CLI Commands

The CLI ships ~20 commands grouped into four areas: auth & account, strategies & deployment, data & analysis, and maintenance.

Coming soon: tradectl lab

The local lab dashboard (port 9200) will be launched as tradectl lab from the next CLI release. Today, build and run the standalone tradectl-lab binary — see tradectl-lab.

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Auth & account

tradectl login

Authenticate with the platform using an API key (read it from stdin to avoid leaking it into shell history):

echo "st_live_<your-key>" | tradectl login

Exchanges the API key for a signed JWT license token (Ed25519, 72 h expiry). The token is cached locally and refreshed automatically.

tradectl logout

Clears the cached license token.

tradectl logout

tradectl auth

Manage exchange API credentials. Supported providers: binance, bybit, okx, hyperliquid, htx, gate, bitget.

tradectl auth set binance     # interactive — prompts for key/secret/passphrase
tradectl auth list            # list configured exchanges
tradectl auth remove binance  # remove credentials for an exchange

OKX and Bitget additionally prompt for a passphrase. Hyperliquid uses an API wallet's address + private key.

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Strategies & deployment

tradectl init <name>

Scaffold a new strategy crate.

tradectl init my-strategy

Creates a Rust project with src/lib.rs, src/params.rs, config.json, a unit test, and a STRATEGY.md template. The SDK dependency is resolved automatically (local path or crates.io).

tradectl build

Compile the current strategy crate to a cdylib.

tradectl build              # release build of cdylib

Produces target/release/lib<name>.so (Linux), lib<name>.dylib (macOS), or <name>.dll (Windows). Cargo converts dashes to underscores in the cdylib name.

tradectl run <config>

Run a strategy. Paper or live is selected by isEmulator in the config.

tradectl run config.json
tradectl run config.json --daemon    # detach as background process
tradectl run config.json --dry-run   # validate config + load plugin, do not start
tradectl run config.json --replay data/prepared.bin   # historical replay

Flag	Description
<CONFIG>	Path to bot config (positional)
--daemon	Run in background as a detached process
--dry-run	Validate config and load strategy without starting trading
--replay <FILE>	Replay a prepared .bin data file instead of connecting live

tradectl stop

Stop a running bot.

tradectl stop config.json     # stop a specific bot
tradectl stop all             # stop all bots managed by this CLI

Cancels active entry orders. Exits remain on the exchange and positions stay open — protected by their TP/SL until they fire or you close them manually.

tradectl strats

List installed strategy plugins (scans ~/.tradectl/lib/).

tradectl strats

tradectl install <strategy>

Download a strategy from the marketplace. The CLI verifies the SHA256 of the binary against the platform's record before writing.

tradectl install shot-scalper

tradectl upload

Register the current strategy with your platform account.

tradectl upload              # register source
tradectl upload --binary     # also upload the compiled binary

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Data & analysis

tradectl backtest

Run a local backtest against a prepared data file.

tradectl backtest \
  -d data/prepared.bin \
  --balance 10000 \
  --leverage 5 \
  --taker-fee 0.0004 \
  -p order_size=0.001 \
  -v

Flag	Description	Default
-d, --data <PATH>	Prepared data file (.bin, .parquet, .csv, or .jsonl)	required
--balance <FLOAT>	Initial balance (USD)	10000
--leverage <FLOAT>	Leverage multiplier	1.0
--taker-fee <FLOAT>	Taker fee rate	0.0004
--maker-fee <FLOAT>	Maker fee rate	0.0002
--slippage <FLOAT>	Slippage as a fraction	0.0001
-p, --param <KEY=VAL>	Strategy parameter (repeatable)	—
-v, --verbose	Print individual trades	false
--bench	Profile latency / throughput / pipeline breakdown	false

tradectl sweep

Parameter sweep — Cartesian product of ranges, ranked by score.

tradectl sweep \
  -d data/prepared.bin \
  -r entryDistance=0.5:3.0:0.1 \
  -r takeProfit=0.3:1.5:0.1 \
  -p order_size=0.001 \
  --top 20 \
  --min-trades 5

Flag	Description	Default
-d, --data <PATH>	Prepared data file	required
-r, --range <KEY=MIN:MAX:STEP>	Range to sweep (repeatable)	required
-p, --param <KEY=VAL>	Fixed parameter (repeatable)	—
--balance / --leverage / --taker-fee / --maker-fee / --slippage	Same as backtest	—
--top <N>	Show top N results	20
--min-trades <N>	Minimum trades to be eligible	5
-o, --output <PATH>	Save results as JSON	—

tradectl prepare

Prepare raw market data into the optimized format.

tradectl prepare \
  --root data/raw \
  --exchange binance \
  --symbol BTCUSDT \
  --interval 2026-01-01:2026-02-01 \
  -o data/prepared.bin

Flag	Description
--root <DIR>	Raw data directory
--exchange <NAME>	Source exchange (binance, bybit, ...)
--symbol <SYM>	Symbol to prepare
--interval <RANGE>	Date range (YYYY-MM-DD:YYYY-MM-DD)
--ticker-data <PATH>	Or supply a single bookTicker file directly
--trade-data <PATH>	Or supply a single trades file directly
--trades-only	Synthesize tickers when bookTicker is unavailable
--ticker-bucket-ms <N>	Synthesis bucket size (default 100)
--buffer-ms <N>	Windowing buffer (default 20, 0 = off)
-o, --output <PATH>	Output (.bin or .parquet)

The CLI emits the TCTL v3 binary format — single-file pack of ticker / trade / kline / depth streams with a footer index for mmap loading. Load time: ~18 µs for the binary format vs ~360 ms for parquet.

tradectl collect

Live WebSocket recorder — captures market data into compressed JSONL files.

tradectl collect binance --symbols BTCUSDT,ETHUSDT --output data/raw/

Writes zstd-compressed .jsonl.zst files. Use tradectl prepare afterward to roll them into the binary format.

tradectl monitor

Connect to a running bot's MonitorBroadcaster (port 9100 by default) and stream events to the terminal. The full UI lives in tradectl-lab at /monitor.

tradectl monitor --url localhost:9100

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Maintenance

tradectl config validate

Validate a bot config file without starting it.

tradectl config validate config.json

tradectl run config.json --dry-run does the same thing plus loads the strategy plugin to verify ABI compatibility.

tradectl mcp

Stdio proxy for the bot's embedded MCP server (port 9101). Used to register the bot as an MCP server in Claude Code:

claude mcp add tradectl-bot -- tradectl mcp

See MCP Server.

tradectl update

Update the CLI binary in place from the GitHub Releases channel.

tradectl update

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Coming soon

• tradectl lab — launch the local lab dashboard (port 9200) directly from the CLI. Until then, run the standalone binary as described in tradectl-lab.