Setup.

• A laptop with a working terminal, macOS Terminal, Windows Terminal/PowerShell, or any Linux shell.
• Python 3.11+, the bonus pack’s skills and smoke-test script are Python.
• A Claude account. Free works for Day 0; Claude Pro is recommended from Day 4 onwards when the agent skills come into play.
• An external wallet (MetaMask, Rabby, or Coinbase Wallet) with at least $5 USDC and a dollar or two of ETH on Base. USDC funds your trades; ETH covers gas. Enough for the entire 7-day exercise.
• A Limitless HMAC API key tied to that wallet. You’ll mint it in Step 03; full handshake at docs.limitless.exchange/developers/authentication.
• A Discord account. The Lab runs in the public Limitless server, you’ll get the role after applying.

1. 01

   Core toolchain.

   The Lab runs on the same three primitives as the API Academy: a language runtime, a terminal, and Git. All three must be working before Step 04, that’s where you’ll git clone the Lab repo. Verify first, install whatever’s missing, then move on.

   Verify in your terminal

   $ python3 --version # need 3.11 or newer $ git --version # any recent version $ echo "hello" # should print: hello

   If git --version failed, install it now, you’ll need it in Step 04:

   Install Git

   # macOS (Homebrew, or accept the Xcode CLT prompt the first time you run git) $ brew install git # Ubuntu / Debian $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git # Windows (winget, PowerShell or cmd, then restart your terminal) $ winget install Git.Git

   If python3 --version failed, the API Academy setup has the full Python install + Windows troubleshooting walkthrough at api_academy/setup.html#install. After installing anything new on Windows, close and reopen your terminal so PATH picks up.

2. 02

   Claude + Claude Code.

   Claude is the Lab’s code-writing collaborator, and across Days 4–5 you install three Claude skills that wrap the Limitless API with safety rails. You’ll want both the web app (for conversation) and Claude Code (for local file access and tool use).

   Sign in at claude.ai. Free tier is fine for kickoff; upgrade to Claude Pro before Day 4, the agent skills chew through messages quickly once you’re iterating. Then install Claude Code with one command (works on macOS, Linux, and Windows native or WSL):

   Install Claude Code

   $ npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code $ claude --version

   Once it’s installed, start a session by typing claude in any terminal (in your project folder once you have one). The first run prompts you to sign in; after that it’s a single command to drop into a coding session.

   Start a session

   $ claude # prompts to sign in on first run

   Requires Node.js 18+. If you don’t have Node yet, the API Academy setup has install commands.

   Which interface you’ll use when. Days 1–3: mostly claude.ai in a browser tab. Days 4–7: mostly Claude Code in your terminal so it can read your project files, run the bonus-pack skills, and watch logs live.

3. 03

   External wallet, HMAC API key + funding.

   Limitless authenticates individual traders with an HMAC-signed key tied to an external wallet, every authenticated call your bot makes signs a payload with the secret you mint here. The wallet has to come first because the key is scoped to the address you connect with. The full handshake is documented at docs.limitless.exchange/developers/authentication.

   Set up an external wallet. MetaMask, Rabby, or Coinbase Wallet, whichever you already trust. Inside the wallet, “Create new account” so the burner is isolated from your main address. Never reuse your daily-driver wallet for the Lab.

   Fund it on Base with two assets:

   • At least $5 USDC on Base, what your trades are denominated in. Day 3 places your first $1–2 real order; $5 covers the whole week with room to retry.
   • A small amount of ETH on Base for gas, signing orders and approvals on Base costs gas paid in ETH. A dollar or two is plenty for the cohort.

   Mint the HMAC key. Connect your funded wallet at limitless.exchange. Profile menu → API keys → Create key, sign the wallet prompt, and copy the secret immediately, it’s shown once. Paste it into your password manager and into LIMITLESS_API_KEY in your .env in Step 04.

   Full walkthroughs: API Academy · external wallet setup and API Academy · HMAC API key. Canonical signing reference: docs.limitless.exchange/developers/authentication.

4. 04

   Bonus pack + .env.

