🔧 Setup Guide

The quick-start used the yfinance data source (not production suitable) and signals-only mode, so no credentials were needed.
To paper-trade or go live you'll add two things:

1. A broker (sends orders)
2. A data provider (streams fresh market data)

The stratequeue setup wizard writes your keys to
~/.stratequeue/credentials.env, which is auto-loaded on every run.

🗝️ Credentials are stored locally in plain text.
If you prefer, export the variables in your shell instead and skip the wizard.

Interactive setup wizard walkthrough

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1 · Run the interactive wizard

# Ensure questionary is installed (pulled in by default)
pip install stratequeue

# Launch the menu
stratequeue setup

Choose "Broker" first, then "Data Provider".
StrateQueue will confirm success and tell you to run stratequeue status.

Example session (Alpaca + Polygon)

🔧 StrateQueue Setup
──────────────────────────────────────────────
? What would you like to configure?  Broker (trading platform credentials)
? Select broker to configure:  Alpaca (US stocks, ETFs, crypto)

📋 Alpaca Setup
Get your API keys from: https://app.alpaca.markets/

? Select trading mode:  Paper Trading
? Paper API Key: ••••••••••••••••
? Paper Secret Key: ••••••••••••••••••••••••••

🔒 Credentials saved to /Users/you/.stratequeue/credentials.env
✅ Alpaca credentials saved.
💡 Test your setup with: stratequeue status

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2 · Manual & non-interactive options

Prefer to handle environment variables yourself or on a server?

export PAPER_KEY=pk_your_key
export PAPER_SECRET=ps_your_secret
export POLYGON_API_KEY=poly_key
export DATA_PROVIDER=polygon

StrateQueue looks for variables in this order:

1. Variables already in the current shell
2. .env in the project folder
3. ~/.stratequeue/credentials.env

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3 · Environment variables reference

Type	Mode	Required variables
Broker – Alpaca	Paper (recommended)	PAPER_KEY, PAPER_SECRET, PAPER_ENDPOINT (defaults to https://paper-api.alpaca.markets)
Broker – Alpaca	Live (real money)	ALPACA_API_KEY, ALPACA_SECRET_KEY, ALPACA_BASE_URL (defaults to https://api.alpaca.markets)
Data - Polygon	—	POLYGON_API_KEY, DATA_PROVIDER=polygon
Data - CoinMarketCap	—	CMC_API_KEY, DATA_PROVIDER=coinmarketcap
Data - Demo	—	(no keys needed)

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4 · Verify your setup

stratequeue status          # checks broker credentials
stratequeue deploy ...      # run your strategy with --paper or --live

If something is missing you'll see clear ❌ or ⚠️ messages along with a fix tip.

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5 · Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
❌ Not detected: Missing required Alpaca environment variables	Re-run the wizard or export the keys manually
Wizard complains about questionary	pip install questionary
Credentials file ignored	Remember that shell exports override .env & credentials.env

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🎉 You're ready!

Deploy with --paper for a dry-run, or --live once you're confident.