Transaction Field Trace

What this page explains#

A field trace teaches how to follow one field such as compute budget, payload, or covenant ID through structs, serialization, hashing, signing, RPC, mempool, and tests. This page sits in Core Contributor Guide. It gives the topic a plain-language handle first, then shows the working idea, the mechanism, the source trail, and any limits that still matter. This category gives contributors a repeatable source-review method. A strong page traces a claim through source owner, data structure, serialization, validation, tests, release context, and Open Questions.

The writing follows a simple Kaspa documentation pattern: answer the practical question first, then link outward for details. The closest public sources for this page are RK-TX, RK-TX-SERDE, RK-HASH-TX, RK-SIGHASH, RK-RPC-TX. Local notes can help choose what to explain, but public-facing references resolve to upstream websites, repositories, papers, release pages, or docs.

How to think about it#

The practical model starts by naming the layer that owns the topic: wallet use, node operation, consensus, transaction validation, Toccata script behavior, tooling, or research. From there, the page shows which public source can support the explanation and where the explanation becomes incomplete.

For Transaction Field Trace, the model is built around these anchors: start at the struct definition; follow serialization and hashes; follow signing commitments; follow RPC and SDK representations; follow mempool/validation and tests. This model is useful, but it does not encode every constant, branch, error type, or edge case. Those details belong in the source path and the source notes.

How it works#

1. start at the struct definition. This is a source checking path, so the explanation starts from the claim and follows ownership through the codebase. A contributor identifies the subsystem, reads the relevant data structures and serialization, traces validation or execution, checks tests and release context, and records what the source proves as well as what remains outside its scope.

2. follow serialization and hashes. This is a source checking path, so the explanation starts from the claim and follows ownership through the codebase. A contributor identifies the subsystem, reads the relevant data structures and serialization, traces validation or execution, checks tests and release context, and records what the source proves as well as what remains outside its scope.

3. follow signing commitments. This is a source checking path, so the explanation starts from the claim and follows ownership through the codebase. A contributor identifies the subsystem, reads the relevant data structures and serialization, traces validation or execution, checks tests and release context, and records what the source proves as well as what remains outside its scope.

4. follow RPC and SDK representations. This is a source checking path, so the explanation starts from the claim and follows ownership through the codebase. A contributor identifies the subsystem, reads the relevant data structures and serialization, traces validation or execution, checks tests and release context, and records what the source proves as well as what remains outside its scope.

5. follow mempool/validation and tests. This is a source checking path, so the explanation starts from the claim and follows ownership through the codebase. A contributor identifies the subsystem, reads the relevant data structures and serialization, traces validation or execution, checks tests and release context, and records what the source proves as well as what remains outside its scope.

This mechanism section turns the wiki into a review workflow: identify the claim class, find the subsystem, read the source, check tests and releases, then mark the remaining gap.

How to check it#

When using this page for source review, start with the claim class, then read the owner module, tests, KIP or release context, and any dependent interface. Record what the source proves and what it does not prove before strengthening wiki wording.

Related Pages#

• rusty-kaspa-source-map
• core-contributor-guide
• ghostdag-function-walkthrough