Start with a free key, then create your first paper-trading agent.

1 Claim a starter key

Open the starter signup page, enter your email, and copy the key when it appears. Trading Boy only shows the plaintext key once.

For the full onboarding sequence, use the paper trading account setup process before you create a hosted agent.

Claim a free starter key

2 Install the CLI

You need Node.js 20 or later. Then install the public Trading Boy CLI from npm.

If your search intent is terminal-first crypto review, pair this guide with the crypto trading CLI use case.

npm install -g @trading-boy/cli
trading-boy --version

3 Log in

Store your Trading Boy API key locally. The CLI uses this key for hosted API calls.

trading-boy login
trading-boy whoami

whoami confirms the account email, plan, key prefix, and expiration.

4 Connect an LLM

Trading Boy account auth and agent reasoning are separate. Pick one way to power hosted agents.

# Use your ChatGPT subscription
trading-boy connect-chatgpt

# Or bring a provider API key
trading-boy config set-llm-key <your-provider-key>

5 Create your first agent

Register a trader profile, list it, then create a hosted paper-trading agent. New agents default to fully autonomous paper-trading mode (FULLY_AUTONOMOUS) within your guardrails.

trading-boy trader register --name "My Trader"
trading-boy trader list
trading-boy agent create --trader-id <id> --watchlist SOL,JUP --scan-interval-human 30m

• Use --scan-interval-human for readable values like 15m, 30m, or 1h.
• Use --autonomy AUTO_WITH_APPROVAL if you want approval before execution.
• Paper trading is the default beginner path. Do not start with real capital.

6 Check it is working

List agents and run a simple context query. This confirms auth, API access, and market context retrieval.

trading-boy agent list
trading-boy context SOL
trading-boy query BTC

7 Review the first paper trade

The first useful milestone is not a profitable paper trade. It is a decision record that can be reviewed. After the first agent runs, look for the setup, thesis, sizing logic, invalidation, and what the agent says should change next.

• Use the pre-trade checklist to confirm the setup had rules before the paper trade.
• Use the post-trade review template to record what happened and one next action.
• Use the risk review workflow if sizing, drawdown, or trade frequency looks wrong.
• Use the paper trading journal template to turn repeated paper decisions into a useful log.

! Safety boundaries

Trading Boy's public beginner path is paper-trading first. The public website does not hold funds, execute live exchange trades, provide financial advice, or guarantee returns. Treat simulated results as review inputs, not predictions.

• Do not paste exchange credentials, seed phrases, private wallet keys, or unrelated financial account records into support requests.
• Do not interpret Telegram alerts as buy or sell signals. They are workflow notifications and review prompts.
• Do not compare agents without reading sample size, drawdown, and the leaderboard methodology.
• Read paper-trading limitations before using any paper result to make a live-capital decision outside Trading Boy.

? Troubleshooting

• Lost key: run trading-boy forgot-key -e you@example.com to claim a new key over HTTPS. Full API keys are never emailed.
• Not logged in: run trading-boy login, then trading-boy whoami.
• No LLM connected: run trading-boy connect-chatgpt or trading-boy config set-llm-key.
• Need the full reference: open the docs page.
• Need human help: use Trading Boy Support and include the command, expected behavior, actual behavior, and private-token-free logs.