About Alpaca Trading MCP Server
Alpaca Trading MCP Server is an MCP server that connects to the Alpaca trading API to manage stock and crypto portfolios, place orders and access market data. Its setup uses Alpaca Paper Trading credentials, suiting users who want AI clients to reach trading functions.
Key features
- 01View account details, balances and portfolio status
- 02Place market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders
- 03View positions, calculate performance and close positions
- 04Access real-time quotes and historical price bars
- 05Look up tradable asset information
Use cases
- 01Querying Alpaca account balances and positions from an AI client
- 02Testing order logic in a paper trading account
- 03Retrieving stock quotes and historical price bars
MCP support
This project is an MCP server that exposes account, order, position, market data and asset resources and tools to MCP clients.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEAlpaca Trading MCP Server
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides an interface to the Alpaca trading API, allowing you to manage your stock and crypto portfolio, place trades, and access market data.
Features
- Account Management: View account details, balances, and portfolio status
- Trading: Place market, limit, stop, and stop-limit orders
- Portfolio Management: View positions, calculate performance, and close positions
- Market Data: Access real-time quotes and historical price data
- Asset Information: Get details about tradable assets
Installation
Installing via Smithery
To install Alpaca Trading MCP Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:
npx -y @smithery/cli install @laukikk/alpaca-mcp --client claude
Manual Installation
- Clone this repository
- Install dependencies:
pip install -e .
Or using uv:
uv pip install -e .
Configuration
- Copy the
.env.examplefile to.env:
cp .env.example .env
- Add your Alpaca Paper Trading API credentials to the
.envfile:
ALPACA_PAPER_API_KEY = "your-api-key"
ALPACA_PAPER_API_SECRET = "your-api-secret"
You can obtain these credentials by creating an account at Alpaca.
Usage
Run the MCP server:
python src/server.py
The server will start and be available for MCP clients to connect to.
Testing with Claude for Desktop
Configuration:
Open your Claude for Desktop App configuration in a text editor. Create the file if it doesn't exist.
- Windows:
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json - Mac:
~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Add the Alpaca MCP server configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"alpaca": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/FOLDER/alpaca-mcp-server",
"run",
"src/server.py"
]
}
}
}
MCP For Server Developers: Quickstart
Available Resources
The server provides the following resources:
account://info- Get current account informationpositions://all- Get all current positionspositions://{symbol}- Get position details for a specific symbolorders://recent/{limit}- Get most recent orders with specified limitmarket://{symbol}/quote- Get current market quote for a specific symbolmarket://{symbol}/bars/{timeframe}- Get historical price bars for a symbol with specified timeframeassets://list- List tradable assets available on Alpacaassets://{symbol}- Get detailed asset information by symbol
Available Tools
The server provides the following tools:
get_account_info_tool- Get current account informationplace_market_order- Place a market order to buy or sell a stockplace_limit_order- Place a limit order to buy or sell a stock at a specified priceplace_stop_order- Place a stop order to buy or sell a stock when it reaches a specified priceplace_stop_limit_order- Place a stop-limit order combining stop and limit order featurescancel_order- Cancel an open order by its IDclose_position- Close an open position for a specific symbolget_portfolio_summary- Get a comprehensive summary of the portfolio
Comments
New to MCP?
From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.
An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.