Alpha Vantage

Overview

This skill provides a production-ready workflow for Alpha Vantage API usage: selecting the right endpoints, building validated requests, handling throttling/error responses, and preparing safe public/commercial deployment.

Quick Start

1. Set API key: export ALPHAVANTAGE_API_KEY=...
2. For endpoint/params, read references/api_docs.md
3. For scriptable calls with retry/backoff, use scripts/alpha_vantage_client.py
4. For public deployment, follow the Deployment Guardrails section before release

Workflow

1. Classify request type:

• Price bars or latest price: time series functions
• Indicators (RSI, SMA, MACD, etc.): technical indicator functions
• Company info, earnings, statements: fundamentals
• FX/Crypto/Commodities/Macro: their dedicated function families

2. Resolve mandatory parameters from references/api_docs.md.
3. Build request with function=... and apikey=....
4. Parse response and branch for:

• HTTP error status
• Error Message
• Note (usually rate-limit/throttle condition)
• Empty/partial payload

5. If Note/throttled, retry using exponential backoff with jitter.
6. Normalize output to a stable schema before downstream use.

Implementation Guidelines

Authentication

• Use ALPHAVANTAGE_API_KEY environment variable by default.
• Never hardcode keys in source, logs, prompts, or examples.
• Mask keys in debug output (show only short prefix/suffix).

Reliability and Rate Limits

• Treat responses containing Note as retriable throttle events.
• Use bounded retries with exponential backoff and jitter.
• For multi-symbol jobs, queue calls and pace to plan limits.
• Cache stable responses (fundamentals, metadata) to reduce quota burn.

Response Validation

• Validate both transport and payload success.
• Handle string-encoded numbers safely (float(...)/Decimal as needed).
• Keep parser logic resilient to minor schema/key ordering changes.

Data Quality

• Preserve source timestamps/time zones from payload metadata.
• Do not infer adjusted/unadjusted semantics; use explicit functions.
• Record the function and params used for reproducibility/auditability.

Deployment Guardrails

Public/Commercial Readiness

• Review Alpha Vantage terms before public/commercial release: https://www.alphavantage.co/terms_of_service/
• Ensure your usage tier and traffic profile are aligned with your plan: https://www.alphavantage.co/premium/
• Do not redistribute restricted content if terms disallow it.

Security and Operations

• Store API keys in secret managers (or environment variables for local dev only).
• Add circuit-breaking and queue backpressure for upstream rate spikes.
• Instrument call counts, throttle rate, retry count, and error classes.
• Add alerting for sustained Note responses and non-2xx response spikes.

Resources

references/

• references/api_docs.md contains endpoint selection guidance and required parameters.

scripts/

• scripts/alpha_vantage_client.py provides a reusable request wrapper with:
  • env-based auth
  • timeout and retry logic
  • throttle/error detection
  • optional compact output