alpaca

name	alpaca
description	Agent-callable Alpaca trading tools — place and manage stock, crypto, and options orders, read account balances, positions, and portfolio history, look up assets and market hours, and read watchlists. Use when the user mentions Alpaca or wants to trade or inspect a brokerage account, even if they don't name Alpaca explicitly.
license	Elastic-2.0
compatibility	Run `npm install --omit=dev` in this directory, then `node cli.js`. The TypeScript source needs Node.js 22.18+; on older Node, run `cli.js` for build-it-yourself / prebuilt / alternative-runtime options.
metadata	{"source":"https://github.com/zapier/connectors/blob/main/apps/alpaca/SKILL.md","title":"Alpaca","api-docs":"https://docs.alpaca.markets/reference","zapier-app-key":"AlpacaCLIAPI"}

Alpaca

Tools for trading on Alpaca against the Trading API: place and manage stock, crypto, and options orders; read account balances, positions, portfolio history, and activities; look up assets, market hours, and option contracts; and read watchlists. 25 scripts across account, orders, positions, assets, options, and watchlists. Trades run against Alpaca's paper (simulated) environment by default; live real-money trading requires an explicit opt-in (see Auth). Money and quantity values are returned as strings to preserve decimal precision — never coerce them to numbers. Order placement is async-confirmed: placeOrder acknowledges receipt with a status that can change server-side, so re-query getOrder before asserting a fill.

Independent, unofficial connector for Alpaca. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Alpaca. "Alpaca" is a trademark of its owner, used only to identify the service this connector works with.

When to use this

• Inspect the account — read balances and buying power, list open positions and unrealized P&L, review portfolio history and account activities (fills, dividends, fees), or check whether the market is open.
• Place and manage orders — buy or sell stocks, crypto, or options (market/limit/stop/bracket/OCO/OTO/multi-leg); replace or cancel open orders; close or liquidate positions; exercise an options position.
• Look things up — resolve a symbol's tradability/shortability/fractionability, list assets or option contracts, and read watchlists.

Setup

This is an agentskills.io skill.

If the connector has not been installed as a skill yet, install it first with npx skills add zapier/connectors --skill alpaca (or your harness's own skill-install mechanism), then continue here. Installing the skill copies these files, not dependencies. Before running the CLI, a local MCP server, or zapier-sdk auth commands, run npm install --omit=dev here once. Importing the published package as a dependency in your own project instead? That npm install already resolves everything — see references/use-as-sdk.md.

Want the actual repo source instead — to browse references/, run this connector's tests, or hack on it? See README.md for a scoped git clone.

The connector runs on Node.js 22.18+. Pick the reference that matches how you're running it, and load it before doing anything else:

You have...	Load
An MCP-aware client — tools may already be loaded (e.g. mcp__alpaca__<tool>), or you can register a local server yourself (or guide the user to)	references/use-as-mcp.md
Terminal / subprocess access (you can run node)	references/use-as-cli.md
Only your own code, importing this package as a dependency	references/use-as-sdk.md
No tool access, no terminal, no ability to import this package — you write your own code that calls the Alpaca API directly (e.g. a code-execution sandbox)	references/use-as-recipe.md

Scripts

All scripts use the single connection alpaca. Trading tools hit the paper host by default (live requires an opt-in — see Auth).

Script	Script name	Connections	Description
scripts/getAccount.ts	getAccount	alpaca	Get account balances, buying power, equity, and trading-permission flags.
scripts/getAccountConfigurations.ts	getAccountConfigurations	alpaca	Get the account's trading configuration flags.
scripts/getPortfolioHistory.ts	getPortfolioHistory	alpaca	Get the account's equity and P&L time series over a period.
scripts/listAccountActivities.ts	listAccountActivities	alpaca	List account activities — fills, dividends, fees, transfers — by type and date.
scripts/placeOrder.ts	placeOrder	alpaca	Place an order to buy or sell a stock, crypto pair, or option.
scripts/replaceOrder.ts	replaceOrder	alpaca	Replace (modify) an open order's quantity, price, or time-in-force.
scripts/cancelOrder.ts	cancelOrder	alpaca	Cancel one open order by id.
scripts/cancelAllOrders.ts

Disambiguation & refusals

Disambiguation before a write. Trade and position tools key on an exact symbol or id, not a company name. Before acting on something the user named loosely:

• Symbols / assets — if the user gives a company name ("Apple") rather than a ticker, resolve it first with getAsset or listAssets. If exactly one asset matches, act on it; if several plausibly match, list them (symbol + name + exchange) and ask which. Never guess a ticker.
• Watchlists — resolve by name with getWatchlistByName or listWatchlists. Names are unique per account, so one exact (case-insensitive) match is the answer — act on it, don't over-ask. If nothing matches, say so. This connector reads watchlists but does not create or modify them (see Unsupported operations).
• Orders / positions — take an order_id or symbol the user already has (from listOrders / listPositions). If they describe an order vaguely ("cancel my Tesla order"), list the candidates first and confirm before canceling.

