Kraken ships an official CLI so your AI agent can trade for you

What it does

kraken-cli is Kraken’s own command-line client for trading crypto, tokenized US stocks and ETFs (xStocks, non-US customers), forex, and futures. Every command can emit JSON with a stable error field on failure, which makes it unusually scriptable. It ships three binaries: kraken, kraken-mcp (an MCP server exposing up to 152 tools), and kraken-shell.

The interesting bit

The design assumes the primary user might not be a human. The README addresses AI agents directly, ships an AGENTS.md, and includes 59 ready-made “agent skills” for DCA, grid trading, and futures risk. OAuth login creates a restricted Spot API key that can’t withdraw funds and expires after 90 days — sensible guardrails for a world where Claude places your orders.

Key highlights

• Paper trading fills at live prices with no Kraken account, using the same order commands as live trading
• MCP integration for Claude, Cursor, Codex and Gemini; money-moving calls prompt the human on clients that support elicitation
• Record live market data and replay it into paper sessions, then score strategies against pre-set pass criteria
• Single static install, no runtime dependencies; releases are minisign-signed
• Market data commands (ticker, orderbook, OHLC) need no credentials at all

Caveats

• Explicitly labeled experimental software that can execute real financial transactions — the README carries a caution notice and a separate disclaimer
• The kraken CLI itself places orders with no confirmation prompt; the safety prompt only exists on the MCP side
• macOS and Linux only; Windows users are pointed at WSL

Verdict

Worth a look if you trade on Kraken or you’re building agentic trading tooling — the paper-trading and replay features alone justify a star. If you’re not on Kraken, there’s nothing here for you.