A Field Guide to Failed Solana Transactions
Slippage, blockhash expiry, and compute exhaustion leave different fingerprints in logs—learn to tell them apart.
Troubleshooting Logs
Failed transactions still occupy ledger space and charge fees. Reading them teaches as much as successes when you know where to look.
Compute budget exceeded errors show in programme logs with explicit units consumed versus limit. Note whether the user attached a priority fee—in busy periods, low priority can cause timeouts that resemble other failures.
Slippage failures on DEX routes often include simulated output amounts in logs. Compare min-out parameters in the instruction data if the explorer exposes it.
Blockhash not found usually means the transaction sat in mempool too long. Check the slot gap between submission and landing attempt using Beach.
We keep a printed cheat sheet in the Chesham studio with the five most common error strings and the next diagnostic step for each. Students photograph it for reference—no proprietary software required.