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Python SDK

The Forta bot Python SDK comes with a set of classes to provide a consistent interface for developers to write their bots. There are also some utility functions available for your convenience to do common operations like searching for an event in the transaction logs. Check out the Python bots in our examples repo to learn more.

NOTE: while you can write bots in Python, you would still use the Node.js forta-agent CLI tool to run the bot.

Handlers

The most relevant functions for bot developers are the handler functions: initialize, handle_block, handle_transaction and handle_alert.

Your agent.py file must declare at least one of the handle_block, handle_transaction or handle_alert functions. You can implement one or all of these depending on your use case, but at least one must be provided. These functions take a BlockEvent, TransactionEvent or AlertEvent as their input, respectively, and return an array of zero or more Finding objects.

You can also optionally declare an initialize function that will be executed on bot startup. This is useful for fetching some data from the network or parsing some file before your bot begins. If you are using the handle_alert handler, then the initialize function is required to return which bot's alerts you want to subscribe to (see the pattern for consuming bot alerts for more information). If you don't want to subscribe to any bot alerts, don't return anything.

BlockEvent

When a block is mined and detected by a Forta scan node, it will generate a BlockEvent containing information such as the block hash and block number. It contains the following fields:

  • type - specifies whether this was a block reorg or a regular block
  • network - specifies which network the block was mined on (e.g. mainnet, ropsten, rinkeby, etc)
  • block_hash - alias for block.hash
  • block_number - alias for block.number
  • block - data object containing the following fields:
    • difficulty
    • extra_data
    • gas_limit
    • gas_used
    • hash
    • logs_bloom
    • miner
    • mix_hash
    • nonce
    • number
    • parent_hash
    • receipts_root
    • sha3_uncles
    • size
    • state_root
    • timestamp
    • total_difficulty
    • transactions
    • transactions_root
    • uncles

TransactionEvent

When a transaction is mined and detected by a Forta scan node, it will generate a TransactionEvent containing various information about the transaction. It contains the following fields:

  • type - specifies whether this was from a block reorg or a regular block
  • network - specifies which network the transaction was mined on (e.g. mainnet, ropsten, rinkeby, etc)
  • hash - alias for transaction.hash
  • from_ - alias for transaction.from_
  • to - alias for transaction.to
  • gas_price - alias for transaction.gas_price
  • timestamp - alias for block.timestamp
  • block_number - alias for block.number
  • block_hash - alias for block.hash
  • addresses - map of addresses involved in the transaction (generated from transaction to/from address, any event log address and trace data address if available)
  • block - data object containing following fields:
    • hash
    • number
    • timestamp
  • transaction - data object containing the following fields:
    • hash
    • from_
    • to
    • nonce
    • gas
    • gas_price
    • value
    • data
    • r
    • s
    • v
  • logs - list of log objects with following fields:
    • address
    • topics
    • data
    • log_index
    • block_number
    • block_hash
    • transaction_index
    • transaction_hash
    • removed
  • traces - only with tracing enabled; list of trace objects with following fields:
    • block_hash
    • block_number
    • subtraces
    • trace_address
    • transaction_hash
    • transaction_position
    • type
    • error
    • action - object with following fields:
      • call_type
      • to
      • from_
      • input
      • value
      • init
      • address
      • balance
      • refund_address
    • result - object with following fields:
      • gas_used
      • address
      • code
      • output

filter_log

filter_log is a convenience function on TransactionEvent to filter and decode transaction logs. For example, you can use it to get all of the Transfer logs in a transaction from a particular ERC-20 token:

erc20_token_address = '0x123abc'
transfer_event_abi = '{"name":"Transfer","type":"event","anonymous":false,"inputs":[{"indexed":true,"name":"from","type":"address"},{"indexed":true,"name":"to","type":"address"},{"indexed":false,"name":"value","type":"uint256"}]}'
transfers = transaction_event.filter_log(transfer_event_abi, erc20_token_address)
print(f'found {transfers.length} transfer events')

The underlying library used for decoding event logs is web3.py. The Python SDK uses the web3.py processLog method and returns an array of Event Log objects. To better understand usage, see the Python filtering example bot.

