ibc-explorer

Trace any IBC transfer across Cosmos chains in seconds — and find exactly where it got stuck.

The problem

When a token moves across three or more Cosmos chains via IBC, no existing tool shows you the complete journey. IBC denom hashes are opaque without a live RPC query, and packet state is stored per-chain with nothing stitching it together. When a transfer silently fails, you're left running raw CLI queries across multiple chains to figure out what happened.

Quick start

# Decode any IBC denom hash
curl "https://api.ibcscan.io/v1/denoms/decode?denom=ibc/27394FB092D2ECCD56123C74F36E4C1F926001CEADA9CA97EA622B25F41E5EB2&chain=osmosis-1"

# Trace a full multi-hop transfer
curl "https://api.ibcscan.io/v1/transfers/ABC123...?chain=cosmoshub-4"

Usage

Decode an IBC denom hash to its origin chain and path:

GET /v1/denoms/decode?denom=ibc/HASH&chain=osmosis-1
# → { path: "transfer/channel-0", base_denom: "uatom", origin_chain_id: "cosmoshub-4", hops: [...] }

Trace a transfer across chains:

GET /v1/transfers/{tx_hash}?chain=cosmoshub-4
# → { status: "stuck", hops: [...], last_known_chain: "osmosis-1", stuck_since: "..." }

Live demo traces (chainwatch):

https://api-ibc.188.40.64.104.sslip.io/v1/transfers/E71C09567AC9D18AAA4F926690BF51564BD70E2299A5CE5B71436C64A2125DE4?chain=noble-1
https://api-ibc.188.40.64.104.sslip.io/v1/transfers/813DDA59FB3095D0B9282AC440A54FDB7CDED1A0134472A840A26A4C267F87E6?chain=osmosis-1
https://api-ibc.188.40.64.104.sslip.io/v1/transfers/7D775EE0C74A8564025FA1D953B7A04D441024EF0DA3FF688E60BD2D96161E6F?chain=osmosis-1

These are real indexed transactions and may rotate as transfers age out of the active demo window.

Get channel health between two chains:

GET /v1/channels?src_chain=osmosis-1&dst_chain=cosmoshub-4
# → { channels: [{ status: "healthy", p99_latency_ms: 95000, error_rate_24h: 0.0012 }] }

How it works

IBCscan runs a per-chain indexer on each Cosmos chain that streams IBC packet events in real time. A cross-chain packet stitcher links send_packet events on one chain to recv_packet and acknowledge_packet events on another by correlating sequence numbers and channel counterparties. IBC denom hashes are resolved once via the chain's LCD API and cached permanently — no live RPC in the query path.

See PRD.md for the full architecture and data model.

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run the denom decoder locally
npm run dev --workspace=packages/denom-decoder

# Run the Osmosis indexer
npm run dev --workspace=packages/indexer

# Run tests
npm test

See memory/demos.md for the implementation plan for each component.

Operations

# one-command chainwatch health/readiness snapshot
./deploy/chainwatch-status.sh

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE