OpenRPC

Servers

Define server URLs and transport mechanisms for your JSON-RPC API

OpenRPC allows you to specify one or more server configurations that define how clients can connect to your JSON-RPC API.

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: production
3    url: https://api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: Production HTTP JSON-RPC server
5  - name: websocket
6    url: wss://api.yourcompany.com/rpc
7    description: Production WebSocket JSON-RPC server

Specifying servers is valuable for both SDKs and Docs:

  • For SDKs, your users won’t need to manually specify the server URL at client instantiation
  • For Docs, your API playground will automatically connect to the correct server

Transport protocols

JSON-RPC can be used over various transport protocols:

HTTP/HTTPS Transport

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: http-production
3    url: https://api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: HTTPS JSON-RPC endpoint
5  - name: http-staging
6    url: https://staging-api.yourcompany.com/rpc
7    description: Staging HTTPS endpoint

WebSocket Transport

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: websocket-production
3    url: wss://api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: WebSocket JSON-RPC for real-time communication
5  - name: websocket-dev
6    url: ws://localhost:8080/rpc
7    description: Development WebSocket server

TCP Transport

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: tcp-production
3    url: tcp://api.yourcompany.com:9090
4    description: TCP JSON-RPC server for high-performance applications

Server variables

Use variables to make your server configurations more flexible:

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: production
3    url: https://{environment}.api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: Production JSON-RPC server
5    variables:
6      environment:
7        default: prod
8        enum:
9          - prod
10          - staging
11          - dev
12        description: Environment name

Multiple environments

Configure different environments with appropriate descriptions:

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: production
3    url: https://api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: Production environment - high availability, rate limited
5  - name: staging
6    url: https://staging-api.yourcompany.com/rpc
7    description: Staging environment - for testing new features
8  - name: development
9    url: http://localhost:8080/rpc
10    description: Local development server
11  - name: sandbox
12    url: https://sandbox-api.yourcompany.com/rpc
13    description: Sandbox environment - safe for testing

Server-specific configurations

Add server-specific metadata and configurations:

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: production
3    url: https://api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: Production JSON-RPC server
5    variables:
6      version:
7        default: v1
8        enum: [v1, v2]
9        description: API version
10    summary: High-performance production server
11    tags:
12      - name: production
13        description: Production environment

Load balancing and multiple URLs

Configure multiple server URLs for load balancing:

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: primary
3    url: https://api-primary.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: Primary production server
5  - name: secondary
6    url: https://api-secondary.yourcompany.com/rpc
7    description: Secondary production server (fallback)
8  - name: regional-us
9    url: https://us.api.yourcompany.com/rpc
10    description: US regional server
11  - name: regional-eu
12    url: https://eu.api.yourcompany.com/rpc
13    description: EU regional server

WebSocket-specific configurations

Configure WebSocket servers with connection parameters:

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: websocket-main
3    url: wss://api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: Main WebSocket JSON-RPC server
5    variables:
6      protocol:
7        default: "jsonrpc-2.0"
8        description: JSON-RPC protocol version
9      heartbeat:
10        default: "30"
11        description: Heartbeat interval in seconds

Security configurations

Configure authentication and security at the server level:

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: secure-production
3    url: https://api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: Secure production server with authentication
5    security:
6      - bearerAuth: []
7      - apiKeyAuth: []
8components:
9  securitySchemes:
10    bearerAuth:
11      type: http
12      scheme: bearer
13    apiKeyAuth:
14      type: apiKey
15      in: header
16      name: X-API-Key

Transport-specific optimizations

Configure servers for specific use cases:

openrpc.yml
1servers:
2  - name: bulk-operations
3    url: https://bulk.api.yourcompany.com/rpc
4    description: Optimized for batch requests and bulk operations
5  - name: real-time
6    url: wss://realtime.api.yourcompany.com/rpc
7    description: WebSocket server optimized for real-time notifications
8  - name: analytics
9    url: https://analytics.api.yourcompany.com/rpc
10    description: Dedicated server for analytics and reporting methods

Server configurations help clients understand how to connect to your JSON-RPC API and which transport mechanism is most appropriate for their use case.