: 33554432,
        petersburgBlock: 0
      },
      difficulty: 286554849280,
      genesis: "0x2b0467e57fabfc5d8082765e7bbc1f6aad8f13ddd937142f51c85e3f7051be5f",
      head: "0x39a519def2f7eb13b4bc6affa22d34acb6a70c4b52782b8173f9119d9a5e20a8",
      network: 2111
    },
    snap: {}
  }
}

admin_peerEvents

PeerEvents creates an RPC subscription which receives peer events from the node’s p2p server. The type of events emitted by the server are as follows:

add: emitted when a peer is added
drop: emitted when a peer is dropped
msgsend: emitted when a message is successfully sent to a peer
msgrecv: emitted when a message is received from a peer

admin_peers

The peers administrative property can be queried for all the information known about the connected remote nodes at the networking granularity. These include general information about the nodes themselves as participants of the ÐΞVp2p P2P overlay protocol, as well as specialized information added by each of the running application protocols (e.g. eth).

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.Peers() ([]*p2p.PeerInfo, error)
Console	admin.peers
RPC	{method”: “admin_peers”}

Example

> admin.peers
[{
    caps: ["parallax/66", "snap/1"],
    enode: "enode://c8d58742fef51a70267a916949cefd0d7ba5bdb75393bbfcbcbc959b3eebf16353ac15d1f7493d749f7f452ff2bec894b8a8c469306e247d265f4f305c5740f7@69.62.94.166:32110",
    id: "2048d5ae22f7206bc8ad6476a2918bd7558776b0438e0cde4eb579d5d85d8886",
    name: "Parallax/v0.1.1-stable-78d2f22b/linux-amd64/go1.25.1",
    network: {
      inbound: false,
      localAddress: "192.168.3.2:37772",
      remoteAddress: "69.62.94.166:32110",
      static: false,
      trusted: false
    },
    protocols: {
      parallax: {
        difficulty: 286554849280,
        head: "0x39a519def2f7eb13b4bc6affa22d34acb6a70c4b52782b8173f9119d9a5e20a8",
        version: 66
      },
      snap: {
        version: 1
      }
    }
}, {
    caps: ["parallax/66", "snap/1"],
    enode: "enode://d3440cdb8f942e1f01dac2292b7a8f886831800e301c41cf943a4ba4c68e37513920cd94c421fa5e073ed7329d9c3194e3911c857b9ded1677a5234441d9950d@54.94.191.104:32110",
    id: "4dd1f03a46b51083b7fa10bda14a92ddd0c1e80ec1ef3320c229a098e5f81865",
    name: "Parallax/v0.1.1-stable-78d2f22b/linux-arm64/go1.25.1",
    network: {
      inbound: false,
      localAddress: "192.168.3.2:55992",
      remoteAddress: "54.94.191.104:32110",
      static: false,
      trusted: false
    },
    protocols: {
      parallax: {
        difficulty: 286689067008,
        head: "0x46c56ac46f354b18650c623c0605e214f9fb1942e9a77f19489e581d9f39b891",
        version: 66
      },
      snap: {
        version: 1
      }
    }
}]

admin_removePeer

Disconnects from a remote node if the connection exists. It returns a boolean indicating validations succeeded. Note a true value doesn’t necessarily mean that there was a connection which was disconnected.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.removePeer(url)
RPC	{method”: “admin_removePeer”, “params”: [string]}

admin_removenode

Drops an address from the addrbook regardless of which table holds it. Inverse of admin_addnode. Returns true if the entry was removed, false if it was not present.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.removenode(address)
RPC	{method”: “admin_removenode”, “params”: [string]}

admin_removeTrustedPeer

Removes a remote node from the trusted peer set, but it does not disconnect it automatically. It returns a boolean indicating validations succeeded.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.removeTrustedPeer(url)
RPC	{method”: “admin_removeTrustedPeer”, “params”: [string]}

admin_setban

Adds or removes an entry in the persistent ban list. Banned IPs are hard-rejected at the listener for every inbound, with no trusted-peer exemption — the rejection happens before the handshake, so the node cannot yet know whether the remote is trusted. If a banned range must reach a trusted peer, unban it rather than working around the check. Arguments:

subnet — IP or CIDR string. "1.2.3.4" is treated as /32; "10.0.0.0/24" as a CIDR. IPv6 supported similarly.
command — "add" or "remove".
bantime — seconds. Honored only on "add". Omitted, 0, or negative falls back to the daemon’s DefaultBanDuration (24 h) — relative form only.
absolute — when true, bantime is interpreted as a Unix timestamp instead of an offset from now and must lie in the future (0 is an error in this form). Defaults to false.

