OctoBot Stack Development

Help developers build, extend, and maintain the OctoBot cryptocurrency trading bot stack.

References

Consult these resources as needed:

• ./references/architecture.md — Repository layers, dependency hierarchy, and integration points
• ./references/tentacles.md — Tentacle structure, metadata, exchange implementations, and plugin patterns
• ./references/workflows.md — Common development workflows, CCXT integration, and build tasks

Overview

OctoBot is a modular cryptocurrency trading bot built across multiple repositories with strict layering:

Core Layer (foundational, no upward dependencies):

• OctoBot-Commons – Shared utilities, configuration, logging, data structures
• Async-Channel – Async messaging for decoupled component communication
• OctoBot-Trading – Trading logic, exchange APIs, orders, portfolio management
• OctoBot-Evaluators – Strategy evaluation framework
• OctoBot-Backtesting – Historical data simulation
• trading-backend – Backend services

Extension Layer (plugins):

• OctoBot-Tentacles – Exchange connectors, evaluators, services as installable plugins

Application Layer (end-user apps):

• OctoBot – Main bot application
• OctoBot-Binary, OctoBot-Script, OctoBot-Market-Making, OctoBot-Prediction-Market

Tooling Layer:

• Package-Version-Manager – Version management across repos

Critical Rules

Imports

• Use absolute imports with octobot_ prefix: import octobot_trading.exchanges as exchanges
• Never import upward in the hierarchy (Core cannot import Application/Extension)
• Avoid circular dependencies between modules

Tentacle Structure

Every tentacle requires:

• __init__.py – Package marker
• Main class file (e.g., binance_exchange.py)
• metadata.json – NOT YAML – with "origin_package": "OctoBot-Default-Tentacles"
• tests/ directory with relative imports (from ...binance import Binance)

Exchange Tentacles

• Inherit from RestExchange or CCXTConnector
• Define DESCRIPTION class attribute (string)
• Define DEFAULT_CONNECTOR_CLASS (connector class reference)
• Implement @classmethod get_name(cls) returning lowercase exchange name

File naming:

• Exchange: {exchange}_exchange.py
• WebSocket: {exchange}_websocket.py
• Connector: {exchange}_connector.py or inside ccxt/

PYTHONPATH Setup

Before development, run the “Setup PYTHONPATH” task to include all repos in the Python path:

# VS Code task includes all repos
PYTHONPATH=<workspace>/Async-Channel:<workspace>/OctoBot-Trading:...

Common Workflows

Link Tentacles

# Link OctoBot-Tentacles to application repos
ln -s $(pwd)/OctoBot-Tentacles/ OctoBot/tentacles
ln -s $(pwd)/OctoBot-Tentacles/ OctoBot-Trading/tentacles

Build New Exchange (CCXT)

cd ccxt
npm run emitAPI polymarket && npm run transpileRest polymarket && npm run transpileWs polymarket

• Edit TypeScript sources in ccxt/ts/src/*.ts
• Never use ternary operators or type annotations (breaks transpilation)
• Use handleErrors method with exceptions['exact']/['broad'] mappings

Generate Tentacles

cd OctoBot
python start.py tentacles -p ../../tentacles_default_export.zip -d ../OctoBot-Tentacles

Run OctoBot

cd OctoBot
python start.py

Test Tentacles

cd OctoBot-Tentacles/Trading/Exchange/binance/tests
pytest

Use relative imports in tests: from ...binance import Binance

Quick Checklist

Before committing:

• Imports follow octobot_{repo}.* pattern and respect layer hierarchy
• New tentacles have __init__.py, main file, metadata.json
• Exchange classes inherit RestExchange and implement get_name()
• Tests exist under tests/ with proper fixtures
• CCXT edits avoid ternary operators and type annotations
• No circular dependencies introduced
• Async patterns use asyncio.run() entry points, create_task() for concurrency