   The bonus/ folder ships with the Lab. It holds the three Claude skills you’ll install across Days 4–5, the control-panel template you drop on Day 3, a runtime checklist, workflow docs, and the smoke-test script you’ll run in the next step. Clone the repo now so everything’s in place before Day 1.

   Clone and install

   # Get the Lab repo (you'll receive the exact URL in the welcome email) $ git clone <lab-repo-url> limitless-trader-lab $ cd limitless-trader-lab/bonus # Install Python deps for the smoke test and trading skill $ pip install -r skills/trading/requirements.txt

   Create your .env in bonus/.env by copying .env.example. No quotes around values:

   bonus/.env

   LIMITLESS_API_KEY=token_id_replace_me LIMITLESS_API_SECRET=base64_secret_replace_me # Day 3+ only, used to sign orders PRIVATE_KEY=0xabc123... OWNER_ID=0xYourWalletAddress # Safety rail, start true, flip on Day 7 DRY_RUN=true

   Add the file to .gitignore so it never leaves your laptop:

   project root .gitignore

   .env .env.local *.pem private_key.txt

   New to editing text files? You don’t need a full IDE to edit a .env. Right-click the file, choose “Open with”, and pick a plain-text editor: Notepad++ on Windows (free download), BBEdit or TextEdit (Format → Make Plain Text) on macOS, gedit or nano on Linux. Do not use Word or Google Docs, they insert formatting that breaks .env.

   Leave DRY_RUN=true until Day 7. Every skill in the bonus pack honors this flag. With DRY_RUN=true, the Trading skill signs and validates orders locally but never POSTs them. You’ll flip it to false on Day 7 under coach supervision.

5. 05

   Run the smoke test.

   verify-setup.py is a single script that checks everything above in about five seconds. If it prints all green ticks, you’re done. If something fails, its error message tells you which step to revisit.

   One command

   # From the bonus/ folder $ python verify-setup.py # Or from the repo root $ python bonus/verify-setup.py

   Exit code 0 means all required checks passed. Exit code 1 means at least one required check failed; the script tells you which.

   What it checks:

   • Python version is 3.11 or newer.
   • Required packages are installed (requests, PyYAML). Flags missing optionals (eth-account, web3) with warnings, not errors.
   • Environment variables are present (LIMITLESS_API_KEY + LIMITLESS_API_SECRET required, both feed the HMAC signing path; PRIVATE_KEY, OWNER_ID, DRY_RUN optional).
   • Limitless API is reachable and your key authenticates (GET /markets/active).
   • EIP-712 signing works locally, signs a dummy order without sending it. Only runs if your PRIVATE_KEY is set.
6. 06

   Join the Limitless Discord.

   The Lab runs inside the public Limitless Discord, same server the rest of the community uses. Join it before Day 0; the coach grants your cohort role within an hour of accepting your application, and check-ins happen during the live kickoff.

   One channel for the cohort. Every check-in, every deliverable, every screenshot lands in the same place. No per-day channels, the conversation stays in one thread so the cohort sees each other’s work as it ships.

   #trader-lab

   Two roles you’ll see.

   Trader Lab 1 Trader Lab Alumni

   Trader Lab 1 is granted on application acceptance and unlocks the #trader-lab channel for the week. After your Day 7 deliverable, the coach swaps it for Trader Lab Alumni, permanent, carries forward to every future cohort.

• Set your server nickname to the name you applied under. Makes the cohort roster readable for the coach.
• Post every daily deliverable in #trader-lab with a [D1]…[D7] tag in your caption. Screenshots count.
• Stuck? Same channel, tag the coach with [help] in the first line, then describe the snag. Alumni mentors answer there too from Cohort 2 onwards.
• Never paste your API key or private key in Discord. Ever. Redact before you hit send.

Toolchain installed, Claude signed in, Limitless key minted, wallet funded, bonus pack cloned, smoke test green, Limitless Discord joined and your Trader Lab 1 role accepted. That’s the whole list. The kickoff call spends its hour getting everyone to their first authenticated GET /markets/active, together.