Install OctoBot on Python and Git

Requirements

• Packages installed : Python3.13.X, Python3.13.X-dev, Python3.13.X-pip, git
• Build system: Pants

OctoBot’s Python code is a monorepo: each part of OctoBot (commons, trading, evaluators, …) lives in its own folder under packages and is built with Pants.

Pants is not bundled with OctoBot, install the scie-pants launcher once and it will bootstrap the Pants version required by OctoBot’s pants.toml on its first run. Installation instructions are on the Pants installation page.

Installation

First, make sure you have python3.13 and python3.13-dev and python3.13-pip installed on your computer.

Using the current stable version (master branch)

This is the recommended python installation.

Clone the OctoBot repository

git clone https://github.com/Drakkar-Software/OctoBot

Create a virtual environment to contain OctoBot’s dependencies and activate it :

cd OctoBot
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Install python packages. This command installs every third party dependency of the OctoBot packages into the currently activated virtual environment :

pants install-deps --full ::

--full also includes the optional dependencies listed in the full_requirements.txt files, which are required by some tentacles.

On some setup like 32-bit ARM architectures, you might get a rust related error while running pants install-deps --full :: when installing cryptography. If this happens, you need to install the rust compiler: cryptography is coded in rust.

sudo apt-get install -y rustc

You can then restart pants install-deps --full ::.

Using the latest version (dev branch)

This is installation allows to use the most up-to-date version of OctoBot but might broken depending on the moment it is being done (modules updates might be in progress in this branch).

Clone the OctoBot repository using the dev branch

git clone https://github.com/Drakkar-Software/OctoBot -b dev

Or if you already have an OctoBot repository

git checkout dev
git pull

Setting PYTHONPATH

OctoBot’s packages are not installed into your virtual environment, they are used directly from their folder in the repository. Python therefore needs to know where each of them is: this is what PYTHONPATH is for.

From the OctoBot repository folder :

ROOT=$PWD
export PYTHONPATH="$ROOT:$ROOT/packages/agents:$ROOT/packages/async_channel:$ROOT/packages/backtesting:$ROOT/packages/binary:$ROOT/packages/commons:$ROOT/packages/copy:$ROOT/packages/evaluators:$ROOT/packages/flow:$ROOT/packages/node:$ROOT/packages/protocol:$ROOT/packages/services:$ROOT/packages/sync:$ROOT/packages/tentacles_manager:$ROOT/packages/trading"

Notes:

• Use absolute paths, some OctoBot subprocesses are started from other folders and would not be able to resolve relative ones.
• This list mirrors the root_patterns of OctoBot’s pants.toml, update it when a new package is added.

Installing latest tentacles :

Warning: using the latest tentacles might break your OctoBot

cd OctoBot
pants install-deps --full ::
export TENTACLES_URL_TAG="latest"
python3 start.py tentacles --install --all

Usage

The following command replaces OctoBot Launcher:

python3 start.py

Make sure your virtual environment is activated and PYTHONPATH is set in the terminal running this command. Both are lost when you close your terminal, so they have to be set again in every new one.

Update

Executing the following command will update your Python OctoBot using the latest version of the selected branch (master or dev), as well as installing the latest requirements. Activate your virtual environment first, the dependencies are installed into it.

cd OctoBot
source venv/bin/activate
git pull
pants install-deps --full ::

The next restart will automatically update your OctoBot tentacles.

Python3

There python3 is refering to your Python3.13.X installation, just adapt the commands to match your setup if any different (might be python, python3, python3.13, etc: it depends on your environment).

Start in background

For unix distribution only

With the Linux screen command, you can push running terminal applications to the background and pull them forward when you want to see them.

sudo apt-get install -y screen
screen python3 start.py

You need the number from the start of the window name to reattach it. If you forget it, you can always use the -ls (list) option, as shown below, to get a list of the detached windows:

screen -ls
screen -r 23167

(23167 is an example value)

OctoBot has been working away in the background is now brought back to your terminal window as if it had never left.