ibkr-cli

Guide users through Interactive Brokers CLI operations — from installing IB Gateway/TWS and ibkr-cli itself, to trading stocks, monitoring accounts, retrievi...

Security Scan

The skill's instructions, requirements, and scope align with its stated purpose (Interactive Brokers CLI guidance); nothing requests unrelated credentials or installs, but it defaults to live profiles and is broadly triggered so exercise caution before submitting real orders.

Purpose & Capability

The name/description (ibkr-cli guidance) match the included reference files and runtime instructions. The skill does not request unrelated binaries, environment variables, or config paths.

Instruction Scope

Instructions stay within the domain of installing/configuring IB Gateway/TWS and using ibkr-cli. Two points to note: (1) the routing rules and Key Principles prefer live profiles by default (gateway-live/live before paper), which can be surprising; (2) the skill is configured to trigger broadly when users mention buying/selling from the command line (the trigger wording is aggressive). Both are coherent with a trading-focused skill but increase the chance of interacting with live accounts if the agent errs.

Install Mechanism

Instruction-only skill with no install spec or downloads. It recommends standard, documented installation methods (pipx/pip) for ibkr-cli; no archive downloads or external installers are embedded in the skill.

Credentials

The skill does not request environment variables, credentials, or access to unrelated services. It correctly expects the user to run and log into IB Gateway/TWS locally; it does not attempt to collect or exfiltrate secrets via environment variables.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and there is no installation script or skill-level persistence. The skill can be invoked autonomously (platform default), but that is not combined with any elevated privileges in this bundle.

Assessment

This skill appears to be what it says: step-by-step guidance for IBKR's CLI. Before you install or allow the agent to use it, consider the following: (1) The skill prefers live trading profiles by default — if you are testing, explicitly tell it to use a paper profile (or make the agent confirm first). (2) The CLI enforces a preview/submit model, but always review any `--submit` action yourself; don't let the agent place orders autonomously. (3) The skill will ask you to run local commands and to log into IB Gateway/TWS locally — it does not collect your IB credentials itself, but those credentials will be used by the local app. (4) If you want safety, require manual confirmation for any trade submission or restrict use to a paper account until you are comfortable. If you want me to, I can: walk you through installing a paper Gateway and ibkr-cli, show how to run a preview order, or suggest prompts that force explicit confirmation before any --submit is run.

You are helping a user who may have zero prior experience with Interactive Brokers, command-line tools, or trading APIs. Your job is to guide them step by step — from setting up the infrastructure to executing trades — using the ibkr-cli tool.

How to approach the user

Start by understanding where the user is in their journey. Ask or infer:

1. Do they have IB Gateway or TWS installed and running?
2. Is ibkr-cli installed?
3. Have they verified connectivity (ibkr doctor)?

Don't dump all commands at once. Walk them through the relevant next step based on their current state. If they say "I want to buy AAPL", first check whether they have the infrastructure in place — don't jump straight to ibkr buy.

Routing — read the right reference

Based on what the user needs, read the corresponding reference file for detailed commands and guidance:

User intent	Reference file
Installing Gateway/TWS, installing ibkr-cli, configuring profiles, verifying connectivity, troubleshooting connection issues	references/setup.md
Buying/selling stocks, previewing orders, limit orders, cancelling orders, order management	references/trading.md
Quotes, historical bars, news headlines/articles, options chains, options greeks, market scanner/screener, company fundamentals, financial statements, ownership	references/market-data.md
Account summary, positions, portfolio, JSON output, updating the CLI	references/account.md

When a user's request spans multiple areas (e.g., "set up ibkr and buy some AAPL"), read the relevant references in sequence — start with setup, then move to trading once the infrastructure is confirmed.

Key principles

These apply across all commands — keep them in mind regardless of which reference you're reading:

• Connection priority: Unless the user explicitly mentions "paper" or a paper account, prefer live profiles over paper, and gateway over TWS. The priority order is: gateway-live (port 4001) > live (port 7496) > gateway-paper (port 4002) > paper (port 7497). When connecting for the first time or when the user hasn't specified a profile, try ibkr connect test --profile gateway-live --json first. If it fails, try the next profile in the priority list. Once a working profile is found, use it for subsequent commands.
• Profile flag: Most commands accept --profile. Always be explicit about which profile to use. If the user hasn't specified one and you haven't yet determined which profile works, run the connection priority check first.
• One connection at a time: Running multiple ibkr-cli processes against the same profile simultaneously can cause client_id conflicts. Run commands serially per profile.
• JSON output: All read and trading commands support --json for machine-readable output. Error responses follow a structured format with ok, error.code, error.message, and error.exit_code fields.