filter_function

filter_function is a convenience function on TransactionEvent to filter and decode function calls in the transaction or traces. For example, you can use it to get all of the transferFrom function calls on a particular ERC-20 token:

erc20_token_address = '0x123abc'
transferFrom_function_abi = '{"name":"transferFrom","type":"function","constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"from","type":"address"},{"name":"to","type":"address"},{"name":"value","type":"uint256"}],"outputs":[],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"nonpayable"}'
transfers = transaction_event.filter_function(transferFrom_function_abi, erc20_token_address)
print(f'found {transfers.length} function calls')

The underlying library used for decoding function calls is web3.py. The Python SDK uses the web3.py decode_function_input method and returns an array of (ContractFunction, dict) tuples. To better understand usage, see the Python filtering example bot.

AlertEvent

When an alert is fired from a Forta bot and is detected by the network, any subscribing bots will receive an AlertEvent containing various information about the alert (see the pattern for consuming bot alerts for more information). It contains the following fields:

  • alert - data object containing an Alert
  • alert_id - alias for alert.alert_id
  • name - alias for alert.name
  • hash - alias for alert.hash
  • bot_id - alias for alert.source.bot.id
  • transaction_hash - alias for alert.source.transaction_hash
  • block_hash - alias for alert.source.block.hash
  • block_number - alias for alert.source.block.number
  • chain_id - alias for alert.chain_id

Finding

If a bot wants to flag a transaction/block/alert because it meets some condition (e.g. flash loan attack), the handler function would return a Finding object. This object would detail the results of the finding and provide metadata such as the severity of the finding. A Finding object accepts the following properties:

  • name - required; human-readable name of finding e.g. "High Gas"
  • description - required; brief description e.g. "High gas used: 1,000,000"
  • alert_id - required; unique string to identify this class of finding, primarily used to group similar findings for the end user
  • protocol - required; name of protocol being reported on e.g. "aave", defaults to "ethereum" if left blank
  • type - required; indicates type of finding:
    • Exploit
    • Suspicious
    • Degraded
    • Info
  • severity - required; indicates impact level of finding:
    • Critical - exploitable vulnerabilities, massive impact on users/funds
    • High - exploitable under more specific conditions, significant impact on users/funds
    • Medium - notable unexpected behaviours, moderate to low impact on users/funds
    • Low - minor oversights, negligible impact on users/funds
    • Info - miscellaneous behaviours worth describing
  • metadata - optional; dict (both keys and values as strings) for providing extra information
  • labels - optional; array of Label objects to attach to this finding

Alert

When an Alert is fired by a Forta bot, it can be consumed using an AlertEvent or manually queried using the get_alerts method. Alert objects have the following properties:

  • alert_id - unique string to identify this class of finding
  • chain_id - chain ID where this alert was fired
  • addresses - human-readable list of addresses involved in the alert
  • contracts - list of contracts related to the alert
  • created_at - timestamp when the alert was published
  • description - text description of the alert
  • name - alert name
  • protocol - name of protocol being reported on
  • scan_node_count - number of scanners that found the alert
  • source - source where the alert was detected
    • transaction_hash - transaction where the alert was detected
    • block - block where the alert was detected
      • timestamp
      • chain_id
      • hash
      • number
    • bot - bot that triggered the alert
      • id
      • reference
      • image
    • sourceAlert - alert that triggered this alert
      • hash
      • bot_id
      • timestamp
      • chain_id
  • projects - list of Web3 projects related to the alert
    • contacts - list of contact info
    • id - project identifier
    • name - user-friendly name of the project
    • token
    • social
    • website - main website of the project
  • finding_type - indicates type of finding:
    • Exploit
    • Suspicious
    • Degraded
    • Info
    • Unknown_Type
  • severity - indicates impact level of finding:
    • Critical - exploitable vulnerabilities, massive impact on users/funds
    • High - exploitable under more specific conditions, significant impact on users/funds
    • Medium - notable unexpected behaviours, moderate to low impact on users/funds
    • Low - minor oversights, negligible impact on users/funds
    • Info - miscellaneous behaviours worth describing
  • metadata - key-value map (both keys and values as strings) for providing extra information

