Connect your Hummingbot

Your bot runs on your machine. These are the four things it needs from us — the connector package, a signed key, this exchange's URL, and a strategy. Step five is optional: run the agent and you can drive it from here too.

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Step 1 · Install the connector into your Hummingbot

Hummingbot cannot see this exchange until its connector package is inside your own checkout. The installer copies both packages, registers them in setup.py, and then imports them exactly the way Hummingbot's own discovery does — so if anything is wrong it tells you, instead of the connector silently not appearing.

# unzip next to your Hummingbot checkout, then:
conda activate hummingbot
python install_connectors.py /path/to/your/hummingbot
 
# verify without changing anything:
python install_connectors.py /path/to/your/hummingbot --doctor

Run it inside the Hummingbot conda environment — the verification step has to use the same interpreter the bot itself runs, or it can pass while Hummingbot still fails to import.

Step 2 · Create an API key and connect it

Hummingbot stores exchange credentials inside your own install, encrypted with your Hummingbot password. Creating a key here does not put it there — you connect it once, interactively.

connect bicrypto
#   API key     -> the key shown on the API Keys page
#   API secret  -> shown ONCE, when you create or rotate the key
#   Base URL    -> this site's URL

Manage API keys

For perpetuals the connector is bicrypto_perpetual, connected the same way.

Step 3 · Add a strategy

Download a controller preset and drop it into your install. The presets are market-agnostic, so set the market in the file to whichever pair you want to quote.

# from the Strategy presets page, save the YAML to:
conf/controllers/my-strategy.yml
 
# then a script config that names it:
conf/scripts/my-bot.yml

Browse strategy presets

Step 4 · Start it

The V2 flag takes the SCRIPT config, which in turn names your controller. Passing the controller file directly is the most common mistake — that flag resolves against conf/strategies/ and will not find it.

conda activate hummingbot
python bin/hummingbot_quickstart.py --headless --v2 my-bot.yml

Then watch it here — the bot console shows the quotes, fills and inventory it has on our books, live.

Open the bot console

Step 5 · Optional: control the bot from here

Everything above is one-way — we see the orders your bot places because they are orders on our exchange. If you also want to start, stop and reconfigure it from this site, run the agent. It sits beside your bot, gives it the MQTT broker it has been looking for since you first started it headless, and dials us. Nothing connects to you: no port to forward, no SSH key, no credential of yours held by anyone.

# the kit you downloaded in step 1 contains it
conda activate hummingbot
export BICRYPTO_API_SECRET='...'   # not --secret: argv is world-readable
python agent/bicrypto_agent.py --url https://this-site --key <API_KEY>
 
# then in conf/conf_client.yml:
#   mqtt_host: 127.0.0.1
#   mqtt_port: 1883
#   mqtt_commands: true

The key must carry the hb:control:bot permission, which is deliberately not part of the trading presets — a key minted to let a bot trade cannot also reconfigure it. The agent needs no extra packages: it contains its own MQTT broker, so there is no mosquitto or EMQX to install.

Open the control panel

Your strategy stays yours

Nothing about how your bot decides — spreads, inventory targets, refresh intervals — is ever stored on this side. We see the orders it places, because those are orders on our exchange. There are exactly two ways this site can affect your bot, and you control both. The agent in step 5 relays only the eight commands Hummingbot's own console exposes, it runs only while you run it, and revoking its key ends that channel. Separately, the emergency stop on the bot console disables your API keys and cancels every resting order — it needs no agent, so it works even when nothing else does.