CLI Reference

The klawtrade command-line interface provides commands for starting the engine, initializing configuration, and checking system status.

klawtrade start

Starts the trading engine. By default, it reads from config/settings.yaml and runs all active strategies.

klawtrade start [options]

Options

Flag	Description
`--sim`	Force simulation mode regardless of config or Alpaca keys.
`-p, --port <number>`	Override the dashboard port. Defaults to 8080 or whatever is set in the config file.
`-c, --config <path>`	Path to a custom config file. Defaults to `config/settings.yaml`.

Examples

# Start with default settings
klawtrade start

# Force simulation mode
klawtrade start --sim

# Use a custom config and port
klawtrade start -c my-config.yaml -p 9090

klawtrade init

Runs the interactive setup wizard that creates your config and environment files. If config files already exist, the wizard will ask before overwriting them.

klawtrade init [directory] [options]

Options

Flag	Description
`-q, --quick`	Skip the interactive wizard and generate config files with default values. Useful for automated setups or CI environments.

Examples

# Interactive setup in current directory
klawtrade init

# Quick setup with defaults
klawtrade init --quick

# Initialize in a specific directory
klawtrade init ~/my-trading-project

klawtrade backtest

Runs a historical backtest by downloading market data, replaying it through strategies and the risk manager, and printing performance metrics including Sharpe ratio, win rate, max drawdown, and trade statistics.

klawtrade backtest [options]

Options

Flag	Description
`--start-date <YYYY-MM-DD>`	Start date for the backtest period (required).
`--end-date <YYYY-MM-DD>`	End date for the backtest period (required).
`--symbols <list>`	Comma-separated ticker symbols. Defaults to the watchlist in your config.
`--strategy <name>`	Strategy to test: momentum, mean_reversion, or all (default: all).
`--capital <amount>`	Starting capital (default: 100000).

Examples

# Backtest all strategies on default watchlist
klawtrade backtest --start-date 2024-01-01 --end-date 2024-12-31

# Backtest momentum on specific stocks with $50k
klawtrade backtest --start-date 2024-06-01 --end-date 2024-12-31 \
  --symbols AAPL,MSFT,NVDA --strategy momentum --capital 50000

klawtrade status

Checks if KlawTrade is running by querying the dashboard API. Shows equity, cash, daily P&L, number of open positions, and whether the circuit breaker is active.

klawtrade status [options]

Options

Flag	Description
`-p, --port <number>`	Dashboard port to check. Defaults to 8080.

Examples

# Check status on default port
klawtrade status

# Check status on a different port
klawtrade status -p 9090