Label

Labels can be used to add more contextual data to a Finding e.g. "is this address an attacker?". The Label object has the following properties:

  • entity_type - enum indicating type of entity:
    • Address
    • Transaction
    • Block
    • Url
    • Unknown
  • entity - string identifier of the entity being labelled e.g. transaction hash
  • label - string label to attach to the entity e.g. "exploit"
  • confidence - confidence level of label between 0 and 1

get_json_rpc_url

A convenience function called get_json_rpc_url can be used to load a JSON-RPC URL for your bot. When running in production, this function will return a URL injected by the scan node that is running the bot. When running locally in development, this function will return the jsonRpcUrl property specified in your forta.config.json file (or https://cloudflare-eth.com/ by default).

get_web3_provider

get_web3_provider is a convenience function that returns a web3.py Provider which can be used to interact with the blockchain. The value from get_json_rpc_url will be used as the JSON-RPC endpoint to connect to.

get_transaction_receipt

A convenience function called get_transaction_receipt can be used to fetch the entire receipt of a transaction and returned in a format matching the SDK Receipt interface.

get_alerts

The get_alerts method can be used to fetch alerts based on input AlertQueryOptions. The get_alerts method accepts the following input filter properties:

  • bot_ids required; list of bot ids to fetch alerts for
  • addresses - indicate a list of addresses, alerts returned will have those addresses involved.
  • alert_id - filter alerts by alert-id
  • chain_id - EIP155 identifier of the chain alerts returned will only be from the specific chain Id Default is 1 = Ethereum Mainnet
  • created_since - indicate number of milliseconds, alerts returned will be alerts created since the number of milliseconds indicated ago (note: if not specified, the query will only search the past 24 hours)
  • first - indicate max number of results.
  • starting_cursor - query results after the specified cursor
  • project_id - indicate a project id, alerts returned will only be from that project.
  • scan_node_confirmations - filter alerts by number of scan nodes confirming the alert
  • severities - filter alerts by severity levels
  • transaction_hash - indicate a transaction hash, alerts returned will only be from that transaction
  • block_sort_direction - indicate sorting order by block number, 'desc' or 'asc'. Default is 'desc'.
  • block_date_range - alerts returned will be between the specified start and end block timestamp dates when the threats were detected
  • block_number_range - alerts for the block number range will be returned

The returned alerts are formatted to match the SDK AlertsResponse class, below is an example using this method:

import forta_agent
x = forta_agent.get_alerts({
    'bot_ids': ["0x79af4d8e0ea9bd28ed971f0c54bcfe2e1ba0e6de39c4f3d35726b15843990a51"],
})

print(x)

fetch_jwt

Scan nodes allow bots to make authorized requests to external APIs by using the scan node's identity, without letting the scan node modify the requests. You can use the fetch_jwt utility function to generate a jwt token from a scan node.

This method will only generate a token if the bot is running on a scan node

If running a bot locally or in a stand alone enviornment (ie. outside of a scanner node), this method will throw an error. For local testing you can run a local scan node and run your bot on it.

The function signature is fetch_jwt(claims, expiresAt): - claims [required]: a dictionary of any data you would like to include in the data portion of the JWT - expiresAt: an optional datetime that sets when the JWT will expire

The returned JWT can be decoded using the decode_jwt method.

verify_jwt

A utility method intended to be used on an external server for verifying the claims and signature of a JWT generated by a scan node. This method verifies that the JWT was generated and signed by the same scan node the bot is running on. See an example usage of verifying a JWT

  • token - required a JWT token generated by fetch_jwt

decode_jwt

A utility method for decoding the header and payload of a JWT returned from a scan node

The function signature is decode_jwt(token):

This method will not verify the signature of a JWT

create_block_event

A utility function for writing tests. You can use create_block_event to easily generate a mock BlockEvent object when writing unit tests for your handle_block handler. To better understand usage, see the Python unit test example.

create_transaction_event

A utility function for writing tests. You can use create_transaction_event to easily generate a mock TransactionEvent object when writing unit tests for your handle_transaction handler. To better understand usage, see the Python unit test example.