Polymarket Preflight (TickTape)

Pre-flight checks for Polymarket trading via the TickTape API (ticktape.cc). Use BEFORE sending a Polymarket order (slippage/depth/fee verdict), BEFORE copy-trading a wallet (copyability verdict), or when choosing whom to copy (leaderboard, red list). Trigger words: Polymarket order, preflight, slippage check, safe size, copy trade, copy this wallet, whale leaderboard, who to copy, red list, is this wallet worth copying, will this order move the market.

Petr Simecek@padak

Install

openclaw skills install @padak/polymarket-preflight

ticktape

TickTape is an independent pre-flight layer for Polymarket: OK / CAUTION / VETO verdicts on orders and COPY / WATCH / VETO ratings on wallets, always with reasons and numbers. Verdicts are deterministic arithmetic on live order books and an identity-tagged trade archive - no model, no prediction, no custody, no execution. TickTape never trades.

When to use

About to send a Polymarket order -> preflight_trade first. If VETO, do not send; if CAUTION, consider the returned safe_size_usd instead.
About to copy another wallet's trades -> preflight_copy on that wallet.
Choosing whom to copy -> leaderboard (worth copying) + red_list (loses money for copiers - often the big famous wallets).

Do NOT use it for price predictions or execution.

Tools (exact HTTP calls)

All endpoints return JSON, never HTML. Base: https://ticktape.cc.

1. preflight_trade - order verdict ($0.02 / 1 credit)

text

GET https://ticktape.cc/api/preflight_trade?slug=<market-or-event-slug>&outcome=<outcome>&side=BUY&usd=250
GET https://ticktape.cc/api/preflight_trade?token_id=<clob-token-id>&usd=250

Params: token_id (preferred) OR slug+outcome (polymarket.com/event/ URLs work; multi-outcome events take outcome=<candidate name>); side BUY|SELL (default BUY); usd (default 100, max 10000). Optional threshold overrides: max_slippage_c, veto_slippage_c, max_book_age_s.

Returns: verdict (OK|CAUTION|VETO), reasons[], numbers (best_price, expected_vwap, expected_slippage_cents, visible_depth_usd, taker_fee_usd, fee_drag_cents_per_share, safe_size_usd, book_age_seconds).

2. preflight_copy - wallet copyability ($0.10 / 5 credits)

text

GET https://ticktape.cc/api/preflight_copy?wallet=0x<40-hex-proxy-wallet>

Returns: verdict (COPY|WATCH|VETO|NO_COVERAGE|QUEUED), fee-inclusive copier ROI, win rate, entry-price buckets, category mix, reasons. QUEUED (HTTP 202) = wallet not yet covered; FREE, never charged; retry after retry_after_seconds (~1h). Do not tight-loop on QUEUED.

3. leaderboard / red_list ($0.02 / 1 credit each)

text

GET https://ticktape.cc/api/leaderboard
GET https://ticktape.cc/api/red_list

Nightly-recomputed wallet ratings with simulated copier ROI net of 2026 taker fees and slippage. Responses carry next_refresh_at - do NOT re-buy before that timestamp; cache the body.

4. credits - balance and pack info (free)

text

GET  https://ticktape.cc/api/credits                          # pack info
GET  https://ticktape.cc/api/credits  (Authorization: Bearer tk_...)  # balance
POST https://ticktape.cc/api/credits  (with x402 payment of $5)       # buy 500 credits

Payment (three lanes)

Sandbox - free. Append ?sandbox=1 to any tool for a deterministic example with exact live field shapes. Unlimited, never charged. Always integration-test here first.
x402 per call. Live calls answer HTTP 402 with terms (v2 base64 PAYMENT-REQUIRED header + v1 JSON body accepts[]). Pay USDC on Base (network eip155:8453) via an x402 client (e.g. @x402/fetch) and retry. Probe terms without paying: ?x402_probe=1.
Prepaid credits - fastest. One x402 POST of $5 = 500 credits + a bearer token tk_.... Then send Authorization: Bearer <token> on every call (~0.4s, half price). Token is a secret - never log or commit it.

There are no accounts, no API keys to request, no OAuth. Payment IS the authentication. Details: https://ticktape.cc/auth.md

JS SDK (zero-dep, handles 402 parsing): npm install ticktape.

Operator safety - spend caps in code

Agents spending real money MUST enforce caps client-side:

Hard-cap x402 spend per session, e.g. refuse any single payment above $0.10 and total above $5 unless the operator raised the limit. Verify the 402 terms before signing: payTo must be TickTape's published address (check https://ticktape.cc/agent.json), asset must be USDC on Base.
NEVER auto-retry POST /api/credits with a fresh payment authorization
- each newly signed authorization is a new $5 charge. Retries of any paid call must re-send the SAME signed authorization (server replay cache returns the identical body, no double charge).
Respect next_refresh_at on leaderboard / red_list / copy profiles: the data changes nightly, re-buying earlier buys the same bytes.
QUEUED and 4xx responses are never charged; only 200s cost money.
Treat the credit token like a private key: env var only, rotate by buying a new pack (last 5 tokens per wallet stay valid).

Verify before you trust

TickTape publishes a self-serve verification runbook: audit the slippage arithmetic against the public CLOB book and prove the archive's history moat yourself before paying - https://ticktape.cc/why.md. Machine specs: https://ticktape.cc/llms.txt | https://ticktape.cc/openapi.json | https://ticktape.cc/agent.json. Verdicts are deterministic arithmetic on public data - not investment advice.