Fix: fetchRegistryPayload Throws 'is not live'

Symptom

fetchRegistryPayload throws an error containing “is not live”:

Error: Registry cell 0xabc...:0 is not live (status: "dead"). The registry may have been updated — query the current outpoint via the indexer.

Cause

A governance update was confirmed since you last fetched the registry outpoint. The old cell was consumed and a new one was created. The outpoint you stored is now dead.

Fix

Use findRegistryCell to discover the current outpoint, then re-fetch:

import { findRegistryCell, fetchRegistryPayload } from "@ckb-firewall/sdk";

const REGISTRY_SPEC = {
  codeHash:    "0x493f1700508125b0e281b8fb1d168b03bd5ef71480399dd59221224901a9cd09",
  hashType:    "type" as const,
  typeIdValue: "0x9be0ad6e4e5039a64d9725ff037057c16ef59f126e3bdd9841b802f0e0a112fe",
  required:    true,
};

let cachedTxHash = "0x..."; // your stored outpoint
let cachedIndex  = 0;

async function getRegistry() {
  try {
    return await fetchRegistryPayload(rpcUrl, cachedTxHash, cachedIndex);
  } catch (err) {
    if (err instanceof Error && err.message.includes("is not live")) {
      const fresh = await findRegistryCell(rpcUrl, REGISTRY_SPEC);
      cachedTxHash = fresh.txHash;
      cachedIndex  = fresh.index;
      // Persist the new outpoint to your cache here
      return await fetchRegistryPayload(rpcUrl, cachedTxHash, cachedIndex);
    }
    throw err; // rethrow unrecognised errors
  }
}

findRegistryCell queries the CKB indexer’s get_cells RPC filtered by the registry’s typeIdValue. It finds the current live cell regardless of how many governance updates have occurred.

Prevent future occurrences

Applications that hardcode the registry outpoint will hit this error after every governance update. Instead:

• Always use findRegistryCell to discover the outpoint before building a transaction
• Or persist the outpoint in a cache with a TTL short enough that it refreshes after governance updates

The CLI and SDK examples use findRegistryCell by default for this reason.

If findRegistryCell also fails

findRegistryCell requires the CKB node’s built-in indexer. If your node does not have the indexer enabled, findRegistryCell throws “No live registry cell found.”

Enable the indexer on your CKB node, or use a public node that has it enabled (such as https://testnet.ckb.dev for testnet).