Synapse

Synapse

Overview

Paper trading daemon. Reads signals from Cortex’s database, sizes positions by confidence, manages risk with stop-losses and drawdown limits, and simulates execution with slippage and gas costs. No real money — purely simulation against live data.

How it works

Boot sequence (apps/synapse/src/main.ts)

1. Run DB migrations (own database)
2. Create Kysely DB + CortexReader (read-only connection to Cortex DB)
3. Initialize portfolio state if first run (set initial cash balance)
4. Create PaperExecutor (simulates fills)
5. Start cron loop daemon

Engine loop (apps/synapse/src/engine/loop.ts)

Two Croner jobs:

• Signal poll (default: 60s) — Reads latest signals from Cortex, filters, sizes, and executes paper trades
• Risk check (default: 30s) — Updates position prices, checks stop-loss/take-profit, monitors portfolio drawdown

Signal processing flow

Cortex signals ──> dedup ──> filter ──> risk check ──> size ──> execute ──> record

1. Dedup — Skip signals already in signal_log
2. Filter (signal-filter.ts) — Confidence thresholds (configurable per short/long), existing position check
3. Pre-trade risk (risk.ts) — Portfolio halt check, max open positions, exposure limits
4. Position sizing (position-sizer.ts) — Scales USD allocation by confidence against total portfolio value
5. Execution (executor.ts) — PaperExecutor applies slippage (BPS) and simulated gas, returns fill price + quantity
6. Record — Insert position, trade, signal log entries. Update cash balance.

Risk management (apps/synapse/src/engine/risk.ts)

Per-position:

• Stop-loss — Configurable percentage below entry (default: 8%). Triggers automatic close.
• Take-profit — Configurable percentage above entry (default: 20%). Triggers automatic close.

Portfolio-level:

• Drawdown halt — If portfolio drops below threshold from high water mark (default: 15%), close all positions and halt trading
• Exposure limit — Max allocation to a single token (default: 25% of NAV)
• Max open positions — Cap on concurrent positions (default: 8)

Portfolio tracking (apps/synapse/src/portfolio/tracker.ts)

• Updates position mark-to-market prices from Cortex
• Recalculates total portfolio value, drawdown, high water mark
• Periodic snapshots for historical tracking

CLI status (apps/synapse/src/status.ts)

just synapse-status prints a summary: NAV, cash, drawdown, return %, open positions table, recent trades, risk events.

Key files

File	Role
src/main.ts	Entry point, boot sequence
src/env.ts	All config: balance, intervals, risk params, sizing
src/status.ts	CLI portfolio summary
src/types.ts	Executor interface
src/cortex/reader.ts	Read-only Cortex DB access (signals, prices, tokens)
src/engine/loop.ts	Signal poll + risk check cron jobs
src/engine/executor.ts	PaperExecutor (simulated fills)
src/engine/signal-filter.ts	Confidence filtering, cooldown
src/engine/position-sizer.ts	Confidence-scaled allocation
src/engine/risk.ts	Stop-loss, take-profit, drawdown, exposure
src/engine/pricing.ts	Price fetching from Cortex
src/portfolio/tracker.ts	Mark-to-market, portfolio recalc, snapshots
src/db/schema.ts	positions, trades, signal_log, risk_events, portfolio_state, portfolio_snapshots

Database tables

• portfolio_state — Single row: cash_usd, total_value_usd, high_water_mark_usd, drawdown_pct, halted
• positions — Open/closed positions (token, entry/current price, quantity, P&L, stop/take levels)
• trades — Individual buy/sell executions (price, size, gas, slippage)
• signal_log — Every signal processed: action taken (opened, closed, skipped) + reason
• risk_events — Stop-loss, take-profit, drawdown halt, exposure limit events
• portfolio_snapshots — Periodic NAV snapshots for time-series tracking

Integration points

• Cortex — Reads signals, price_snapshots, tracked_tokens from Cortex DB via CortexReader
• Optic — Reads portfolio_state, positions, trades, signal_log, risk_events via rusqlite
• Does NOT use Cairn — purely a signal consumer and execution engine