The programmable surface

Tealstreet is scriptable in two places, and they are not the same API.

You are writing	The API in scope	Runs in
A custom module (a panel in your layout)	Module API	Browser sandbox
A custom hotkey	Module API	Browser sandbox
A chart study	Study API	Browser sandbox
A CLI script	Core API (CoreApi)	Your machine

The browser surfaces and the CLI surface share a vocabulary — both talk about accounts, positions, orders, tickers and candles, with the same names — but they are deliberately separate contracts, kept in step by hand rather than merged. They differ in ways that are not cosmetic: one is built around React hooks that re-render, the other around promises you await.

Do not assume a snippet from one works in the other. When you are writing a module, ask your editor (or get_module_api_types over MCP) for the module definitions; when you are writing a CLI script, the CoreApi type is what your script receives.

Reading your book

Both surfaces let you read the same things: which accounts you have, what you hold, what is resting, current prices, order books and candles.

In a CLI script, api arrives as a parameter on your default-exported function, alongside args — they are not ambient globals:

import type { CoreApi, ScriptArgs, ScriptMeta } from '@tealstreet/script-api-core';

export const meta: ScriptMeta = {
    targets: ['core', 'cli'],
    capabilities: { accounts: [], writes: [], idempotent: true },
};

export default async function (args: ScriptArgs, api: CoreApi) {
    const positions = await api.getPositions({ account: 'main' });
    const btc = await api.getTicker('BTCUSDT', { account: 'main' });
    api.io.print(`${positions.length} open, BTC at ${btc?.last}`);
}

In a custom module the runtime evaluates your code with api already in scope, and you read through hooks that keep your panel live as data arrives.

Declaring what a script may do

A CLI script's meta.capabilities is a contract the runtime holds you to. It is read statically, so write it as plain literals — a spread, or a reference to a variable declared elsewhere, makes it unreadable and the checks are skipped rather than guessed.

accounts: [] means "no account restriction"; listing accounts pins the script to them. writes is always explicit — nothing is implied.

Versioning

Each surface carries a version constant, bumped whenever its runtime-visible contract changes, and guarded in CI so a surface cannot change without one. The type definitions your editor loads and the ones an AI assistant receives over MCP come from the same generated source, so they cannot drift apart.

Next

• Runtimes — what web, CLI and mobile can each reach, and why they differ