Configuration

Cents reads settings from ~/.cents/config.toml and overrides them with environment variables. Everything below is optional unless an agent that needs the key is invoked.

~/.cents/config.toml

fmp_api_key = "..."            # financialmodelingprep.com
alpaca_api_key = "..."         # alpaca.markets
alpaca_secret_key = "..."
news_api_key = "..."           # newsapi.org (optional)
fred_api_key = "..."           # fred.stlouisfed.org (optional)
default_scan_threshold = 5.0

The database lives at ~/.cents/data/cents.db (SQLite, created on first run). Override with CENTS_DB_PATH.

Environment variables

Env vars take precedence over the TOML file. Useful for CI, ephemeral shells, or per-portfolio profiles.

Variable	Purpose
FMP_API_KEY	Fundamentals, moat, insider agents
ALPACA_API_KEY	Technical agent + broker integration
ALPACA_SECRET_KEY	Technical agent + broker integration
NEWS_API_KEY	Sentiment agent
FRED_API_KEY	Macro agent
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Sentiment agent (LLM scoring of headlines)
CENTS_DB_PATH	Override SQLite location
CENTS_OUTPUT_FORMAT	text (default) or json
CENTS_SCAN_THRESHOLD	Default watchlist alert threshold (in delta points)
CENTS_WEBHOOK_URL	Outbound webhook for alerts (currently plumbed-only)

Provider guide

FMP — Financial Modeling Prep

• Link: financialmodelingprep.com
• Free tier: yes (rate-limited; sufficient for personal research)
• Scope: fundamentals (P/E, margins, ROE, debt), moat metrics (margin stability, ROIC trends), insider transactions, analyst ratings.

Alpaca

• Link: alpaca.markets
• Free tier: yes (paper trading + market data)
• Scope: equity prices, bars, and 52-week range for the technical agent; position/order endpoints for the optional broker integration.

FRED — Federal Reserve Economic Data

• Link: fred.stlouisfed.org
• Free tier: yes (no usage cap for typical research patterns)
• Scope: Fed funds rate, yield curve, VIX, unemployment — the macro agent’s entire input set.

NewsAPI

• Link: newsapi.org
• Free tier: yes (developer plan, limited to 100 requests/day and 24h delay)
• Scope: recent headlines used by the sentiment agent. Optional — the sentiment agent degrades to a no-op if the key is missing.

Anthropic

• Link: console.anthropic.com
• Free tier: trial credit
• Scope: powers the sentiment agent’s headline classification. Without it, sentiment falls back to keyword heuristics.

Every Anthropic call is logged to an llm_usage row (model, agent, operation, token counts, timestamp) so cents usage summary can show input/output/cache tokens and estimated cost. This log is a research reproducibility and cost-tracking aid, not an audit trail. It lives in the user-writable ~/.cents/data/cents.db SQLite file under default home permissions and can be modified or deleted; cents makes no claim of WORM immutability, SEC Rule 204-2 compliance, or audit-grade integrity. If you need regulated recordkeeping, you need a different tool.

Verifying

Once keys are set, cents status prints which providers are wired up and where the database lives.

cents status