API_KEYS_SETUP_GUIDE.md

🔑 API Keys Setup Guide - Crypto News Aggregator

📋 Required API Keys/Tokens

Here are the exact environment variables you need to provide:

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# CRYPTO NEWS API KEYS
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# 1. CryptoPanic (OPTIONAL but recommended)
CRYPTOPANIC_TOKEN=

# 2. Reddit API (REQUIRED for social sentiment)
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=

# 3. CryptoCompare (OPTIONAL but recommended)
CRYPTOCOMPARE_API_KEY=

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🚀 Step-by-Step Setup Instructions

1. CryptoPanic API Token (⚠️ OPTIONAL - Works without it!)

Status: OPTIONAL (public feed works without token) Free Tier: Unlimited Cost: FREE forever

How to Get:

1. Go to: https://cryptopanic.com/developers/api/
2. Click "Get Your Free API Token"
3. Sign up with email
4. Copy your token from the dashboard
5. Add to .env:

CRYPTOPANIC_TOKEN=your_token_here

⚠️ NOTE: The aggregator works WITHOUT this token using the public feed. Token gives you:

• Higher rate limits
• Access to more filters
• Priority support

Skip this if you want - public feed is fine!

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2. Reddit API Credentials (✅ REQUIRED)

Status: REQUIRED (for social sentiment) Free Tier: Unlimited (60 requests/min) Cost: FREE

How to Get:

Step 1: Create Reddit App

1. Go to: https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps
2. Scroll to bottom, click "create another app..."
3. Fill in the form:
   • name: DRL-Trading-Bot (or any name)
   • App type: Select "script"
   • description: Crypto news sentiment analysis
   • about url: (leave blank)
   • redirect uri: http://localhost:8080 (required but not used)
4. Click "create app"

Step 2: Get Credentials

After creating, you'll see:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DRL-Trading-Bot                     │
│ personal use script                 │
│                                     │
│ abc123def456                        │  ← This is your CLIENT_ID
│                                     │
│ secret: xyz789abc123def456...       │  ← This is your CLIENT_SECRET
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Step 3: Add to .env

REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=abc123def456
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=xyz789abc123def456

Example:

REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=p-jcoLKBynTLew
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=gko_LXELoV07ZBNUXrvWZfzE3aI

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3. CryptoCompare API Key (⚠️ OPTIONAL)

Status: OPTIONAL (but recommended for verified news) Free Tier: 100,000 calls/month (3,333/day) Cost: FREE

How to Get:

1. Go to: https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/
2. Click "Get Your Free API Key"
3. Sign up with email
4. Verify email
5. Go to dashboard: https://www.cryptocompare.com/cryptopian/api-keys
6. Copy your API key
7. Add to .env:

CRYPTOCOMPARE_API_KEY=your_key_here

Example:

CRYPTOCOMPARE_API_KEY=a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6

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✅ Final .env File

After getting all keys, your .env should have:

# ... existing keys ...

# Crypto News Aggregator
CRYPTOPANIC_TOKEN=your_cryptopanic_token_here  # OPTIONAL
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=your_reddit_client_id_here    # REQUIRED
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_reddit_secret_here   # REQUIRED
CRYPTOCOMPARE_API_KEY=your_cryptocompare_key   # OPTIONAL

---

🎯 What Works Without API Keys?

Minimum Setup (Only Reddit - 1 source):

# Only these 2 are REQUIRED:
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=...
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=...

