🔧 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:

A broker (sends orders)
A data provider/source (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.

Setup Demo Interactive setup wizard walkthrough

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

Example session (CCXT + Binance)

🔧 StrateQueue Setup
──────────────────────────────────────────────
? What would you like to configure?  Broker (trading platform credentials)
? Select broker to configure:  CCXT (250+ cryptocurrency exchanges)

🏦 CCXT Exchange Selection
============================================================
📈 Popular Exchanges:
   1. Binance          (binance) 🧪 
   2. Coinbase Pro     (coinbase) 🧪 🔑
   3. Kraken           (kraken) 🔴 
   4. Bybit            (bybit) 🧪 
   5. OKX              (okx) 🧪 
   ...
  11. 📝 Manual input (other exchange)

Enter your choice (1-12): 1
✅ Selected: Binance (binance)

📋 Binance Setup
Get your API keys from: https://www.binance.com/en/my/settings/api-management

? Enable testnet/sandbox mode? (recommended for testing)  Yes
? API Key: ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
? Secret Key: ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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

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:

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

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)
Broker – CCXT	Paper/Live	`CCXT_EXCHANGE`, `CCXT_API_KEY`, `CCXT_SECRET_KEY`, `CCXT_PASSPHRASE` (if required), `CCXT_PAPER_TRADING=true` (for testnet)
Broker – IBKR	Paper/Live	`IBKR_HOST`, `IBKR_PORT`, `IBKR_CLIENT_ID`, `IBKR_PAPER_TRADING=true` (for paper)
Data - Polygon	—	`POLYGON_API_KEY`, `DATA_PROVIDER=polygon`
Data - CoinMarketCap	—	`CMC_API_KEY`, `DATA_PROVIDER=coinmarketcap`
Data - CCXT	—	`CCXT_EXCHANGE`, `CCXT_API_KEY`, `CCXT_SECRET_KEY` (uses same as broker)
Data - IBKR	—	`IBKR_HOST`, `IBKR_PORT`, `IBKR_CLIENT_ID` (uses same as broker)
Data - Yahoo Finance	—	(no keys needed, rate limited)
Data - Demo	—	(no keys needed)

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.

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`

🎉 You're ready!

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