Drift Protocol Overview

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Overview

• AuthorityDrift: Full-featured client for trading applications with real-time subscriptions
• CentralServerDrift: Lightweight client for API servers that fetch data on-demand

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Key Features

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Real-time Data Subscriptions

• User account updates with position and balance tracking
• Market data including mark prices and oracle prices
• Orderbook data via websocket connections
• Optimized polling based on user involvement

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Trading Operations

• Perpetual market and limit orders
• Spot market deposits and withdrawals
• Token swaps via Jupiter integration
• Position management (settle PnL, funding)
• Order management (create, edit, cancel)

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Smart Subscription Management

• Selected market: Highest priority polling for active trading
• User-involved markets: Medium priority for markets with positions
• Other markets: Low priority background polling

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Architecture

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Data Sources

1. Solana RPC: Direct on-chain account data via polling
2. DLOB Server (HTTP): Mark prices and oracle data for background markets
3. DLOB Server (WebSocket): Real-time orderbook data for selected market
4. Swift Server: Fast order execution service

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Core Components

• DriftClient: Core SDK client for Drift program interactions
• SubscriptionManager: Optimizes polling frequencies and market subscriptions
• PollingDlob: Manages DLOB server polling for price data
• DriftL2OrderbookManager: WebSocket orderbook subscriptions
• DriftOperations: Trading operation handlers

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Client Comparison

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Quick Start

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AuthorityDrift Example

import { AuthorityDrift } from '@drift-labs/common';
import { MarketId } from '@drift-labs/common';

const client = new AuthorityDrift({
  solanaRpcEndpoint: 'https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com',
  driftEnv: 'mainnet-beta',
  wallet: myWallet,
  selectedTradeMarket: MarketId.createPerpMarket(0), // SOL-PERP
});

await client.subscribe();

// Listen to user account updates
client.onUserAccountUpdate((account) => {
  console.log('User account updated:', account);
});

// Listen to mark price updates
client.onMarkPricesUpdate((prices) => {
  console.log('Mark prices updated:', prices);
});

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CentralServerDrift Example

import { CentralServerDrift } from '@drift-labs/common';

const server = new CentralServerDrift({
  solanaRpcEndpoint: 'https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com',
  driftEnv: 'mainnet-beta',
  supportedPerpMarkets: [0, 1, 2], // SOL, BTC, ETH
  supportedSpotMarkets: [0, 1], // USDC, SOL
});

await server.subscribe();

// Fetch user on-demand
const user = await server.getUser(userAccountPublicKey);

// Generate transactions
const depositTxn = await server.getDepositTxn(
  userAccountPublicKey,
  amount,
  spotMarketIndex
);

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Environment Configuration

type DriftEnv = 'mainnet-beta' | 'devnet';

interface Endpoints {
  dlobServerHttpUrl: string;    // DLOB HTTP endpoint
  swiftServerUrl: string;       // Swift order service
  orderbookWebsocketUrl: string; // DLOB WebSocket endpoint
}

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Next Steps

• AuthorityDrift Client - Full trading client
• CentralServerDrift Client - API server client
• SubscriptionManager - Subscription optimization
• Orderbook Management - Real-time orderbook data

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Source Code

• Clients: clients/
• Data management: data/
• Stores and caches: stores/
• Constants: constants/