Result:

• ✅ Reddit sentiment (30% weight)
• ⚠️ No CryptoPanic (50% weight lost)
• ⚠️ No CryptoCompare (20% weight lost)
• Total coverage: 30%

---

Recommended Setup (All 3 sources):

CRYPTOPANIC_TOKEN=...          # FREE, unlimited
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=...           # FREE, unlimited
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=...       # FREE, unlimited
CRYPTOCOMPARE_API_KEY=...      # FREE, 100K/month

Result:

• ✅ CryptoPanic sentiment (50% weight)
• ✅ Reddit sentiment (30% weight)
• ✅ CryptoCompare sentiment (20% weight)
• Total coverage: 100%

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🔍 Verification

After adding keys to .env, test them:

# Test the aggregator
python -c "from src.features.crypto_news_aggregator import CryptoNewsAggregator; agg = CryptoNewsAggregator('BTC'); print(agg.get_aggregated_sentiment())"

Expected output:

✅ Reddit client initialized
📰 CryptoPanic: 20 posts for BTC
🔴 Reddit: 15 posts for Bitcoin
📊 CryptoCompare: 30 articles for BTC
📰 Aggregated sentiment [BTC]: 🟢 +0.34 (confidence=0.72, sources=3/3, trend=improving)

If you see errors:

• Reddit initialization failed → Check REDDIT_CLIENT_ID and REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET
• CryptoPanic error: 403 → Check CRYPTOPANIC_TOKEN (or remove it to use public feed)
• CryptoCompare error: 401 → Check CRYPTOCOMPARE_API_KEY

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📊 API Limits Summary

Source	Free Tier Limit	Enough for Trading?	Cost if Exceeded
CryptoPanic	Unlimited	✅ Yes	FREE forever
Reddit	60 req/min	✅ Yes (we use ~1/hour)	FREE forever
CryptoCompare	100K/month (3,333/day)	✅ Yes (we use ~24/day)	$17/month for 500K

For hourly trading:

• CryptoPanic: ~24 calls/day (cache: 5 min)
• Reddit: ~24 calls/day (cache: 5 min)
• CryptoCompare: ~24 calls/day (cache: 5 min)

Total: ~72 calls/day across all sources

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🚨 Troubleshooting

Error: "praw.exceptions.ResponseException: received 401 HTTP response"

Cause: Reddit credentials are wrong

Solution:

1. Double-check REDDIT_CLIENT_ID and REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET
2. Make sure you created a "script" app (not "web app")
3. Recreate the app if needed

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Error: "Reddit client not available"

Cause: praw library not installed

Solution:

pip install praw

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Error: "CryptoPanic error: 429"

Cause: Rate limit exceeded (unlikely with caching)

Solution:

1. Increase cache_ttl in crypto_news_aggregator.py to 600 (10 min)
2. Get API token to increase limits

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Warning: "Reddit credentials not set - using fallback"

Cause: Missing REDDIT_CLIENT_ID or REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET

Solution:

1. Add both variables to .env
2. Restart the application

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✅ Quick Test Checklist

Run these commands to verify everything works:

# 1. Check .env file
cat .env | grep -E "REDDIT|CRYPTOPANIC|CRYPTOCOMPARE"

# Should output:
# REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=...
# REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=...
# CRYPTOPANIC_TOKEN=...
# CRYPTOCOMPARE_API_KEY=...

# 2. Test Reddit
python -c "import praw; r = praw.Reddit(client_id='YOUR_ID', client_secret='YOUR_SECRET', user_agent='test'); print('✅ Reddit OK')"

# 3. Test CryptoPanic
curl "https://cryptopanic.com/api/v1/posts/?public=true&currencies=BTC" | head -20

# 4. Test CryptoCompare
curl "https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/data/v2/news/?categories=BTC" | head -20

# 5. Test full aggregator
python test_crypto_news.py

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📝 Summary

Exact variables you need to add to .env:

# REQUIRED (Reddit)
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=your_reddit_app_client_id
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_reddit_app_client_secret

# OPTIONAL (CryptoPanic - works without it)
CRYPTOPANIC_TOKEN=your_cryptopanic_token

# OPTIONAL (CryptoCompare - recommended)
CRYPTOCOMPARE_API_KEY=your_cryptocompare_key

Next step: Get these keys and add them to .env, then run the test!

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🔗 Quick Links

• Reddit Apps: https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps
• CryptoPanic API: https://cryptopanic.com/developers/api/
• CryptoCompare API: https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/

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Questions? Run the test script and check the output:

python test_crypto_news.py

The script will tell you exactly which keys are missing!