Pathfinder

Overview

Equilibrium built Pathfinder, a production, open-source Rust full node for the Starknet network, for StarkWare. Launched in March 2022, Pathfinder gives operators a safe, independently verifiable view of Starknet: it recomputes the Starknet state’s Patricia-Merkle trie root block-by-block and confirms it against Ethereum L1, so a node operator can run a node and query their own data rather than trusting information provided by others.

Pathfinder functions as an archive node (storing all data, including transactions and events), and exposes both JSON-RPC and P2P interfaces. It is one of the production full-node implementations underpinning the Starknet RPC and infrastructure ecosystem. Equilibrium continues to maintain Pathfinder as an ongoing engagement.

Deliverables

• Full Starknet node implementation in Rust (software-mansion/pathfinder).
• JSON-RPC interface, including an Ethereum-like RPC for calling contract functions against local state without incurring transaction cost.
• P2P networking.
• State synchronization and verification: block-by-block Patricia-Merkle trie root recomputation, confirmed against Ethereum L1.
• Archive-node data storage (full transaction and event history).
• Supporting tooling: software-mansion/starknet-check and software-mansion/starknet-event-query.

Technical highlights

• Independent state verification: recomputes the Starknet state root block-by-block and checks it against L1. The result is trust-minimized querying rather than trusting a third party’s view.
• Archive node retaining full history (transactions and events).
• JSON-RPC + P2P interfaces; production-grade and deployed across the Starknet ecosystem’s node operators and infrastructure providers.
• Built and maintained in Rust over a multi-year, ongoing engagement.

Status

Launched March 2022; in production and under ongoing maintenance. Built openly at github.com/software-mansion/pathfinder.