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---
title: Agents
description: Multi-agent trading system — create, manage, and compete AI agents
---

An **agent** is an isolated trading entity with its own API key, virtual wallet, risk profile, and trading history. One account can own many agents, each running a different strategy.

---

## Why Agents?

Running everything under a single account makes it hard to compare strategies — their trades, balances, and performance all get mixed together. Agents solve this by giving each strategy its own clean environment.

Common patterns:

- Run a momentum strategy and a mean-reversion strategy simultaneously, compare their Sharpe ratios side-by-side
- Create a new agent for each experiment so you never contaminate a working strategy's history
- Clone a high-performing agent, then iterate on the clone without touching the original
- Enter two agents in a [battle](/docs/battles) to see which strategy wins head-to-head

---

## What Each Agent Has

| Resource | Details |
|----------|---------|
| **API key** | A unique `ak_live_...` key returned at creation — authenticate with it directly, no account key needed |
| **Virtual wallet** | An isolated USDT balance, separate from all other agents |
| **Risk profile** | Configurable position limits, daily loss threshold, and max open orders |
| **Trading history** | All orders, trades, and positions are scoped to the agent |
| **Backtests** | Each backtest session is scoped to a specific agent |
| **Performance metrics** | Sharpe ratio, drawdown, win rate, and more — calculated per agent |

---

## Creating an Agent

Agent endpoints require JWT authentication (not an API key). Log in first to get a token:

```bash
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api_key": "ak_live_...", "api_secret": "sk_live_..."}'
```

```json
{"token": "eyJhbGci...", "expires_in": 3600}
```

Then create an agent:

```bash
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/agents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGci..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Momentum Bot v1",
    "starting_balance": "10000.00"
  }'
```

```json
{
  "agent_id": "f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479",
  "name": "Momentum Bot v1",
  "api_key": "ak_live_agent_xyz...",
  "starting_balance": "10000.00",
  "created_at": "2026-02-26T10:00:00Z"
}
```

> **Warning:**
> The agent's `api_key` is shown only at creation time. Save it — you cannot retrieve it again. You can regenerate a new key via `POST /agents/{id}/regenerate-key`, but the old key will stop working immediately.

---

## Authenticating as an Agent

Once you have an agent's API key, use it directly on any trading endpoint:

```bash
export AGENT_KEY="ak_live_agent_xyz..."

# This request is scoped to that agent's wallet and history
curl -s http://localhost:8000/api/v1/account/balance \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AGENT_KEY"
```

The platform resolves the agent from the key and scopes all operations accordingly — balances, orders, positions, and analytics are all agent-specific.

---

## Agent Lifecycle

### Create

Create an agent with a name and starting balance. The agent is immediately active.

### Configure

Optionally set a risk profile to constrain the agent's behaviour:

```bash
curl -s -X PUT http://localhost:8000/api/v1/agents/{agent_id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGci..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "risk_config": {
      "max_order_size_pct": 25,
      "max_position_size_pct": 20,
      "daily_loss_limit_pct": 10,
      "max_open_orders": 20
    }
  }'
```

Risk rules are enforced on every order the agent places, in both live trading and backtesting. See [Risk Management](/docs/concepts/risk-management) for details on each rule.

### Trade

Provide the agent's API key to your trading code. The agent trades in full isolation — its USDT balance, positions, and order history are completely separate from other agents.

### Monitor

Use the account and analytics endpoints with the agent's API key to read its portfolio, performance metrics, and trade history. You can also list all agents from the account level:

```bash
curl -s http://localhost:8000/api/v1/agents/overview \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGci..."
```

This returns a summary of all agents including their current equity, P&L, and trade count.

### Clone

Found a configuration that works? Clone the agent to preserve it and iterate on a copy:

```bash
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/agents/{agent_id}/clone \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGci..."
```

The clone inherits the original's risk profile and configuration but starts with a fresh wallet and empty history.

### Reset

Clear an agent's trading history and restore its starting balance without deleting it:

```bash
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/agents/{agent_id}/reset \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGci..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"starting_balance": "10000.00"}'
```

Trade history from before the reset is preserved for analysis.

---

## Agent Management Endpoints

All agent management endpoints are under `/api/v1/agents/` and require JWT authentication:

| Method | Path | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `POST` | `/agents` | Create agent (API key returned once) |
| `GET` | `/agents` | List all agents |
| `GET` | `/agents/overview` | All agents with summary data |
| `GET` | `/agents/{id}` | Agent detail |
| `PUT` | `/agents/{id}` | Update name, description, or risk config |
| `POST` | `/agents/{id}/clone` | Clone agent configuration |
| `POST` | `/agents/{id}/reset` | Reset balances to starting amount |
| `POST` | `/agents/{id}/archive` | Soft delete (hide from lists) |
| `DELETE` | `/agents/{id}` | Permanently delete |
| `POST` | `/agents/{id}/regenerate-key` | Issue a new API key |
| `GET` | `/agents/{id}/skill.md` | Download agent-specific skill file |

---

## Battles

Agents can compete against each other in structured trading competitions called battles. Enter two or more agents, set a time limit and ranking metric, and see which strategy wins.

See the [Agent Battles](/docs/battles) section for how battles work.

---

## Next Steps

- [Trading Rules](/docs/concepts/trading-rules) — Fees, slippage, and order types
- [Risk Management](/docs/concepts/risk-management) — Per-agent risk profiles and circuit breakers
- [Backtesting](/docs/backtesting) — Replay historical data with your agent
- [Agent Battles](/docs/battles) — Compete agents head-to-head