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# *insight API*

*insight API* is an open-source bitcoin blockchain REST and websocket API. Insight API runs in NodeJS and uses LevelDB for storage.

This is a backend-only service. If you're looking for the web frontend application, take a look at https://github.com/bitpay/insight.

*Insight API* allows to develop bitcoin-related applications (such as wallets) that require certain information from the blockchain that bitcoind does not provide.

A blockchain explorer front-end has been developed on top of *Insight API*. It can be downloaded at [Github Insight Repository](https://github.com/bitpay/insight).

## Prerequisites

* **bitcoind** - Download and Install [Bitcoin](http://bitcoin.org/en/download)

*insight API* needs a *trusted* bitcoind node to run. *insight API* will connect to the node through the RPC API, bitcoin peer-to-peer protocol, and will even read its raw block .dat files for syncing.

Configure bitcoind to listen to RPC calls and set `txindex` to true.
The easiest way to do this is by copying `./etc/bitcoind/bitcoin.conf` to your bitcoin data directory (usually `~/.bitcoin` on Linux, `%appdata%\Bitcoin\` on Windows, or `~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin` on Mac OS X).

bitcoind must be running and must have finished downloading the blockchain **before** running *insight API*.

* **Node.js v0.10.x** - Download and Install [Node.js](http://www.nodejs.org/download/).

* **NPM** - Node.js package manager, should be automatically installed when you get node.js.

## Quick Install Check the Prerequisites section above before installing.

To install Insight API, clone the main repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/bitpay/insight-api && cd insight-api

Install dependencies:

$ npm install

Run the main application:

$ node insight.js

Then open a browser and go to:

http://localhost:3001

Please note that the app will need to sync its internal database with the blockchain state, which may take some time. You