SWIFT API

SWIFT (Signed Wrapped Instant Fulfillment Transactions) allows market makers to receive signed taker orders offchain via WebSocket before they hit the JIT auction. This enables ultra-low-latency market making.

How SWIFT works

Flow overview

Key benefit: Market makers see orders 100-500ms before they land onchain, allowing faster response times and better fills.

SWIFT vs standard JIT: why the latency matters

In the standard JIT flow, the taker submits a transaction to Solana → it lands onchain → your RPC/gRPC subscription fires → you compute and submit your fill. This takes 1-2 seconds minimum.

With SWIFT, the taker broadcasts the signed order offchain to the SWIFT WebSocket simultaneously with submitting it onchain. You receive it over WebSocket in 100-500ms , before it even lands onchain. This head start lets you:

• Price more accurately , you see the order while the oracle is fresher
• Win more auctions , your fill tx can land at the same slot or even before other makers who rely on onchain feeds
• React to flow faster , critical for inventory management and toxic flow avoidance

The tradeoff: you need fast infrastructure (dedicated RPC node, low-latency WebSocket connection) to capitalize on this advantage. If your fill tx doesn’t land quickly, the latency edge is wasted.

Subscribing to SWIFT orders

Basic subscription

import { SwiftOrderSubscriber, loadKeypair } from "@drift-labs/sdk";
 
const swiftSubscriber = new SwiftOrderSubscriber({
  driftClient,
  driftEnv: "mainnet-beta",
  marketIndexes: [0, 1, 2], // SOL, BTC, ETH perp markets to listen to
  keypair: loadKeypair("<KEYPAIR_PATH>"), // used for WebSocket auth
  // endpoint: "wss://swift.drift.trade/ws", // optional, defaults based on driftEnv
});
 
await swiftSubscriber.subscribe(
  async (orderMessageRaw, signedMessage, isDelegateSigner) => {
    // Inspect the incoming signed order
    const orderParams = signedMessage.signedMsgOrderParams;
 
    console.log("Market:", orderParams.marketIndex);
    console.log("Direction:", orderParams.direction);
    console.log("Size:", orderParams.baseAssetAmount);
    console.log("Auction start:", orderParams.auctionStartPrice);
    console.log("Auction end:", orderParams.auctionEndPrice);
 
    // Decide if you want to fill it
    if (shouldFill(orderParams)) {
      await fillSwiftOrder(signedMessage);
    }
  }
);

With UserAccount getter

Optionally provide a userAccountGetter to resolve taker UserAccount details. This lets you inspect the taker’s positions, collateral, and health before deciding to fill , useful for toxic flow filtering.

import { UserMap, loadKeypair } from "@drift-labs/sdk";
 
const userMap = new UserMap({
  driftClient,
  connection,
  subscriptionConfig: { type: "websocket" },
});
await userMap.subscribe();
 
const swiftSubscriber = new SwiftOrderSubscriber({
  driftClient,
  driftEnv: "mainnet-beta",
  marketIndexes: [0, 1, 2],
  keypair: loadKeypair("<KEYPAIR_PATH>"),
  // userAccountGetter implements { mustGetUserAccount(publicKey: string): Promise<UserAccount> }
  userAccountGetter: userMap,
});

Place-and-make with SWIFT

SWIFT fills use a special instruction (placeAndMakeSignedMsgPerpOrder) that includes an ed25519 signature verification , proving the taker actually signed this order offchain. The SDK handles building this instruction for you.

For the standard onchain place-and-make pattern, see JIT Auctions - Place-and-make. The SWIFT variant adds the signature verification step.

Using DriftClient (recommended)

import {
  getLimitOrderParams,
  getUserAccountPublicKey,
  getUserStatsAccountPublicKey,
  isVariant,
  PositionDirection,
  PostOnlyParams,
} from "@drift-labs/sdk";
import { PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";
 
// From the SWIFT subscription callback
async function fillSwiftOrder(orderMessageRaw, signedMessage, isDelegateSigner) {
  const takerAuthority = new PublicKey(orderMessageRaw.taker_authority);
  const signingAuthority = new PublicKey(orderMessageRaw.signing_authority);
  const subAccountId = signedMessage.subAccountId;
 
  // Build the signed order params (message + signature from the raw order)
  const signedOrderParams = {
    orderParams: Buffer.from(orderMessageRaw.order_message, "hex"),
    signature: Buffer.from(orderMessageRaw.order_signature, "base64"),
  };
 
  // Build UUID as Uint8Array
  const uuidBytes = new TextEncoder().encode(orderMessageRaw.uuid);
 
  // Resolve taker account addresses
  const takerPubkey = await getUserAccountPublicKey(
    driftClient.program.programId, takerAuthority, subAccountId
  );
  const takerStatsPubkey = getUserStatsAccountPublicKey(
    driftClient.program.programId, takerAuthority
  );
 
  // Build your maker order params (opposite direction of taker)
  const takerIsLong = isVariant(signedMessage.signedMsgOrderParams.direction, "long");
  const makerOrderParams = getLimitOrderParams({
    marketIndex: signedMessage.signedMsgOrderParams.marketIndex,
    direction: takerIsLong ? PositionDirection.SHORT : PositionDirection.LONG,
    baseAssetAmount: signedMessage.signedMsgOrderParams.baseAssetAmount,
    price: myFillPrice,
    postOnly: PostOnlyParams.MUST_POST_ONLY,
  });
 
