Kraken Alert Patterns

kraken-alert-patterns

Use this skill for:

• monitoring price levels and triggering alerts
• detecting spread widening, volume spikes, and volatility shifts
• watching account state changes (fills, balance drops)
• building notification-driven agent workflows

Price Alert (Polling)

Check price at intervals and compare against thresholds:

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PRICE=$(kraken ticker BTCUSD -o json 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.[].last_price')
# Agent compares $PRICE to upper/lower thresholds
# If breached, notify the user

Price Alert (Streaming)

More efficient for continuous monitoring. The agent reads the stream and fires when conditions are met:

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kraken ws ticker BTC/USD -o json 2>/dev/null | while read -r line; do
  LAST=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.data[0].last // empty')
  [ -z "$LAST" ] && continue
  # Compare against thresholds, break or notify on breach
done

Spread Alert

Detect when the bid-ask spread widens beyond a threshold (liquidity warning):

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kraken ws ticker BTC/USD --event-trigger bbo -o json 2>/dev/null | while read -r line; do
  ASK=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.data[0].ask // empty')
  BID=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.data[0].bid // empty')
  [ -z "$ASK" ] || [ -z "$BID" ] && continue
  SPREAD=$(echo "$ASK - $BID" | bc)
  # Alert if spread exceeds threshold
done

Volume Spike Detection

Compare current 24h volume against a baseline:

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kraken ticker BTCUSD -o json 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.[].volume_24h'
# Agent compares to historical average
# Alert if volume > 2x baseline

Volatility Alert (OHLC-Based)

Read recent candles and compute range or standard deviation:

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kraken ohlc BTCUSD --interval 60 -o json 2>/dev/null
# Agent calculates high-low range per candle
# Alert if range exceeds threshold

Balance Change Alert

Monitor for unexpected balance changes:

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INITIAL=$(kraken balance -o json 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.USD // "0"')
# On each check:
CURRENT=$(kraken balance -o json 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.USD // "0"')
# Alert if |CURRENT - INITIAL| exceeds threshold

Streaming alternative:

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kraken ws balances -o json 2>/dev/null
# Each line is a balance update event

Fill Notification

Alert on trade executions:

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kraken ws executions -o json 2>/dev/null | while read -r line; do
  TYPE=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.data[0].exec_type // empty')
  [ "$TYPE" = "trade" ] && echo "Fill: $line"
done

Futures Alerts

Monitor futures positions for margin or P&L thresholds:

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kraken futures positions -o json 2>/dev/null
# Agent checks unrealized P&L against stop-loss threshold

Stream futures balance changes:

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kraken futures ws balances -o json 2>/dev/null

Futures notifications (margin calls, liquidation warnings):

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kraken futures ws notifications -o json 2>/dev/null

Multi-Pair Alert

Watch several pairs and alert on the first one that hits a condition:

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kraken ws ticker BTC/USD ETH/USD SOL/USD -o json 2>/dev/null | while read -r line; do
  PAIR=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.data[0].symbol // empty')
  LAST=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.data[0].last // empty')
  [ -z "$PAIR" ] || [ -z "$LAST" ] && continue
  # Check pair-specific thresholds
done

Notification Delivery

The CLI outputs alerts to stdout. The agent is responsible for delivering notifications through its own channels (Slack, email, push notification, or presenting to the user in chat).

Pattern Summary

Hard Rules

• Alerts are informational; they do not execute trades automatically.
• Prefer streaming over high-frequency polling to reduce API load.
• Close streams when monitoring is no longer needed.
• If you hit a mismatch between what you are trying to do and the CLI's interface or responses — including a mismatch between this skill and the installed CLI version's contract — feel free to submit feedback with kraken feedback.