Reflect

Use thru abi reflect when you have binary data plus ABI type definitions and need a JSON view of the decoded structure.

Use This When

• you captured instruction, account, or event bytes and want to decode them
• you only need to validate that a buffer matches an ABI type
• you want byte offsets or extracted values for debugging tools

Choose another ABI command when:

• you want to inspect the ABI type graph itself: Analyze
• you want generated client code: Codegen
• you want a dependency manifest for runtime tooling: Bundle

Syntax

thru abi reflect \
  --abi-file <FILE>... \
  --type-name <TYPE> \
  --data-file <FILE> \
  [--include-dir <DIR>...] \
  [--pretty] \
  [--values-only | --validate-only | --include-byte-offsets] \
  [--show-params]

Output Modes

Decode JSON

Default mode prints the full reflected structure with type information.

Values Only

Use --values-only when you only care about decoded values.

Validate Only

Use --validate-only to confirm the buffer matches the ABI without decoding it.

Byte Offsets

Use --include-byte-offsets when you need layout-aware debugging output.

Flag	Output
none	Full reflected JSON with type information.
--values-only	JSON values only, without type metadata.
--validate-only	Validation success plus bytes consumed. No decoded JSON.
--include-byte-offsets	Reflected JSON annotated with byte offsets.

--values-only, --validate-only, and --include-byte-offsets are mutually exclusive.

Important Flags

Flag	Use it for
—abi-file <FILE>…	Load one or more ABI YAML files.
—include-dir <DIR>…	Resolve imported ABI files.
—type-name <TYPE>	Choose the concrete type to decode.
—data-file <FILE>	Binary payload to parse.
--show-params	Print dynamic parameters inferred from the buffer before the main result.
--pretty	Pretty-print JSON output for human inspection.

Minimal Patterns

Decode a payload

thru abi reflect \
  --abi-file ./program.abi.yaml \
  --type-name TransferArgs \
  --data-file ./payload.bin \
  --pretty

Validate only

thru abi reflect \
  --abi-file ./program.abi.yaml \
  --type-name TransferArgs \
  --data-file ./payload.bin \
  --validate-only

Include byte offsets

thru abi reflect \
  --abi-file ./program.abi.yaml \
  --type-name TransferArgs \
  --data-file ./payload.bin \
  --include-byte-offsets \
  --pretty

Common Failures

• The command resolves types before it reflects data, so missing imports and invalid type names fail early.
• --show-params can be combined with any output mode, but it prints an extra prelude before the main result.
• --validate-only is the best choice when an agent only needs to answer “does this buffer match the ABI?” without spending context on the full decoded JSON.