  // Resolve taker user account (from UserMap or userAccountGetter)
  const takerUserAccount = await userMap.mustGetUserAccount(takerPubkey.toString());
 
  // Submit place-and-make (SDK handles ed25519 verification ix)
  const txSig = await driftClient.placeAndMakeSignedMsgPerpOrder(
    signedOrderParams,          // { orderParams: Buffer, signature: Buffer }
    uuidBytes,                  // Uint8Array
    {
      taker: takerPubkey,
      takerStats: takerStatsPubkey,
      takerUserAccount,
      signingAuthority,
    },
    makerOrderParams,           // your maker order
  );
 
  console.log("Filled SWIFT order:", txSig);
}

Build instructions manually

If you need more control over transaction construction (e.g., custom priority fees, specific ALTs, or bundling multiple instructions):

import { Transaction } from "@solana/web3.js";
 
// Same params as placeAndMakeSignedMsgPerpOrder, returns instruction array
const ixs = await driftClient.getPlaceAndMakeSignedMsgPerpOrderIxs(
  signedOrderParams,  // { orderParams, signature }
  uuidBytes,          // Uint8Array
  { taker: takerPubkey, takerStats: takerStatsPubkey, takerUserAccount, signingAuthority },
  makerOrderParams,
);
 
// ixs includes:
// 1. ed25519 verification instruction (proves taker signature)
// 2. place-and-make instruction (places your order + fills taker)
 
// Send transaction with your preferred method
const tx = new Transaction().add(...ixs);
const txSig = await connection.sendTransaction(tx, [wallet.payer]);

SWIFT vs onchain auction flow

SWIFT flow

Timeline:

Latency advantage:

• Makers see orders 100-500ms before onchain
• Faster reaction time → better auction slot
• Competitive edge for pricing and flow selection

Requirements:

• Subscribe to SWIFT WebSocket
• Handle ed25519 verification (SDK does this)
• Fast infrastructure to capitalize on latency advantage
• Dedicated RPC node recommended

Standard onchain auction

Timeline:

Total latency: 2-4 seconds from taker intent to maker fill

See JIT Auctions for full auction mechanics.

Filtering and risk management

Use the same filters as other JIT flows: oracle validation, position limits, and toxic-flow detection. See Bot Architecture - Risk and filtering for shared patterns and code.

Detecting SWIFT orders in onchain feeds

When subscribed to both SWIFT and onchain feeds, you may see the same order twice:

Use isSignedMsgOrder() to identify SWIFT-origin orders and avoid double-handling:

import { isSignedMsgOrder } from "@drift-labs/sdk";
 
// In your AuctionSubscriber callback
auctionSubscriber.eventEmitter.on("onAccountUpdate", async (userAccount, pubkey, slot) => {
  for (const order of userAccount.orders) {
    if (order.baseAssetAmount.isZero()) continue;
 
    if (isSignedMsgOrder(order)) {
      // This came from SWIFT ,  you already saw it via WebSocket
      // Skip to avoid submitting a duplicate fill
      continue;
    }
 
    // Handle regular onchain auction
    await handleAuction(order, userAccount, pubkey, slot);
  }
});

Performance considerations

Latency optimization:

• Use dedicated RPC nodes for fastest transaction submission
• Pre-compute oracle prices and risk checks
• Keep WebSocket connection persistent (auto-reconnect on disconnect)
• Use commitment: "processed" for fastest confirmations

Reliability:

• Handle WebSocket reconnections gracefully
• Have fallback to standard auction participation (via AuctionSubscriber)
• Monitor fill rates and adjust strategy
• Track SWIFT vs onchain fill success rates separately

Cost:

• SWIFT fills pay same maker rebates as regular fills
• No additional fees for SWIFT participation
• Transaction costs same as place-and-make

Gotchas

• SWIFT is not guaranteed flow , not all taker orders go through SWIFT. Takers using the standard SDK flow submit directly onchain. You should subscribe to both SWIFT and AuctionSubscriber for complete coverage, using isSignedMsgOrder() to deduplicate.
• ed25519 instruction ordering , the ed25519 verification instruction must be the first instruction in the transaction. The SDK handles this, but if building transactions manually, incorrect ordering causes silent verification failures.
• Latency advantage is perishable , the 100-500ms head start from SWIFT only helps if your fill transaction lands quickly. With a slow RPC node, the advantage is wasted. Use a dedicated RPC node with staked connections for fastest landing.
• UserAccount resolution , the userAccountGetter callback should return quickly. If it requires an RPC call per order, you’ll negate the latency advantage. Pre-load user accounts via UserMap subscription.
• Order expiry , SWIFT signed orders have a maxTs field. If your fill transaction lands after this timestamp, it will fail. Check remaining time before submitting.
• Fallback strategy , if the SWIFT WebSocket disconnects, your bot should seamlessly fall back to standard AuctionSubscriber flow. Don’t let a SWIFT outage stop you from filling auctions.

Related

• JIT Auctions - Understanding auction mechanics and pricing
• JIT-only MM - JIT market making strategy
• Orderbook & Matching - How orders are matched
• Bot Architecture - Reconnection, error handling, and production patterns
• Indicative Quotes - Signal liquidity offchain alongside SWIFT fills