Tracking Crypto Prices

Overview

Foundation skill providing real-time and historical cryptocurrency price data. This skill is the data layer for the crypto plugin ecosystem - 10+ other skills depend on it for price information.

Key Capabilities:

• Real-time prices for 10,000+ cryptocurrencies
• Historical OHLCV data (1 day to all-time)
• Multi-currency support (USD, EUR, GBP, 30+ currencies)
• Intelligent caching to minimize API calls
• Predefined and custom watchlists
• Export to CSV/JSON for analysis

Dependent Skills: This skill provides price data to: market-movers-scanner, crypto-portfolio-tracker, crypto-tax-calculator, defi-yield-optimizer, liquidity-pool-analyzer, staking-rewards-optimizer, crypto-derivatives-tracker, dex-aggregator-router, options-flow-analyzer, arbitrage-opportunity-finder.

Prerequisites

Install required dependencies:

pip install requests pandas yfinance

Optional for advanced features:

pip install python-dotenv  # For API key management

API Setup (optional, for higher rate limits):

1. Get free API key from https://www.coingecko.com/en/api
2. Add to {baseDir}/config/settings.yaml or set environment variable COINGECKO_API_KEY

Instructions

Step 1: Quick Price Check

Get current price for any cryptocurrency:

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol BTC

Check multiple assets:

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbols BTC,ETH,SOL

Step 2: Use Watchlists

Scan predefined watchlists:

# Top 10 by market cap
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --watchlist top10

# DeFi tokens
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --watchlist defi

# Layer 2 tokens
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --watchlist layer2

Available watchlists: top10, defi, layer2, stablecoins, memecoins

Step 3: Fetch Historical Data

Get OHLCV (Open, High, Low, Close, Volume) history:

# Last 30 days
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol BTC --period 30d

# Last 90 days with CSV export
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol BTC --period 90d --output csv

# Custom date range
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol ETH --start 2024-01-01 --end 2024-12-31

Step 4: Configure Settings

Edit {baseDir}/config/settings.yaml to customize:

cache:
  spot_ttl: 30          # Seconds to cache spot prices
  historical_ttl: 3600  # Seconds to cache historical data

currency:
  default: usd          # Default fiat currency

watchlists:
  custom:               # Add your own watchlist
    - BTC
    - ETH
    - SOL

Output

Price Table (Default)

================================================================================
  CRYPTO PRICES                                           Updated: [timestamp]
================================================================================

  Symbol     Price (USD)      24h Change     Volume (24h)      Market Cap
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  BTC       $97,234.56          +2.34%      $28.5B            $1.92T
  ETH        $3,456.78          +1.87%      $12.3B            $415.2B
  SOL          $142.34          +5.12%       $2.1B             $61.4B
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Total 24h Change: +2.44% (weighted)

================================================================================

JSON Output (--format json)

{
  "prices": [
    {
      "symbol": "BTC",
      "name": "Bitcoin",
      "price": 97234.56,
      "currency": "USD",
      "change_24h": 2.34,
      "volume_24h": 28500000000,
      "market_cap": 1920000000000,
      "timestamp": "[timestamp]",
      "source": "coingecko"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "count": 1,
    "currency": "USD",
    "cached": false
  }
}

Historical CSV Export

date,open,high,low,close,volume
[date],95000.00,96500.00,94200.00,96100.00,25000000000
[date],96100.00,97800.00,95800.00,97500.00,27000000000

Configuration

Edit {baseDir}/config/settings.yaml:

# API Configuration
api:
  coingecko:
    api_key: ${COINGECKO_API_KEY}  # Optional, from env
    use_pro: false
  yfinance:
    enabled: true                   # Fallback source

# Cache Configuration
cache:
  enabled: true
  spot_ttl: 30                      # Spot price TTL (seconds)
  historical_ttl: 3600              # Historical data TTL (seconds)
  directory: ./data

# Display Configuration
currency:
  default: usd
  supported:
    - usd
    - eur
    - gbp
    - jpy
    - cad
    - aud

# Predefined Watchlists
watchlists:
  top10:
    - bitcoin
    - ethereum
    - tether
    - binancecoin
    - solana
    - ripple
    - cardano
    - avalanche-2
    - dogecoin
    - polkadot

  defi:
    - uniswap
    - aave
    - chainlink
    - maker
    - compound-governance-token
    - curve-dao-token
    - sushi

  layer2:
    - matic-network
    - arbitrum
    - optimism
    - immutable-x

Error Handling

See {baseDir}/references/errors.md for comprehensive error handling.

Common Errors

Error	Cause	Solution
Unknown symbol: XYZ	Invalid cryptocurrency ticker	Check spelling, use --list to search
Rate limit exceeded	Too many API calls	Wait 60s, or use API key for higher limits
Network error	No internet connection	Check connection, cached data will be used
Cache stale	Cached data older than TTL	Data still shown with warning, will refresh

Rate Limit Handling

The skill automatically:

1. Uses cached data when available
2. Applies exponential backoff on rate limits
3. Falls back to yfinance if CoinGecko fails
4. Shows stale cache data with warning as last resort

Examples

See {baseDir}/references/examples.md for detailed examples including:

• Multi-timeframe analysis
• Portfolio value calculation
• Price alert setup
• Integration with other skills

Example 1: Quick Price Check

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol BTC

Output:

BTC (Bitcoin)
$97,234.56 USD
+2.34% (24h) | Vol: $28.5B | MCap: $1.92T

Example 2: Watchlist Scan

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --watchlist top10

Example 3: Historical Export

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol ETH --period 90d --output csv

Creates: {baseDir}/data/ETH_90d_[date].csv

Integration with Other Skills

This skill provides the price data foundation for other crypto skills.

Direct Import (recommended for Python skills):

from price_tracker import get_current_prices, get_historical_prices

# Get prices for portfolio valuation
prices = get_current_prices(["BTC", "ETH", "SOL"])

CLI Subprocess (for non-Python or isolation):

PRICES=$(python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbols BTC,ETH --format json)

Shared Cache (efficient for batch): Multiple skills can read from {baseDir}/data/cache.json to avoid redundant API calls.

Files

File	Purpose
scripts/price_tracker.py	Main CLI entry point
scripts/api_client.py	CoinGecko/yfinance abstraction
scripts/cache_manager.py	Cache read/write/invalidation
scripts/formatters.py	Output formatting
config/settings.yaml	User configuration
data/cache.json	Price cache (auto-generated)

Resources

• CoinGecko API - Primary data source
• yfinance - Fallback for historical data
• PRD.md - Product requirements
• ARD.md - Architecture documentation