What this is
☁️ Cloud broker — Alpaca exposes a public REST API, so this runs directly in the Starchild container, no local gateway needed. US equities and ETFs.
Paper and live are fully separated: different key pairs, different hosts (paper-api.alpaca.markets vs api.alpaca.markets). A paper key physically cannot touch the live account. Live order placement additionally requires the --confirm-live flag.
Get your API keys
- Sign up at alpaca.markets (US brokerage; paper trading is free and needs no funding).
- Paper keys: log in → switch to Paper Trading (toggle top-left) → Home → "API Keys" panel → Generate New Keys. Copy the Key ID and Secret Key (secret shown once).
- Live keys (optional, real money): switch to Live Trading → same API Keys panel → generate. These are a different pair from paper.
- Market data: the free IEX feed works out of the box. SIP (full-market) needs a paid data subscription.
Configure (.env)
Request via secure input — never paste keys in chat. Variables:
| Variable | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
ALPACA_API_KEY | yes (paper) | paper Key ID |
ALPACA_SECRET_KEY | yes (paper) | paper Secret |
ALPACA_LIVE_API_KEY | only for live | live Key ID |
ALPACA_LIVE_SECRET_KEY | only for live | live Secret |
ALPACA_FEED | no | iex (default) or sip |
Usage
pip install alpaca-py (first run). All commands print JSON. Default profile is paper.
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py status
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py account
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py positions
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py orders [--executions]
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py quote --symbol AAPL
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py history --symbol AAPL --period 1d --limit 90
# place (paper): qty OR notional, market OR limit
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py place --symbol AAPL --side buy --qty 1 --type market
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py place --symbol AAPL --side buy --notional 500 --type limit --limit-price 180
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py cancel --order-id <id>
# live: must add --profile live AND --confirm-live
python skills/alpaca/scripts/alpaca_cli.py --profile live --confirm-live place --symbol AAPL --side buy --qty 1
Periods: 1m 5m 15m 30m 1h 1d 1w 1M. Alpaca supports fractional --notional (dollar amount) orders.
Gotchas
statusis the health check — it reports SDK install state, key presence, and pings the account. Run it first.- Free IEX data can be sparse/delayed off-hours; use
siponly if the account has the paid feed. - Live trading is real money. The
--confirm-livegate is intentional; never auto-add it.