Ask a legend

Run a single-legend analysis from $ARGUMENTS — a legend (name/nickname), a symbol, and optionally a timeframe and platform (e.g. "gann eurusd 15m", "what does Wyckoff think of BTCUSD?", "livermore on AAPL from tradingview"). Default timeframe is 1h if omitted.

0. Bootstrap (every run — cheap and idempotent)

Run scripts/setup.sh (in this skill's own directory) and capture its stdout as TLC_HOME (it clones/updates github.com/FXDavid-OffbeatForex/TLC under ~/.tlc/ and installs requirements.txt into an isolated venv at $TLC_HOME/.venv). cd "$TLC_HOME" and add the venv to PATH before every command below: export PATH="$TLC_HOME/.venv/bin:$TLC_HOME/.venv/Scripts:$PATH" (POSIX venvs use bin, Windows-native venvs use Scripts — only one will exist, so prepending both is safe everywhere). This makes plain python3 (or python on Windows, which usually has no python3 shim) resolve to the venv with deps installed — not to any other Python that happens to be on PATH (e.g. the harness's own bundled interpreter), which would silently run against the wrong environment and fail with confusing import errors. If the script fails, report the exact error — do not fall back to a half-installed run.

Do all of this skill's work in the terminal tool, inside $TLC_HOME — never execute_code or any other code-sandbox tool for tlc.* commands. Those sandboxes are a separate, isolated Python environment without this project's venv, MetaTrader5, or MBT's core module, so a tlc.* call there fails with a misleading ModuleNotFoundError/NotImplementedError. Three rules follow:

• An import/ModuleNotFoundError is almost never a real data outage. It means the wrong tool ran the command, or the venv/cwd from §0 didn't carry into this call. Re-assert cd "$TLC_HOME" + the PATH export in terminal and retry there. Never let such an error override data you already fetched successfully earlier in the same conversation — reuse that data, don't discard it.
• Read and write this skill's files in terminal too — temp frames.json/ packet.json/ballot.json, spec files, config.yaml/.env. Every path here is relative to $TLC_HOME; if you use any other tool for a file, give it the absolute path under $TLC_HOME, or the next terminal command won't find it.
• The fetched OHLCV packet is your only market-data source. Never substitute a price or quote from web search, a browser, or any other tool — that is a subtler form of fabricating data.

0b. First-run setup (auto-configure — runs ONLY when config is missing)

Still inside $TLC_HOME, check for config: ls .env config.yaml 2>/dev/null.

• Both present → already configured. Continue to §1, and do NOT re-prompt for anything (including a TV key): if TradingView is enabled but .env has no TVR_API_KEY, say so once, only the first time a TV symbol is actually requested — never nag it on every run.

• Missing → this is first-run setup. Auto-configure. Do NOT run a question wizard, and never ask about "engine" or "alerts" (Hermes runs the model and handles scheduling/delivery — those TLC settings don't apply here). Do this:

  Setup gate — finish steps 2 and 3 before anything else. After writing config, do NOT advance to §1, fetch data, run an analysis, or answer the legend request until setup is complete. Until then the only things you may emit are the MT5-terminal choice (step 2, when more than one terminal is running) or the TradingView-key prompt (step 3).

  1. Write config.yaml from config.example.yaml: enabled_platforms: [mt5, tradingview], default_platform: mt5, no bridge_url (Docker/ remote only). Write a blank .env scaffold.
  2. MT5 — the zero-config, no-key default. MBT lives at $TLC_HOME/MBT (clone github.com/FXDavid-OffbeatForex/MBT there + pip install -r MBT/requirements.txt if absent); tlc.providers.mt5 puts it on sys.path, so no bridge is needed. Before any fetch, count the running MT5 terminals (Get-Process terminal64 on Windows / pgrep -f terminal64 under Wine):
     • exactly one → mt5.initialize() auto-attaches; leave mt5_path blank.
     • more than one → you MUST list them and ask the user which one, then set mt5_path in MBT/config.yaml to their choice. Never silently pick.
     • none running → search C:\Program Files\**\terminal64.exe and confirm.
  3. TradingView key — ask once here (first-run only, never again). Tell the user TV is optional and needs a free key from tvremix.xyz (account → API keys), then let them add it now or skip:
     • Desktop/local: open $TLC_HOME/.env (code .env / reveal it) and have them paste it in a real editor and save — key stays in the file, not chat.
     • Telegram/remote: they send it; save to $TLC_HOME/.env immediately (and delete their message if the channel supports it). Or "skip" — MT5 works with no key. If skipped, leave TVR_API_KEY blank; TradingView stays unavailable until someone adds it to $TLC_HOME/.env (it's one shared file — set once, works from every interface). Do not re-ask on later runs.

  Never invent or hardcode a key; never put a real secret in config.yaml. Then continue to §1 (do not report a "config missing" failure — you just fixed it).

