Getting started: Self-hosted

Self-hosting runs the same engine as Archon Hosted, on a machine you control. Your trading key never leaves that machine. You do not need to know how to program: an AI coding assistant, such as Claude Code or Codex, does the setup by following Archon’s runbook, and asks you only for what it cannot find itself.

Self-hosting costs nothing beyond early access.

What you need

• Early access to Archon. See Billing.
• A machine that stays on. The engine only protects your account while it runs. A small cloud server is the right home. A desktop that never sleeps works. A laptop that closes at night does not.
• An AI coding assistant: Claude Code or Codex, installed on that machine or able to reach it.
• A Hyperliquid account and an API wallet for it. Connect Hyperliquid shows how.

1. Get your personal prompt

Sign in to the app, choose a rule, and open the Run it page. It gives you a one-line prompt for your assistant and a runbook written for your account. The prompt tells the assistant where the runbook is.

2. Paste it into your assistant

Open Claude Code or Codex in an empty folder on the machine that will run Archon, paste the prompt, and let it work. It reports after each step, in one line, what it did and what it saw.

It will stop and ask you for exactly two things:

1. Your Hyperliquid account address, which starts with 0x and has 40 characters after it.
2. Your API wallet’s private key, which starts with 0x and has 64 characters after it.

Never your seed phrase

The runbook forbids the assistant from asking for, accepting or storing a seed phrase or your main wallet’s private key. If it ever asks for 12 or 24 words, refuse and tell it to read the runbook’s rules again.

3. Testnet first

The runbook starts on Hyperliquid’s testnet and will not move to mainnet unless you tell it to, in your own words, after the engine has run cleanly. Give it the testnet API wallet first.

4. Keep the machine awake

If the machine sleeps, your positions stay open on Hyperliquid with nothing watching them, and the 30% halt is not enforced. On a Mac that must do the job, ask your assistant to keep it awake while plugged in. On a server, nothing to do.

5. Check it is running

Your dashboard in the app reads the account straight from Hyperliquid, so you can see positions and fills from any device. The first trade can take hours: the rules decide on 4-hour candles.

Ask your agent

Your assistant can read these docs. Give it the address of this site’s /llms-full.txt, which is every page as plain text, and ask it anything: “is the engine running?”, “why did it sell ETH?”, “what does UNDERSIZED mean?”, “pause new positions until Monday”.

Day to day

You do not need to remember any commands. Ask your assistant, in plain words, to:

• show what the engine did today,
• pause new positions, or resume them,
• close everything,
• re-arm after a halt, once you have looked at why it halted,
• update Archon to the latest rules,
• move the engine to another machine. Stop it on the old one first: two engines on one account double every position.

Controls explains what each of these does. Self-hosting with your AI assistant goes further.