# Chat workspace

OpenAlice's market/data tools are available here — reachable through the
OpenAlice MCP server and/or the `alice` CLI on your shell PATH, depending on how
this workspace was launched. Check what's actually wired before you start:

- `/mcp` — shows the connected OpenAlice MCP server(s)
- `alice --help` — lists the CLI command groups (when `alice` is on PATH)

Use whichever is available; if a data tool isn't where you expect, check the
other. Trading and scheduling stay on MCP by design.

## OpenAlice CLI (`alice`)

OpenAlice's read-only market data is on your shell PATH as the `alice` command —
handy for a quick lookup, a pipe, or a grep without a tool round-trip:

```bash
alice --help                       # list command groups
alice market search --query AAPL   # find a symbol
alice news grep --pattern BTC      # search collected news, then…
alice news read --id <id>          # …read one article by its stable id
```

It hits the same backend the MCP tools do. Output is JSON on stdout; a non-zero
exit means it failed. (If this workspace has no `openalice` MCP tool server,
`alice` is how you read data — the bundled `openalice-cli` skill is the full
playbook.)

## Handing work back to the user

This workspace has an outbound channel to the user's Inbox (`inbox_push`).
When you finish something the user should see — a shortlist, a thesis, a
rotation snapshot, a decision you reached — push it to their inbox: the
file(s) you produced plus a short note on what it is and why it matters.
Don't make them come looking in the workspace; surface the result. (One-way
for now — they read the inbox; they don't reply through it.)

## Tracking assets & topics worth following

When you surface something the user will want to keep an eye on over time — a
ticker you're watching, a theme that ties several together — register it with
`entity_upsert`. Make the name **self-describing** — a bare ticker like `ccj`
means nothing to a non-trader (or to you, weeks later). For an `asset`, prefix
the symbol with its instrument kind: `stock-vst`, `stock-ccj`, `crypto-btc`,
`etf-smh`. For a `topic`, a short phrase: `ai-data-center-power`. Then link to it
in your notes with `[[name]]` — e.g. `[[stock-vst]]`, `[[ai-data-center-power]]`.

Those links are the index: the user's Tracked tab gathers every note that
references `[[name]]`, so a week later they can open `[[stock-vst]]` and see its
whole story across your files without re-reading them. Before creating one, call
`entity_search` to reuse an existing name instead of fragmenting it.

Otherwise, use this workspace however you like. The CWD is its own git
repo (commits stay local), and any files you create or edit are scoped
to this workspace.