0c. Open-trade gate (ONLY when the request asks for it)

TLC's scheduler gates scheduled council fires to one open trade at a time (tlc/trade_gate.py). A scheduled single-legend run can opt into the same discipline: while this legend's last signalled trade is still open (neither invalidation nor target hit), a gated fire skips the analysis entirely (no LLM call, no re-alert), and emits a single WIN/LOSS when it resolves.

Trigger — gate this run if, and only if, $ARGUMENTS asks for it: a --gate token, or wording like "open-trade gate", "gated", "one trade at a time", "don't re-alert while a trade is open". A Hermes cron prompt enables it explicitly, e.g. "every 4 hours ask gann about EURUSD 1h with the open-trade gate." An ad-hoc "gann on eurusd" is never gated — if no such signal is present, skip this whole section.

When gated, resolve the legend id (§1) first, then derive the schedule name and run phase 1 (check) before doing any other work. The name embeds the legend id so this state never collides with the council gate on the same symbol/timeframe:

NAME=$(python3 -c "import sys;from tlc.cron import make_name;print(make_name(sys.argv[1]+'_'+sys.argv[2],sys.argv[3]))" <SYMBOL> <LEGEND_ID> <TF>)
python3 -m tlc.trade_gate check "$NAME" <SYMBOL> <TF> [--platform tv|mt5]

Read its last decision line:

• SKIP … → the previous trade is still open (or a fire is in flight). Stop here — do NOT fetch data or run the analysis. If the output also has an OUTCOME {…} line, a trade just resolved: relay that win/loss to the user through the Hermes channel, then stop.
• PROCEED … → clear to run. If an OUTCOME {…} line is present, the previous trade resolved this fire — deliver that WIN/LOSS first (it won't come through any other channel here), then continue normally.

After §2 produces the ballot, arm the gate from it. The gate tracks trades via data/verdicts.jsonl — a ballot alone is invisible to it — so on a gated run save the ballot JSON to a temp file (e.g. ballot.json), emit a verdict-shaped line mapping direction→decision and invalidation→stop, then run phase 2 (record):

python3 -c "import json,sys;from tlc.sinks import LocalJsonSink;b=json.load(open(sys.argv[1]));LocalJsonSink('data').emit_verdict({'decision':b['direction'],'entry':b.get('entry'),'stop':b.get('invalidation'),'target':b.get('target'),'symbol':b['symbol'],'timeframe':b['timeframe'],'platform':b.get('platform',''),'created_at':b.get('created_at',''),'consensus':b.get('conviction'),'rationale':b.get('thesis',''),'single_legend':b.get('legend','')})" ballot.json
python3 -m tlc.trade_gate record "$NAME" <SYMBOL> <TF> [--platform tv|mt5]

A LONG/SHORT ballot is now tracked; the next gated fire skips until it resolves. A FLAT ballot tracks nothing (the gate stays open) — run both commands anyway, record advances the checkpoint either way. Do NOT run these steps on an un-gated run, and never emit this verdict line from inside a council convene — the convene skill's own §0c handles that flow, and per-legend pseudo-verdicts would corrupt the council's gate.

1. Resolve the legend id

Map the name/nickname in $ARGUMENTS to an id:

Say any of…	id
Dow, Dow Theory	dow
Wyckoff	wyckoff
Livermore, Jesse Livermore	livermore
Elliott, Elliott Wave	elliott
Gann, W.D. Gann	gann
DeMark, Tom DeMark	demark
Wilder, Welles Wilder, RSI, ADX	wilder
Ichimoku, Hosoda	hosoda
Weinstein, Stan Weinstein, stage analysis	weinstein
O'Neil, CAN SLIM	oneil

If the user names a custom legend they previously forged, its id is whatever they gave it — its spec lives at my_legends/<id>.md (check there first, then tlc/legends/<id>.md).

2. Run the single-legend flow

Follow tlc/legends/_single_legend_flow.md exactly, using that legend's spec file as the method. Stay strictly in the legend's voice and method — if their setup is absent, vote FLAT; never force a trade.

Platform (mt5 / TradingView) resolves per AGENTS.md §Platform resolution: a trailing tv/mt5 token or a phrase like "from tradingview" forces it, otherwise it auto-routes by asset class, else falls back to config.yaml's default. Fetch bars with the registered MCP tool for that platform if one is present in this Hermes environment, else the headless shortcut python3 -m tlc.data_desk <symbol> <tf> --platform <tv|mt5>.

Never fabricate market data. If every fetch path fails (no MCP registered, no API key, network error, timeout), stop and report the failure plainly — which path you tried and why it failed. Do not estimate, guess, or invent bars/prices/indicators to keep going. A wrong "I couldn't get data" is safe; an invented ballot is not.

3. Present (mandatory — this is your final output)

Do not stop after fetching data or writing an internal verification note. Your final message to the user MUST be the analysis + ballot JSON below — if you've done the work but haven't shown it, you are not done. (On weaker models it's easy to halt right before this step; don't.)

A short analysis in the legend's voice, then the ballot JSON block (direction, conviction, entry, invalidation, target, thesis). This is one trader's read — frame it as analysis and a second opinion, never as a signal or financial advice.