Developer Quickstart

This page takes you from nothing to reading the chain, saving an artwork and signing a vote, in five steps. It assumes you know JavaScript and JSON-RPC, not Hive. If you know Hive, read Differences from Hive next.

Before you start

• Endpoints. Six public API nodes serve the same chain: https://api.pixagram.com, https://pixarex.net, https://merlion.surf, https://blockforge.lol, https://boitata.quest and https://pixa-dubai.xyz. All accept browser requests from any origin.
• There is no testnet. Every transaction you broadcast is real and stays in the chain forever (Permanence and Provenance). Test with a small account.
• Use the weakest key that works. The posting key votes, posts and follows; the active key moves funds; the owner key is never needed by code (Keys). Pass keys through environment variables. Never write one into a file or a repository. The examples use placeholders such as 5K....
• Requests are limited to about 1 MiB by the public nodes (Chain Parameters).

1. One request with curl

Shellcurl -s -X POST https://api.pixagram.com -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"condenser_api.get_dynamic_global_properties","params":[],"id":1}'

Expected output, shortened; the values change with every block:

JSON{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":{"head_block_number":901965,"head_block_id":"…","time":"2026-10-05T20:29:48","current_witness":"matus", … ,"current_supply":"100660263.344 PIXA","init_pxs_supply":"0.000 PXS","current_pxs_supply":"251649.961 PXS","total_vesting_fund_pixa":"…", …},"id":1}

The API is Hive's JSON-RPC. Field names that Hive spells with hbd or hive come back with pxs or pixa, because the public nodes rename them (why).

2. Set up a Node.js project

Shellmkdir pixa-quickstart && cd pixa-quickstart
npm init -y
npm install @pixagram/dpixa@1.5.4

Load the bundle, not the package name. In version 1.5.4 the package's entry point names a file that is not published. In Node, require("@pixagram/dpixa") and import { Client } from "@pixagram/dpixa" both fail with Cannot find module …/lib/index-node. Load the bundled build instead:

JavaScript// CommonJS
const { Client, PrivateKey } = require("@pixagram/dpixa/dist/dpixa.js");

// ES modules
import dpixa from "@pixagram/dpixa/dist/dpixa.js";
const { Client, PrivateKey } = dpixa;

Bundlers such as webpack, and browsers loading https://unpkg.com/@pixagram/dpixa@1.5.4/dist/dpixa.js, use the bundle already.

3. Read the chain

Save as read.js:

JavaScript// read.js: three reads through the public API
const { Client } = require("@pixagram/dpixa/dist/dpixa.js");

const client = new Client([
  "https://api.pixagram.com",
  "https://pixarex.net",
  "https://merlion.surf",
]);

async function main() {
  const props = await client.database.getDynamicGlobalProperties();
  console.log("head block", props.head_block_number, "produced by", props.current_witness);

  const [fund] = await client.database.getAccounts(["pixa.omnibus"]);
  console.log("pixa.omnibus holds", fund.balance, "and", fund.pxs_balance);

  const posts = await client.pixamind.getRankedPosts({ sort: "created", tag: "", limit: 5 });
  for (const p of posts) {
    const kind = p.json_metadata.format === "image" ? "artwork" : "text post";
    console.log(`@${p.author}/${p.permlink}: ${kind}, body ${p.body.length} characters`);
  }
}

main().catch((e) => { console.error(e.message); process.exit(1); });

Shellnode read.js

Expected output on 2026-10-05:

head block 901862 produced by top.witness
pixa.omnibus holds 0.000 PIXA and 249295.022 PXS
@mathiew/not-a-bank-robber-1791222997311: artwork, body 25027 characters
@tetiana/schwyz-1791219064927: artwork, body 32547 characters
@retro/peach-knight-1791211388189: artwork, body 23371 characters
@mrdragon/mr-dragon-is-here-1791210562903: artwork, body 11883 characters
@matus/myocastor-coypus-1791149708674: artwork, body 29119 characters

• client.database calls go to hived; client.pixamind calls (bridge.*) go to Hivemind (Chain Architecture).
• pixa.omnibus is the keyless treasury of the Decentralized Pixa Fund.
• With several nodes in the list, the client moves to the next one when a node cannot be reached.

