Set up with your AI agent

Installed the starter before 2 November 2026?

Update it to the current main of hive-trade/bots before any live run. Older copies place Polymarket orders from a bot wallet of their own and sign their own stake, and their Kalshi rule accepts only three crypto series. The current starter only signs the Call: HiveTrade places the order in your own HiveTrade account, and each Call stakes the Hive's Amount per Call within its Total budget. Never work around an API refusal by placing a local order.

You can build and register a bot without typing code or filling in forms by hand. Your AI agent does the setup work on your computer. You make the decisions that involve your accounts and your money, including what the bot trades.

HiveTrade provides tools to help, never financial advice or what to trade. Your agent implements and tests the rule you describe. It does not suggest, rank or improve strategies or markets; if you ask it to, it says choosing what to trade is your decision.

What your agent does, and what only you do

Step	Who
Ask for your choices: venue, bot name, market, your rule, Amount per Call, Total budget, where it runs	Your agent asks, you answer
Choose what to trade: the market, the rule, the amounts	You
Create the bot's signing key: run one command and give your agent the public address	You
Implement exactly your rule, run the tests and a dry run	Your agent
Prepare a pre-filled Create a bot Hive link	Your agent
Check the signing address on that page and press Create bot Hive	You
Read the new Hive ID back and save it in the bot's settings	Your agent
Set the Hive's Amount per Call and Total budget when you create it (change them later in Hive HQ); on Polymarket, allow the bot; on Kalshi, create your API key, connect it in Settings and press Allow copy-trading	You
Host the bot on a server (dry runs only today, no orders)	Your agent guides, you approve the hosting account
Turn on real orders	You, only when you intend to trade

Get started

Claude Code. Install the HiveTrade plugin, then ask it to set up my HiveTrade bot:

/plugin marketplace add hive-trade/bots
/plugin install hivetrade-bot@hivetrade

The plugin adds a guided setup skill and a small helper (an MCP server) that runs on your computer, next to your bot's files. The first time, it installs what it needs, which can take about a minute. If it shows as failed, reconnect it from /mcp.

Any other AI agent. Paste this prompt (the beginner version of this page is Set up in one prompt):

Set up my own HiveTrade bot using https://github.com/hive-trade/bots.
I'm new to this, so explain each step in plain words.
1. Clone the repository into a new folder, then read README.md and AGENTS.md.
2. Ask me a few questions: Polymarket or Kalshi, my bot's name, the exact
   market (a link or its name), my own trading rule in my own words, the Amount
   per Call (what each Call stakes) and the Total budget for my Hive, and whether
   it should run on this computer or on a server.
3. Tell me the command that creates my bot's signing key. I'll run it myself
   and give you only the public address. Never read or open the file that
   holds the private key.
4. Implement exactly my rule, run the tests, and show me a dry run with its
   decision trace. Do not suggest, rank or improve strategies or markets:
   choosing what to trade is my decision.
5. Give me a pre-filled "Create a bot Hive" link. I will check the signing
   address and press Create myself.
6. Find my new Hive, then tell me exactly which steps I still have to do myself.
Never turn on real trading unless I clearly ask you to.

Agents that support MCP can also start the helper from the example repository with node mcp/server.mjs.

Creating the Hive

Your agent gives you a link to the Create a bot Hive page with the name, description, category, venue and the bot's public signing address already filled in.

1. Open the link where you're signed in to HiveTrade. If you need to sign in first, the form stays filled.
2. Check that the signing address matches the one you created. The page reminds you whenever the address came from a link. If it doesn't match, don't continue.
3. Review the other fields, including Visibility (Private unless you pick Public), then press Create bot Hive. Nothing is created before you do.
4. Tell your agent it's done. It finds the new Hive using a request signed by the bot's own key, so you don't copy the ID by hand. If it can't, give it the Hive ID the page shows.

Private or public

A new bot Hive is Private: only people with its invite link can join, and it does not appear on Discover or in public lookups. A public lookup of its Hive ID answers "not found"; your agent's signed lookup still finds it.

To make it public, pick Public under Visibility when you create it, or later open Hive HQ, then Who can join, and press Request public listing. HiveTrade reviews the request; the Hive stays invite-only until it is approved.

Why a link and not automatic sign-up? Your agent never signs in as you and never holds a login for your account. On Kalshi, a bot Hive's orders are placed in your own Kalshi account with the key you connect. So you approve the exact signing address each time you create one.

What the helper never does

• Open, show or send your private key. It stays in the bot's .env file on your computer.
• Publish a Call, place an order or turn on real trading.
• Move funds, or read your HiveTrade or venue login.

A bot needs to keep running to publish Calls, so trading happens in the bot you host, never inside a chat.

Next steps

• Polymarket: set the bot's amounts and allow it, and make sure your own HiveTrade account has enough Polymarket cash available to that bot's budget, accounting for your other Member and Captain budgets. No extra cash outside the bot's own funded budget is needed.
• Kalshi: create your API key, then connect it in Settings.
• Then run locally or host and verify before going live.