Delta-Neutral BTC Basis Trader

A complete reference agent ships with the repo at examples/delta-neutral-btc/. It captures the positive basis between BTC spot and perpetual futures while staying delta-neutral.

This is the canonical example used in unit tests, evaluation runs, and the forge eval-pack smoke test.

Strategy in plain English

Buy spot BTC. Short BTC perp at the same notional. When the futures-spot spread (basis) is wide and the funding rate favors shorts, you collect both the spread carry and the funding payments. Unwind when basis tightens or volatility spikes.

The agent has zero directional exposure to BTC price — it only profits from the convergence between two BTC instruments.

Why this is a good example

Two-sided execution — every action requires both a spot leg and a perp leg
Real risk management — exposure caps, unwind triggers, halt conditions
Multi-source data — spot price + funding rate + basis spread
Production scenarios — baseline, volatility unwind, exposure breach, stale data halt

What’s in the example directory

File	Purpose
`agent-spec.json`	Contract: name, summary, owners, promotion path
`capability-manifest.json`	6 declared capabilities (market data, exchange order, balance, memory)
`policy-bundle.json`	Notional caps, allowed venues, halt rules
`scenario-pack.json`	4 evaluation scenarios
`scaffold.manifest.json`	Project structure
`research-record.json`	Slow-mode autoresearch findings
`promotion-record.json`	Sandbox → paper → canary promotion record

Capabilities declared

Capability	Kind	Risk	Effect
`cap-market-btc-price`	data-source	low	Fetch BTC spot price
`cap-market-basis`	data-source	low	Fetch perp-spot basis spread + funding rate
`cap-exchange-balance`	data-source	low	Read exchange account balances
`cap-exchange-order`	exchange-action	high	Place/cancel orders (requires approval in live)
`memory.read`	data-source	low	Read prior decisions
`memory.write`	tool	low	Persist tick summaries

Test scenarios

Scenario	What it tests
`scen-baseline-basis-wide`	Happy path — basis 30+ bps, agent enters position
`scen-volatility-unwind`	Vol spikes — agent unwinds before stop-out
`scen-policy-exposure-breach`	Tries to exceed notional cap — must be denied by policy gate
`scen-stale-data-halt`	Price feed stale > 60s — agent halts

Run it yourself

Validate the spec


forge validate examples/delta-neutral-btc/
# Validated 5 artifacts in examples/delta-neutral-btc/

Run scenario evaluations


forge eval-pack examples/delta-neutral-btc/
# Scenario pack: total=4 matched=4 pass=3 hold=1 fail=0

Use it as a starting point

The simplest path to your own basis trader:


# Copy the example
cp -r examples/delta-neutral-btc/ ./my-basis-trader
 
# Edit the strategy parameters
vim my-basis-trader/policy-bundle.json   # notional caps
vim my-basis-trader/scenario-pack.json   # your test cases
 
# Provision a real wallet
forge wallet-create --name basis-trader
 
# Validate everything
forge validate my-basis-trader/
 
# Paper trade
forge run my-basis-trader --environment sandbox --mode paper --auto-approve

Promotion record

This example has already been promoted through the full pipeline (recorded in promotion-record.json):


sandbox → paper → canary-live
   ✓        ✓         ✓

Each promotion required:

All scenarios passing
Policy compliance verified
Approver sign-off
Scenario replay evidence

This is the reference for what a “production-ready” agent looks like in Aether Forge.

End-to-End Tutorial — build your own from scratch
Build a Custom Agent — customize the planner, data sources, MCP
Two-Agent Marketplace — extend to multi-agent
Artifact System — JSON schemas behind every file in this example