Installation

Requirements

Python 3.8 or higher
uv (recommended) or pip
8GB+ RAM recommended for backtesting
Polygon.io API key (for market data)

Install with uv (Recommended)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nittygritty-zzy/quantlab.git
cd quantlab

# Install with uv
uv sync

# Initialize the database and configuration
uv run quantlab init

Install with pip

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nittygritty-zzy/quantlab.git
cd quantlab

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -e .

# Initialize
quantlab init

Configuration

Create a configuration file at ~/.quantlab/config.yaml:

api_keys:
  polygon: "YOUR_POLYGON_API_KEY"
  alpha_vantage: "YOUR_ALPHA_VANTAGE_KEY"  # Optional

data:
  qlib_data_path: "/path/to/qlib/data"  # Optional

database:
  path: "~/.quantlab/quantlab.duckdb"

Get API Keys

Polygon.io (Required)
- Sign up at https://polygon.io
- Free tier: 5 API calls/minute
- Paid plans available for higher limits
Alpha Vantage (Optional)
- Sign up at https://www.alphavantage.co
- Free tier: 25 API calls/day

Data Setup

QuantLab uses qlib’s data format for historical stock prices.

Option 1: Download Pre-built Data

# Download US stock data (1998-present)
uv run python -m qlib.run.get_data qlib_data --target_dir ~/.qlib/qlib_data/cn_data --region us

Option 2: Use Existing qlib Data

If you have existing qlib data, configure the path in ~/.quantlab/config.yaml:

data:
  qlib_data_path: "/Volumes/sandisk/quantmini-data/data/qlib/stocks_daily/"

Verification

Verify your installation:

# Check CLI is working
uv run quantlab --version

# Check data availability
uv run quantlab data check

# List available tickers
uv run quantlab data tickers | head -20

# Test visualization
uv run quantlab visualize price AAPL --period 30d --chart-type candlestick

Troubleshooting

Database Connection Issues

If you see database errors:

# Reinitialize the database
rm ~/.quantlab/quantlab.duckdb
uv run quantlab init

API Rate Limits

Polygon free tier: 5 calls/minute

Use --from-date and --to-date to limit data ranges
Consider upgrading for production use

Missing Data

If tickers show no data:

# Check data availability
uv run quantlab data range AAPL

# Download fresh data (requires qlib setup)
# See qlib documentation for data updates

Next Steps

Continue to Quick Start to start using QuantLab!