trader-broker

The Order Executor is the only skill in this pack that can lead to a real order, so it is the strictest. An order reaches the market only after three separate gates, every time, for every order:

1. trader-risk passed this exact order today (matched by fingerprint).
2. The user typed an explicit yes for this one order in the chat.
3. The user clicked Allow once on Claude's own permission card, which appears because the order tool is set to "Needs approval".

Two yeses from the user, one PASS from the rules. No yes, no order.

${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} below is this skill's folder (where this SKILL.md lives).

python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/ticket.py" show                     # every ticket, READY or not
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/ticket.py" approve --index 1 --reply "yes"
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/ticket.py" result --index 1 --status placed --broker-id ID
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/ticket.py" fill --symbol AAPL --side buy --qty 3.6628 --price 341.27
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/ticket.py" log

ticket.py never talks to a broker. It renders tickets, checks that a reply is a real yes for that order, and keeps the log in trader/state/broker.json.

Setup A: Alpaca (official MCP server, Claude Desktop)

Alpaca's own server is github.com/alpacahq/alpaca-mcp-server (MIT). It runs on the user's computer inside Claude Desktop. It is not in Claude's connector directory. It trades on a paper account unless told otherwise.

1. The user makes an Alpaca account and creates paper trading API keys in the Alpaca dashboard. Paper keys are separate from live keys.
2. The user installs uv (it provides uvx), from docs.astral.sh/uv.
3. In Claude Desktop: Settings > Developer > Edit Config. That opens claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\). The user adds this block (also in claude_desktop_config.example.json here) and types their own keys into the file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "alpaca": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["alpaca-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ALPACA_API_KEY": "paste your paper key here, in this file only",
        "ALPACA_SECRET_KEY": "paste your paper secret here, in this file only",
        "ALPACA_PAPER_TRADE": "true",
        "ALPACA_TOOLSETS": "account,trading,stock-data"
      }
    }
  }
}

The env block hands the keys to the server as environment variables. Keys never go in the chat. Never ask for them, never read this file back into the conversation, and if the user pastes a key anyway, tell them to delete that message and make new keys in the Alpaca dashboard. ALPACA_PAPER_TRADE is already true by default; writing it makes it visible. ALPACA_TOOLSETS is optional and hides the tools they do not need. 4. Restart Claude Desktop. 5. Set the tool permissions. Customize > Connectors (Settings > Connectors in older versions), open alpaca, and for each tool pick Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked:

• place_stock_order: Needs approval. Never Always allow.
• every other tool that places, changes, cancels or closes anything (cancel_order_by_id, close_position, update_account_config): Needs approval.
• place_option_order, place_crypto_order, close_all_positions, cancel_all_orders, exercise_options_position: Blocked unless the user has a reason and says so.
• read-only tools (get_account_info, get_all_positions, get_stock_snapshot, get_stock_latest_quote): Always allow is fine.

6. Check it: ask Claude for the Alpaca account info (read only) and confirm in the Alpaca dashboard that it is the paper account.

In Claude Code instead of Claude Desktop, keep the order tool on ask in .claude/settings.json: "permissions": {"ask": ["mcp__alpaca__place_stock_order"]}, and never put an order tool in allow.

Setup B: Interactive Brokers (connector in Claude's directory)

Interactive Brokers publishes a verified connector: claude.ai/directory/interactive-brokers (connector URL https://api.ibkr.com/v1/api/mcp). Add it from Customize > Connectors > Browse connectors and sign in to IBKR there, not in the chat. Its listing says Claude can draft trade instructions that are sent to the user's IBKR account for their review and approval, and that Claude never submits orders directly to the market. So with IBKR the final yes happens in IBKR as well. Set "broker": "ibkr" in trader/config.json, and size with --whole-shares if IBKR wants share counts. Set its tools that draft orders to Needs approval too.

Steps, for each order

1. ticket.py show. Only READY tickets go to the user. A ticket that is NOT READY or BLOCKED goes back to /trader-risk.
2. Show ONE ticket and ask: "Place this order? Reply yes or no." One order per question. Never offer "yes to all".
3. Run ticket.py approve --index N --reply "<the user's reply, word for word>". If it prints "Not recorded", the reply was not an explicit yes for this order (for example "sure", "yes to all", or a yes that names a different stock or amount). Ask again. Never turn a reply into a yes yourself.
4. Only after "Recorded your yes", call place_stock_order with exactly the JSON the ticket printed. Claude's card appears: Allow once or Deny.
5. Record what happened: ticket.py result --index N --status placed --broker-id <id from the response>, or --status denied if they pressed Deny, or --status failed with --note for an error. A failed order is not retried without a new check and a new yes.
6. When the fill is known (the tool's response, or later from get_all_positions), ticket.py fill adds it to trader/portfolio.json as a tax lot for trader-tax. Then the next ticket.

Example: the reel

ORDER 1 of 5, PAPER account, Alpaca
  BUY $1,250 of AAPL, market order, good for today
  READY: trader-risk PASS, waiting for your yes
  Claude will call place_stock_order with exactly:
    {"symbol": "AAPL", "side": "buy", "notional": "1250",
     "type": "market", "time_in_force": "day"}

The user replies "yes". Claude records it, calls place_stock_order, and the card reads "Claude wants to use Place stock order" with that JSON and two buttons: Allow once, Deny. Allow once sends it to the paper account.

What it never does

• Never places an order without all three gates, and never two orders on one yes.
• Never places orders from a scheduled or background task: nobody is there to say yes.
• Never asks for, reads, stores or repeats API keys or passwords.
• Never switches ALPACA_PAPER_TRADE or "paper" to live. The user does that themselves.
• Never calls close_all_positions, cancel_all_orders, option or crypto order tools on its own.

Safety

• Education and tooling, not financial advice. No order here is a recommendation, and nothing promises returns.
• Paper trading by default ("paper": true, ALPACA_PAPER_TRADE true). Going live is the user's own decision.
• Nothing in this pack places an order except trader-broker, and only when all three hold: trader-risk passed that exact order today, the user typed an explicit yes for that one order in the chat, and the user clicked Allow once on Claude's own card because the order tool is set to "Needs approval" (Customize > Connectors > tool permissions). Never set an order tool to "Always allow".
• No options, margin, short selling or leverage unless the config allows it and the user confirms.
• Broker keys live in environment variables or the Claude Desktop config, never in the chat.