Python Alpaca API: Installation Instructions

In order to use the Python Alpaca API, you will need to install the Alpaca Python SDK. The Alpaca Python SDK can be installed via pip:

pip install alpaca-trade-api

Alternatively, if you prefer, you can clone the GitHub repository and install the SDK manually:

git clone https://github.com/alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api-python.git

cd alpaca-trade-api-python python http://setup.py install

Once the SDK is installed, you will need to set up your API key. The API key consists of two parts, the key ID and the secret key. The key ID is used to identify you to the Alpaca API, and the secret key is used to sign your API requests. You can find your API key ID and secret key in the Alpaca Dashboard.

Once you have your API keys, you can set them in the environment:

export ALPACA_API_KEY_ID=<your-key-id> export ALPACA_API_SECRET_KEY=<your-secret-key>

Alternatively, you can store your API keys in a configuration file. The SDK will look for the configuration file in ~/.alpaca/config.yaml by default. The file should look like this:

key_id: <your-key-id> secret_key: <your-secret-key>

Once you have your API keys set up, you're ready to start using the Python Alpaca API!