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Global snapshots are the canonical state checkpoints of the Constellation Network. Each snapshot is an incremental record produced by Global L0 consensus, containing DAG blocks, metagraph state channel snapshots, reward transactions, and epoch progress.
All endpoints return the following response headers:
  • X-Id — The node’s public key identifier
  • X-Session-Token — The current cluster session token
  • Request-Signature — Cryptographic signature of the response for verification
Snapshot endpoints support two response formats via the Accept header:
  • application/json — JSON-encoded snapshot (default)
  • application/octet-stream — Binary-encoded snapshot (Kryo serialized)

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GET /global-snapshots/latest/ordinal

Returns the ordinal number of the most recently produced global snapshot. Use this for lightweight polling to detect new snapshots without fetching full snapshot data. 
curl https://<node-host>:9000/global-snapshots/latest/ordinal
Response 200 OK
​
value
integer
The ordinal number of the latest global snapshot (non-negative integer)
Response 404 Not Found No snapshot ordinal is available yet. Response 503 Service Unavailable Node is not in Ready state yet. Example response: 
{
  "value": 1483920
}

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GET /global-snapshots/latest

Returns the full latest global snapshot, signed by the facilitator nodes. The response contains all blocks, state channel snapshots, rewards, and epoch data included in the snapshot. 
curl https://<node-host>:9000/global-snapshots/latest
Response 200 OK Returns a SignedGlobalIncrementalSnapshot object.
​
value
object
The snapshot data
​
proofs
array
Cryptographic proofs from facilitator nodes
Response 404 Not Found No snapshot is available yet. Response 503 Service Unavailable Node is not in Ready state.

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GET /global-snapshots/latest/combined

Returns the latest global snapshot together with the full computed state (balances, metagraph state, etc.). Use this when you need both the snapshot and its resulting state in a single request. 
curl https://<node-host>:9000/global-snapshots/latest/combined
Response 200 OK Returns a SignedGlobalIncrementalSnapshotCombined — a tuple of [SignedGlobalIncrementalSnapshot, GlobalSnapshotInfo].
​
[0]
object
The signed global incremental snapshot (see /global-snapshots/latest for schema)
​
[1]
object
The computed snapshot state (balances, last references, active tips)
Response 404 Not Found Snapshot with state not available. Response 503 Service Unavailable Node is not in Ready state.

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GET /global-snapshots/

Returns a specific global snapshot by its ordinal number. Useful for historical lookups. 
curl https://<node-host>:9000/global-snapshots/1483920
​
ordinal
integer
required
The snapshot ordinal number to retrieve (non-negative integer)
Response 200 OK Returns a SignedGlobalIncrementalSnapshot for the given ordinal (same schema as /global-snapshots/latest). Response 404 Not Found No snapshot found for the given ordinal. Response 503 Service Unavailable Node is not in Ready state.

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