just now
Trading platform cTrader (@cTrader) has launched cTrader CLI, a standalone desktop command-line application that lets traders connect AI apps to the platform and run their operations through natural-language commands without opening the GUI (graphical interface).
The application runs on the trader's own machine and supports trading, cBot execution, backtesting and optimisation, and access to market and account data. It is aimed at professional algo traders who want to bring AI into their daily workflow and handle routine tasks without switching between charts and other parts of the platform.
AI-powered operations
Through the CLI, an AI agent can act on natural-language instructions to carry out data, trading and algo tasks. AI apps including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf and Gemini CLI can retrieve account data, prices and historical market data, review trading history and exposure, manage orders and positions, set price alerts, and run cBots and backtests.
Traders working across several accounts, or repeating the same operations, can pass more of that work to an AI agent and let it run in the background.
Spotware, the technology provider behind cTrader, positions the CLI as a complement to the MCP servers it released earlier in the year rather than a replacement. MCP servers suit traders who want an AI agent interacting directly with cTrader, including UI-based operations, while the CLI is built for lightweight background tasks and command-line automation.
Interface-free algo trading
The CLI moves the algo workflow to the command line, covering testing, optimisation and running cBots on a trader's own infrastructure.
Traders can run backtests across different periods and parameters, optimise cBots by testing parameter combinations, and compare results before committing a strategy. They can also start, monitor and stop cBots outside the main cTrader application, leaving the platform free for charts, development and visual analysis. Those tasks can be run directly through the CLI or handed to an AI agent.
What it offers brokers
Spotware is framing the release as a way for brokers to support more complex client requirements without altering the core cTrader experience for everyone else. Some clients want to control their setup remotely and hand time-consuming tasks to AI, while others run several cBots at once and test strategies in bulk.
For brokers and prop firms, that widens the range of clients they can serve on the same offering and adds a point of difference when competing for algo and technically confident traders.
Commenting on the launch, Sergey Borisov, Head of Product Development at Spotware, said:
"Traders' expectations keep rising, especially around algo and AI-assisted trading. Guided by our Traders First approach, we're always looking for new ways to keep pace with changing trader demands. cTrader CLI gives advanced traders the freedom to use AI to run and automate their strategies without a graphical interface. We want cTrader to keep giving traders the tools they need as their trading becomes more sophisticated." - Sergey Borisov, Head of Product Development at Spotware
cTrader launched in 2010 and reports more than 11 million registered traders and over 300 brokers and prop firms on the platform. In 2026 it became the first platform in the FX and CFD sector to release official MCP servers for AI-powered trading.
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