Connect your Alpaca paper keys
ON THIS PAGE
SleeveFolio trades through your own Alpaca account, so the first real setup step is handing it a set of paper API keys (paper = Alpaca’s simulated-trading mode, no real money). Paper keys are free, risk-free, and take two minutes.
- Generate keys at Alpaca
Sign in at alpaca.markets, switch the dashboard to Paper Trading, and generate an API key pair. Alpaca shows the secret once, so keep that tab open until you’ve pasted both halves.
- Paste them into Settings → Broker
In SleeveFolio, open Settings → Broker and paste the key and secret into the paper card (or do this during onboarding’s Broker step).
- Save: the connection test runs automatically
Saving first test-connects to your Alpaca account with the supplied keys before anything is stored, so a bad paste fails immediately instead of failing your first order. On success the card shows the masked key and a last-tested timestamp.
How keys are stored
Both halves are encrypted with AES-256 (a bank-grade standard) before they’re stored, and never sent back to any browser in readable form. You only ever see the masked head-and-tail preview. Paper and live keys are stored separately; see Live keys & the gate for the live side.