Tracking Crypto Prices

Overview

Foundation skill providing real-time and historical cryptocurrency price data. This skill is the data layer for the crypto plugin ecosystem - 10+ other skills depend on it for price information.

Key Capabilities:

Real-time prices for 10,000+ cryptocurrencies
Historical OHLCV data (1 day to all-time)
Multi-currency support (USD, EUR, GBP, 30+ currencies)
Intelligent caching to minimize API calls
Predefined and custom watchlists
Export to CSV/JSON for analysis

Dependent Skills: This skill provides price data to: market-movers-scanner, crypto-portfolio-tracker, crypto-tax-calculator, defi-yield-optimizer, liquidity-pool-analyzer, staking-rewards-optimizer, crypto-derivatives-tracker, dex-aggregator-router, options-flow-analyzer, arbitrage-opportunity-finder.

Prerequisites

Install required dependencies:

pip install requests pandas yfinance

Optional for advanced features:

pip install python-dotenv  # For API key management

API Setup (optional, for higher rate limits):

Get free API key from https://www.coingecko.com/en/api
Add to {baseDir}/config/settings.yaml or set environment variable COINGECKO_API_KEY

Instructions

Step 1: Quick Price Check

Get current price for any cryptocurrency:

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol BTC

Check multiple assets:

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbols BTC,ETH,SOL

Step 2: Use Watchlists

Scan predefined watchlists:

# Top 10 by market cap
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --watchlist top10

# DeFi tokens
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --watchlist defi

# Layer 2 tokens
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --watchlist layer2

Available watchlists: top10, defi, layer2, stablecoins, memecoins

Step 3: Fetch Historical Data

Get OHLCV (Open, High, Low, Close, Volume) history:

# Last 30 days
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol BTC --period 30d

# Last 90 days with CSV export
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol BTC --period 90d --output csv

# Custom date range
python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol ETH --start 2024-01-01 --end 2024-12-31

Step 4: Configure Settings

Edit {baseDir}/config/settings.yaml to customize:

cache:
  spot_ttl: 30          # Seconds to cache spot prices
  historical_ttl: 3600  # Seconds to cache historical data

currency:
  default: usd          # Default fiat currency

watchlists:
  custom:               # Add your own watchlist
    - BTC
    - ETH
    - SOL

Output

Price Table (Default)

================================================================================
  CRYPTO PRICES                                           Updated: [timestamp]
================================================================================

  Symbol     Price (USD)      24h Change     Volume (24h)      Market Cap
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  BTC       $97,234.56          +2.34%      $28.5B            $1.92T
  ETH        $3,456.78          +1.87%      $12.3B            $415.2B
  SOL          $142.34          +5.12%       $2.1B             $61.4B
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Total 24h Change: +2.44% (weighted)

================================================================================

JSON Output (--format json)

{
  "prices": [
    {
      "symbol": "BTC",
      "name": "Bitcoin",
      "price": 97234.56,
      "currency": "USD",
      "change_24h": 2.34,
      "volume_24h": 28500000000,
      "market_cap": 1920000000000,
      "timestamp": "[timestamp]",
      "source": "coingecko"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "count": 1,
    "currency": "USD",
    "cached": false
  }
}

Historical CSV Export

date,open,high,low,close,volume
[date],95000.00,96500.00,94200.00,96100.00,25000000000
[date],96100.00,97800.00,95800.00,97500.00,27000000000

Configuration

Edit {baseDir}/config/settings.yaml:

# API Configuration
api:
  coingecko:
    api_key: ${COINGECKO_API_KEY}  # Optional, from env
    use_pro: false
  yfinance:
    enabled: true                   # Fallback source

# Cache Configuration
cache:
  enabled: true
  spot_ttl: 30                      # Spot price TTL (seconds)
  historical_ttl: 3600              # Historical data TTL (seconds)
  directory: ./data

# Display Configuration
currency:
  default: usd
  supported:
    - usd
    - eur
    - gbp
    - jpy
    - cad
    - aud

# Predefined Watchlists
watchlists:
  top10:
    - bitcoin
    - ethereum
    - tether
    - binancecoin
    - solana
    - ripple
    - cardano
    - avalanche-2
    - dogecoin
    - polkadot

  defi:
    - uniswap
    - aave
    - chainlink
    - maker
    - compound-governance-token
    - curve-dao-token
    - sushi

  layer2:
    - matic-network
    - arbitrum
    - optimism
    - immutable-x

Error Handling

See {baseDir}/references/errors.md for comprehensive error handling.

Common Errors

Error	Cause	Solution
`Unknown symbol: XYZ`	Invalid cryptocurrency ticker	Check spelling, use `--list` to search
`Rate limit exceeded`	Too many API calls	Wait 60s, or use API key for higher limits
`Network error`	No internet connection	Check connection, cached data will be used
`Cache stale`	Cached data older than TTL	Data still shown with warning, will refresh

Rate Limit Handling

The skill automatically:

Uses cached data when available
Applies exponential backoff on rate limits
Falls back to yfinance if CoinGecko fails
Shows stale cache data with warning as last resort

Examples

See {baseDir}/references/examples.md for detailed examples including:

Multi-timeframe analysis
Portfolio value calculation
Price alert setup
Integration with other skills

Example 1: Quick Price Check

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol BTC

Output:

BTC (Bitcoin)
$97,234.56 USD
+2.34% (24h) | Vol: $28.5B | MCap: $1.92T

Example 2: Watchlist Scan

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --watchlist top10

Example 3: Historical Export

python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbol ETH --period 90d --output csv

Creates: {baseDir}/data/ETH_90d_[date].csv

Integration with Other Skills

This skill provides the price data foundation for other crypto skills.

Direct Import (recommended for Python skills):

from price_tracker import get_current_prices, get_historical_prices

# Get prices for portfolio valuation
prices = get_current_prices(["BTC", "ETH", "SOL"])

CLI Subprocess (for non-Python or isolation):

PRICES=$(python {baseDir}/scripts/price_tracker.py --symbols BTC,ETH --format json)

Shared Cache (efficient for batch): Multiple skills can read from {baseDir}/data/cache.json to avoid redundant API calls.

Files

File	Purpose
`scripts/price_tracker.py`	Main CLI entry point
`scripts/api_client.py`	CoinGecko/yfinance abstraction
`scripts/cache_manager.py`	Cache read/write/invalidation
`scripts/formatters.py`	Output formatting
`config/settings.yaml`	User configuration
`data/cache.json`	Price cache (auto-generated)

Resources

CoinGecko API - Primary data source
yfinance - Fallback for historical data
PRD.md - Product requirements
ARD.md - Architecture documentation

tracking-crypto-prices