Unsupported operations — say so and stop; don't fake it with another tool. This connector deliberately does not:

• Move money — no deposits, withdrawals, transfers, bank links, or funding. Those live on Alpaca's Broker API and are out of scope.
• Read market data — quotes, bars, snapshots, news, corporate actions, and option chains are out of scope. This connector wraps Alpaca's Trading API only, not the Market Data API (data.alpaca.markets); there are no price/history or streaming tools.
• Create or modify watchlists, or change account configuration — this connector reads watchlists (listWatchlists / getWatchlist / getWatchlistByName) and account settings (getAccountConfigurations) but does not create, update, or delete them.
• Trade against a live account by default — trading is paper (simulated) unless the user has explicitly enabled live (see Auth). If asked to trade real money, confirm live is enabled rather than assuming.
• Manage the stock screener, OAuth apps, or account documents — not exposed.

If asked for any of these, tell the user it's unsupported and stop — don't substitute an unrelated tool and report success for an action you didn't perform.

Auth

Every shape passes auth as one connection selector, not the secret — a [<resolver>:]<value> string. Every connector accepts zapier:<connection-id> (Zapier-managed auth — routes through Zapier's auth, retries, and governance layer); some also accept one or more direct-token resolvers (naming and count vary per connector) — check this connector's own resolvers rather than assuming. The <resolver>: prefix is optional; a bare value goes to the first resolver that claims it — a UUID-shaped bare value always claims zapier:. Each script declares the connections it needs and the resolvers each accepts. The exact syntax for passing a connection (and how to see this connector's resolver list) differs by shape — see the reference you loaded above.

Checking what's already configured first? Don't dump environment values to do it — env or env | grep <name> prints the value along with the name, leaking a live credential into the transcript if one is set. Check names only (env | cut -d= -f1 | grep -i <name>) or test a known name directly ([ -n "$VAR_NAME" ]).

Zapier-managed auth (zapier:<connection-id>) is experimental for Alpaca — the direct resolver (alpaca:<PREFIX>) is the verified path.

No connection yet? Pick one — and follow the reference's own flow to obtain it; never just ask the user for a connection id or token as if they already have one memorized:

	Load
Pass the credential directly	references/use-without-zapier.md
Route it through a Zapier connection	references/use-with-zapier.md

Output format

Every script returns a { data, meta } envelope:

• data — the script's result (the shape its outputSchema declares; see the reference you loaded above for how to inspect a script's exact schema in your shape).
• meta.outputDataValidation — what validating data did:
  • { skipped: false, droppedPaths: null } — validated, nothing removed.
  • { skipped: false, droppedPaths: [...], instruction } — validated, but those paths were stripped from data: fields the script returned from the API that the outputSchema doesn't declare. If you need them, re-run with output validation skipped.
  • { skipped: true } — validation was bypassed; data is the raw, unchecked script output.

Reading dropped fields / skipOutputDataValidation. To receive the raw, unvalidated result, opt out of output validation (the exact syntax differs by shape — see the reference you loaded above). Input validation is never skipped.

Trimming the result / filterOutputData. To shrink a large result down to the fields you need, pass a jq expression that post-processes data (again, exact syntax per shape). The jq runs against data only, NOT the { data, meta } envelope, so write it rooted at data (run the script's --help — or your shape's equivalent — to see its output schema). The transformed value replaces data, meta is preserved, and the result is NOT re-validated against the output schema.

References

Load the matching reference file before working in that area:

Reference	Covers	Load it when
references/alpaca-api-gotchas.md	Alpaca API behavior the schemas don't capture: auth & paper/live hosts, the {code, message} error envelope + status codes, rate limits, pagination, order types/TIF/classes (bracket/oco/oto/mleg), fractional/notional & extended-hours rules, order lifecycle & cancel/replace, position close/liquidate/exercise, and account/watchlist/calendar details	Load before placing, replacing, or canceling orders; closing or exercising positions; or whenever a call returns an unexpected HTTP status or error code