On "add" any currently-connected peer whose remote address matches the subnet is also disconnected, and re-adding a currently-active ban is an error (IP/subnet already banned) unless the new expiry extends the old one. On "remove" the call returns an error if the subnet was not previously banned. Note for the interactive console: admin.setban requires all four positional arguments there — pass null for the optional ones, e.g. admin.setban("1.2.3.4", "add", null, null). The JSON-RPC and parallax-cli surfaces accept omitted optionals. Returns true on success.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Console	admin.setban(subnet, command, bantime, absolute)
RPC	{method”: “admin_setban”, “params”: [string, string, int64, bool]}

Example

> admin.setban("10.0.0.0/24", "add", 86400, false)
true
> admin.setban("10.0.0.0/24", "remove")
true

admin_startHTTP

The startHTTP administrative method starts an HTTP based JSON-RPC API webserver to handle client requests. All the parameters are optional:

host: network interface to open the listener socket on (defaults to “localhost”)
port: network port to open the listener socket on (defaults to 8545)
cors: cross-origin resource sharing header to use (defaults to "")
apis: API modules to offer over this interface (defaults to “eth,net,web3”)

The method returns a boolean flag specifying whether the HTTP RPC listener was opened or not. Please note, only one HTTP endpoint is allowed to be active at any time.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.StartHTTP(host string, port rpc.HexNumber, cors string, apis string) (bool, error)
Console	admin.startHTTP(host, port, cors, apis)
RPC	{method”: “admin_startHTTP”, “params”: [host, port, cors, apis]}

Example

> admin.startHTTP("127.0.0.1", 8545)
true

admin_startWS

The startWS administrative method starts an WebSocket based JSON RPC API webserver to handle client requests. All the parameters are optional:

host: network interface to open the listener socket on (defaults to “localhost”)
port: network port to open the listener socket on (defaults to 8546)
cors: cross-origin resource sharing header to use (defaults to "")
apis: API modules to offer over this interface (defaults to “eth,net,web3”)

The method returns a boolean flag specifying whether the WebSocket RPC listener was opened or not. Please note, only one WebSocket endpoint is allowed to be active at any time.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.StartWS(host string, port rpc.HexNumber, cors string, apis string) (bool, error)
Console	admin.startWS(host, port, cors, apis)
RPC	{method”: “admin_startWS”, “params”: [host, port, cors, apis]}

Example

> admin.startWS("127.0.0.1", 8546)
true

admin_uptime

Returns the number of seconds the node has been running since its most recent Start. Returns 0 if the node is not yet fully started. Mirrors Bitcoin Core’s uptime command and backs the parallax-cli uptime command-line helper.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.Uptime() (uint64, error)
Console	admin.uptime()
RPC	{method”: “admin_uptime”}

Example

> admin.uptime()
86400

admin_stop

Gracefully shuts down the running node. The method schedules the shutdown on a short delay (about 100 ms) and returns immediately so the RPC response can be delivered before the RPC server itself tears down. Client callers should therefore tolerate the RPC connection being closed without a final response — that outcome still indicates a successful shutdown. This is the underlying method used by the parallax-cli stop command-line helper, analogous to bitcoin-cli stop in Bitcoin Core.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.Stop() (bool, error)
Console	admin.stop()
RPC	{method”: “admin_stop”}

Example

> admin.stop()
true

admin_stopHTTP

The stopHTTP administrative method closes the currently open HTTP RPC endpoint. As the node can only have a single HTTP endpoint running, this method takes no parameters, returning a boolean whether the endpoint was closed or not.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.StopHTTP() (bool, error)
Console	admin.stopHTTP()
RPC	{method”: “admin_stopHTTP”}

Example

> admin.stopHTTP()
true

admin_stopWS

The stopWS administrative method closes the currently open WebSocket RPC endpoint. As the node can only have a single WebSocket endpoint running, this method takes no parameters, returning a boolean whether the endpoint was closed or not.

CLIENT	METHOD INVOCATION
Go	admin.StopWS() (bool, error)
Console	admin.stopWS()
RPC	{method”: “admin_stopWS”}

Example

> admin.stopWS()
true

​admin_addnode

​Example

​admin_addPeer

​Example

​admin_addrbookResetKey

​admin_addrbookStatus

​Example

​admin_addTrustedPeer

​admin_clearbanned

​admin_datadir

​Example

​admin_dialV2

​Example

​admin_exportChain

​admin_importChain

​admin_listbanned

​Example

​admin_nodeInfo

​Example

​admin_peerEvents

​admin_peers

​Example

​admin_removePeer

​admin_removenode

​admin_removeTrustedPeer

​admin_setban

​Example

​admin_startHTTP

​Example

​admin_startWS

​Example

​admin_uptime

​Example

​admin_stop

​Example

​admin_stopHTTP

​Example

​admin_stopWS

​Example

admin_addnode

Example

admin_addPeer

Example

admin_addrbookResetKey

admin_addrbookStatus

Example

admin_addTrustedPeer

admin_clearbanned

admin_datadir

Example

admin_dialV2

Example

admin_exportChain

admin_importChain

admin_listbanned

Example

admin_nodeInfo

Example

admin_peerEvents

admin_peers

Example

admin_removePeer

admin_removenode

admin_removeTrustedPeer

admin_setban

Example

admin_startHTTP

Example

admin_startWS

Example

admin_uptime

Example

admin_stop

Example

admin_stopHTTP

Example

admin_stopWS

Example