Connect your Alpaca paper keys

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.

1. 1
   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 — keep that tab open until you’ve pasted both halves.
2. 2
   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).
3. 3
   Save — the connection test runs automatically

   Saving first test-connects to your Alpaca account with the supplied keys before anything is stored — 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.