tac-exp-dev/tac-engine/skills/tradeac-alpaca/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
tradeac-alpaca	Guide agents to call tac-engine MCP tools for Alpaca trading and market data (news, corporate actions, screener, FX, stocks, options, realtime streams) via MCP Inspector, Cursor, or other clients.

tradeac-alpaca

Use tac-engine MCP tools — not raw Alpaca REST — for brokerage ops and market data. Same tool surface will back TradeAC’s Next.js UI later.

MCP-first policy

• Prefer the MCP tools registered in this session (tac-engine server, tools listed below) over writing scripts that reimplement them. If a tool exists, call it directly — do not reinvent it with curl/bash/python (raw Alpaca REST, hand-rolled pagination, own JSON-RPC clients).
• NEVER script directly against the MCP server (spawning the binary, talking stdio JSON-RPC, or driving it via bash/curl) unless the MCP tool surface genuinely can't do the job — and in that case stop and ask the user to confirm first before writing the script.
• If a direct Alpaca call is needed (e.g. an endpoint with no tool), say so and let the user confirm the approach; otherwise keep everything on the MCP surface.

Hosts / env

Purpose	Env	Default
Trading REST	APCA_BASE_URL	https://paper-api.alpaca.markets
Market data REST	APCA_DATA_BASE_URL	https://data.alpaca.markets
Market data WS	APCA_STREAM_BASE_URL	wss://stream.data.alpaca.markets
Auth	APCA_API_KEY_ID, APCA_API_SECRET_KEY	required

cargo build --release
./target/release/tac-engine

Secrets policy

• NEVER write secrets into files: API keys (APCA_API_KEY_ID/APCA_API_SECRET_KEY), DB passwords, OAuth tokens, or credential-bearing URLs in scripts, configs, notes or committed code.
• NEVER read *.env / .env.* directly (cat/tail/grep/sed/head on .env). That pulls secrets into this session and leaks them to any agent sharing it.
• When a tool or command needs an env var, ASK the user to set it in the environment (shell/container env, or the user-owned .env) and reference it by name ($VAR), never by value. If it's missing, report which variable is required instead of reading it yourself.
• If you find a committed secret, flag it, remove it, and replace it with a placeholder.

MCP clients

MCP Inspector

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector /absolute/path/to/tac-engine/target/release/tac-engine

Connect → tools/list → tools/call with JSON arguments.

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tac-engine": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/tac-engine/target/release/tac-engine",
      "env": {
        "APCA_API_KEY_ID": "${APCA_API_KEY_ID}",
        "APCA_API_SECRET_KEY": "${APCA_API_SECRET_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

stdio is NDJSON JSON-RPC; logs on stderr.

Safety

• Paper trading by default (APCA_BASE_URL).
• Mutating trading tools: place_order, close_*, cancel_*, watchlist writes.
• subscribe_market_stream opens a short-lived WebSocket (samples then disconnects). Most Alpaca plans allow one concurrent stream — close other clients first.

Tool catalog

Lake tools (get_lake_bars, get_lake_ta, get_lake_sp, get_lake_features, backfill_lake_calendar, …) live under tradeac-lake (see tac-engine/skills/tradeac-lake/SKILL.md). When a lake call's purpose is backfilling/persisting (not reading the payload), pass "quiet": true so the tool returns a summary (count/first_t/last_t/source/columns) instead of echoing back the full bar/feature rows.

Trading (brokerage account)

Account: get_account, get_portfolio_history, list_account_activities, get_account_activities_by_type
Assets master: list_assets, get_asset
Watchlists / positions / orders: list_*, get_*, create_*, place_order, close_*, cancel_*

Market data — news & corporate actions

Tool	Notes
get_news	optional symbols, start/end, limit, include_content
get_corporate_actions	optional symbols, types, start/end, data_quality

Screener

Tool	Notes
get_most_actives	optional by=volume|trades, top
get_market_movers	required market_type=stocks|crypto, optional top

FX

Tool	Notes
get_forex_latest_rates	required currency_pairs e.g. USDJPY,EURUSD
get_forex_rates	historical; optional timeframe, start, end

Stocks

Tool	Notes
get_stock_bars / get_stock_bars_single	historical; needs timeframe
get_stock_latest_bars	latest minute bars
get_stock_quotes / get_stock_latest_quotes	quotes
get_stock_trades / get_stock_latest_trades	trades
get_stock_snapshots / get_stock_snapshot	trade+quote+bars
get_stock_auctions	auctions

Multi-symbol tools take comma-separated symbols. Optional feed (iex/sip), limit, page_token, …

Options

Tool	Notes
get_option_bars	historical bars for contract symbols
get_option_latest_quotes / get_option_latest_trades	latest
get_option_trades	historical trades
get_option_snapshots	contracts
get_option_chain	underlying + filters (type, strikes, expiration)
get_option_meta_conditions / get_option_meta_exchanges	code maps

Realtime stream sampling

Tool	Notes
subscribe_market_stream	stream=stocks|options|news|test; optional feed; channels trades/quotes/bars/news as CSV symbols; duration_secs (1–30), max_messages (1–200)

Examples:

{"stream":"test","duration_secs":5,"max_messages":20}

{"stream":"stocks","feed":"iex","quotes":"AAPL,MSFT","duration_secs":5}

{"stream":"news","news":"*","duration_secs":8,"max_messages":30}

{"stream":"options","feed":"indicative","quotes":"AAPL250117C00200000","duration_secs":5}

Example workflows

1. Dashboard: get_account → list_positions → get_stock_snapshots (symbols from positions)
2. Research: get_news → get_corporate_actions → get_stock_bars
3. Screener → trade (paper): get_most_actives → get_stock_snapshot → place_order
4. Options: get_option_chain (underlying_symbol=AAPL) → get_option_latest_quotes
5. Live sample: subscribe_market_stream with stream=test first, then stocks/news

Protocol

• rmcp 3.1 / MCP 2026-07-28, stdio
• Prefer these MCP tool names/args over calling Alpaca hosts directly from agents/UI