4. Save an artwork

An artwork's body is the image itself: a lossless WebP file, base64-encoded as a data URI (Artwork Encoding Spec). Save as artwork.js:

JavaScript// artwork.js: save the newest artwork as a WebP file
const fs = require("fs");
const { Client } = require("@pixagram/dpixa/dist/dpixa.js");

const client = new Client(["https://api.pixagram.com"]);
const PREFIX = "data:image/webp;base64,";

async function main() {
  const posts = await client.pixamind.getRankedPosts({ sort: "created", tag: "", limit: 20 });
  const art = posts.find((p) => p.json_metadata.format === "image" && p.body.startsWith(PREFIX));
  const bytes = Buffer.from(art.body.slice(PREFIX.length), "base64");

  // A lossless WebP starts with RIFF, WEBP and VP8L, then packs width − 1 and height − 1 in 14 bits each.
  if (bytes.toString("ascii", 0, 4) !== "RIFF" || bytes.toString("ascii", 8, 16) !== "WEBPVP8L") {
    throw new Error("not a lossless WebP");
  }
  const bits = bytes.readUInt32LE(21);
  const width = (bits & 0x3fff) + 1;
  const height = ((bits >>> 14) & 0x3fff) + 1;

  fs.writeFileSync("artwork.webp", bytes);
  console.log(`@${art.author}/${art.permlink}: ${width} x ${height} px, ${bytes.length} bytes, saved as artwork.webp`);
}

main().catch((e) => { console.error(e.message); process.exit(1); });

Shellnode artwork.js

Expected output on 2026-10-05:

@mathiew/not-a-bank-robber-1791222997311: 194 x 258 px, 18752 bytes, saved as artwork.webp

Open artwork.webp in any image viewer. It is the original, at its own size; the app only enlarges it on screen.

5. Sign and broadcast a vote

Save as vote.js:

JavaScript// vote.js: sign a vote with your posting key, broadcast it, wait for its block
const { Client, PrivateKey } = require("@pixagram/dpixa/dist/dpixa.js");

const client = new Client(["https://api.pixagram.com"]);
const sleep = (ms) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));

async function main() {
  const [voter, author, permlink] = process.argv.slice(2);
  const key = PrivateKey.fromString(process.env.POSTING_WIF || ""); // from the environment, never from a file

  const { id } = await client.broadcast.vote({ voter, author, permlink, weight: 10000 }, key);
  console.log("accepted, transaction", id);

  for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 10; attempt++) {
    await sleep(3000);
    try {
      const tx = await client.call("condenser_api", "get_transaction", [id]);
      console.log("included in block", tx.block_num);
      return;
    } catch (e) {
      // "Unknown Transaction" until a block holds it
    }
  }
  throw new Error("not in a block after 30 seconds");
}

main().catch((e) => { console.error(e.message); process.exit(1); });

Run it with your account and a post you want to upvote. Read the posting key from the keyboard, so it stays out of your shell history:

Shellread -rsp 'Posting key: ' POSTING_WIF && export POSTING_WIF && echo
node vote.js your-account author permlink
unset POSTING_WIF

Expected output: two lines, the second within a few seconds.

accepted, transaction <40 hexadecimal characters>
included in block <block number>

• What happens. The library reads the head block, builds the transaction, signs it locally and sends it with condenser_api.broadcast_transaction. Your key never leaves your machine.
• What "accepted" means. The broadcast call returns as soon as the node accepts the transaction, with only its id. It does not wait for a block, so the script asks condenser_api.get_transaction until a block holds it.
• What the vote does. weight runs from −10000 (full downvote) to 10000 (full upvote). A full-strength vote spends 2% of your voting mana, and since hardfork 30 it moves rewards from 2.5 Pixa Power; before, it needed more than 2,500 (why).

6. When a call fails

Next steps

• Artwork Encoding Spec: publish an artwork that the Pixagram app displays.
• Differences from Hive: everything that differs from Hive's documentation.
• SDKs and Libraries: dpixa's API, its quirks, and the other @pixagram packages.
• Run a Node: your own endpoint.
• The Hive developer portal documents every operation and API call. They apply here, with PIXA for HIVE and PXS for HBD.

Sources

• Library: @pixagram/dpixa 1.5.4, source at commit fddb47d; the broadcast call is in src/helpers/broadcast.ts:312-363.
• Checks for step 5, on 2026-10-05: a vote signed by dpixa produced the same digest as the node's own serialization (condenser_api.get_transaction_hex); condenser_api.get_transaction returned the block_num of a known transaction; a wrongly signed vote sent to a local 1.29.0 node returned the Missing Posting Authority error above. No transaction was broadcast to the network.
• Errors: observed against api.pixagram.com on 2026-10-05, except the last, from @hiveio/dhive 1.3.2.