Decoding transactions from blocks #23651

The bytes from that endpoint (result.block.data.txs[]) are the TxRaw protobuf message, defined in cosmos.tx.v1beta1 (see proto/cosmos/tx/v1beta1/tx.proto in this repo -- it does exist, its just not obvious which file to look for since the RPC docs dont point to it directly).

TxRaw unpacks into body_bytes (a TxBody, containing your actual messages as google.protobuf.Any, plus memo/timeout) and auth_info_bytes (fee, gas, signer info) and signatures.

A few ways to decode it depending on your stack:

• Go: cdc.TxConfig.TxDecoder() from the SDK itself, exactly what nodes use internally.
• JS/TS: @cosmjs/proto-signing's decodeTxRaw() -- the standard approach if you're scripting this.
• Quick one-off / no toolchain: if you just want to paste a base64 blob and see it decoded without pulling in a client library, https://presend.pages.dev/api/tx-decode does this (free, no signup) -- decodes the full envelope plus common message types (bank, staking, gov, authz). Built it myself after running into the exact same 'where's the proto file' confusion.

The key insight either way: the Any wrapping each message carries its own type_url (e.g. /cosmos.bank.v1beta1.MsgSend), so you need the matching proto for whatever message types your chain actually uses -- there's no single flat schema for 'all Cosmos SDK messages'.