kalshi-kernel-setup

A setup and troubleshooting guide for the local Kalshi Kernel MCP server in paper mode. The included instructions describe an unofficial pre-release scaffold that is not ready for live trading.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to build or connect the server, verify its status, and diagnose expected fail-closed responses.
Why use it?
It helps avoid unsafe setup steps and makes clear when the server is not connected to markets or trading systems.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/copyleftdev/kalshi-kernel/kalshi-kernel-setup
Any agent
npx skills add copyleftdev/kalshi-kernel --skill kalshi-kernel-setup
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/copyleftdev/kalshi-kernel

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 38 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 366 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00038 $0.00366
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00183
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00073
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00037

Measured yesterday against content hash bd18f81d0327, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

kalshi-kernel-setup scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/kalshi-kernel-setup/SKILL.md · 33 lines

What it actually says

Set up Kalshi Kernel

Kalshi Kernel is unofficial pre-release software. State clearly that version 0.1.0 has no connected market, paper-ledger, portfolio, or live-trading adapter. Do not imply affiliation with Kalshi or readiness for trading.

  1. Confirm the user trusts the public repository and has reviewed DISCLAIMER.md.

  2. Prefer a signed/checksummed GitHub release binary once releases exist. Until then, build from source with Go 1.25.13+ using make build.

  3. Put the resulting kalshi-kernel executable on PATH; never download or run an unverified binary silently.

  4. Keep KALSHI_KERNEL_MODE=paper. Do not request API credentials or a private key for the current scaffold.

  5. Enable the plugin and inspect /mcp, or add the server directly with:

    claude mcp add --scope user --transport stdio kalshi-kernel \
      --env KALSHI_KERNEL_MODE=paper -- /absolute/path/to/kalshi-kernel
    
  6. Call kernel_status. A correct 0.1.0 setup reports paper mode, backend_ready: false, and market_data_ready: false.

  7. If another tool returns capability_not_ready, explain that this is expected fail-closed behavior, not a successful market or order operation.

Never ask the user to paste credentials, private keys, account data, or trading history into chat or an issue.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 33 lines · 38 tokens per session scan A bd18f81d0327

Subscribe to this mod's changes

kalshi-kernel-setup is a skill published in the GitHub repository copyleftdev/kalshi-kernel (0 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 38 tokens to every session and 366 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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