Hi everyone!
Quick follow-up to my previous update.
polkadot-api v2 is stable
We released the stable version, polkadot-api@2.0.0, on April 9th 2026.
This was the main milestone we had been working toward, and it marks the point where our focus shifted from stabilizing release candidates to improving the new stable line based on real-world usage and feedback.
If you’re migrating from v1, the migration guide is now available here: Migrate to V2 · PAPI
PAPI Rescue
During this time, we also launched PAPI Rescue. It successfully recovered all funds from the accounts we initially created it for, for a total of more than USD 250,000 saved.
Check out the forum post and the website for more information.
event.watchBest
On April 21st 2026, we released polkadot-api@2.1.0.
The main addition in that release is a new typedApi.event.<Pallet>.<Event>.watchBest() API.
This was requested by the community and lets consumers follow events on the best chain, while still providing the information needed to properly handle reorgs.
Check out the docs for a quick example.
Forklift
To test scenarios for both watchBest and PAPI Rescue, we needed a toolkit to consistently simulate forks and reorgs.
That’s why we released Forklift, a Chopsticks-inspired tool with support for multiple branches, fully built with PAPI v2.
Check out the forum post for more information and usage details.
What’s next
Our proposal for additional PAPI features was recently approved: Polkadot-API: Additional Feature Development through Polkadot Community Foundation
From that feature set, we have already delivered the Extrinsic Analyzer for the PAPI console. It lets you inspect the call, signed extensions, a small mortality chart, and priority estimation. Check out this extrinsic for a quick demo.
We’re currently working hard on first-class support for extrinsic v5 and generalized transactions, as well as improvements to the JSON-RPC spec around statement store support and chainHead. We’ll share more details as we go.
Thanks
Thanks again to everyone testing PAPI and sending feedback. That feedback was important both in getting v2 stable out and in the follow-up improvements we shipped afterward.
As always, if you run into issues or have thoughts on the API shape, please let us know.