How It Works

Three layers cooperate when you use the skill. Understanding them clarifies what lives where — and why the skill alone isn't enough without the MCP connection and an account.

The three layers

1. The skill — the agent playbook

The skill is a set of instructions (a SKILL.md entry point plus progressively-loaded sub-skills) that tells Claude how to handle each request: which steps to run, what to confirm, and how to present results. It holds no secrets and makes no network calls itself — it only directs Claude. This is why it can be open-source and shipped as plain files.

2. The MCP server — the tools

The actual operations live on the Alpha Ladder MCP server at https://www.alphaladder.hk/mcp, which exposes them as MCP tools (for example get_account_summary, execute_fiat_withdrawal, get_otc_quote). When the skill decides an action is needed, Claude calls the matching tool over the MCP connection. MCP is the only public surface — there is no separate REST API.

3. Your Alpha Ladder account — the system of record

Your sk-… API key authenticates the MCP connection to your Alpha Ladder account. Balances, KYC / eligibility status, deposits, withdrawals, and fixed-income holdings all live on that account. The skill and the MCP server are just the interface; your account is where the money and identity actually are.

The flow

You (natural language)
   → Claude + Skill        decides the workflow & what to confirm
   → MCP tools             execute the operation over /mcp
   → Alpha Ladder account      the system of record (balances, KYC, orders)
   → results               rendered back to you as prose / tables

Read-only vs. destructive

The skill enforces the same safety model as the tools themselves:

• Read-only actions — balance and transaction history queries, quote requests — run without interruption.
• Destructive actions — withdrawals, exchange confirmation, FIP subscription — always pause for your explicit confirmation and are never silently retried.

See Core Concepts and Status & Errors for the underlying behavior. If your session expires, tools return a re-authentication link and the skill stops and shows it to you rather than failing silently.