Costs and services
not included in the price.
THESIS is source code. Running it uses third-party services, and some of them charge. This page names every one, says who pays, and how to keep the bill bounded. Providers set and change their own prices, so none are quoted here.
01Third-party services and who pays
None of these are part of the purchase. "Operator" means you, the buyer who hosts the desk. "Each user" means the traders who use your desk.
| Service | Needed? | Who pays | What for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting: a Node 22.12+ server you run, or Vercel | Required | Operator | Serves the landing page, the desk, the admin and the small API (Deployment). Vercel's Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use under Vercel's terms; a desk you run for other people or for revenue needs a plan whose terms allow it. Read the provider's current terms. |
| Postgres database (for example Neon, or any Postgres 14+) | Required on Vercel Optional on a Node server | Operator | Stores the admin: settings, team, sessions, audit log, encrypted secrets. On your own server you can use the built-in SQLite file instead (THESIS_DATA_DIR/admin.sqlite), which costs nothing extra. Vercel has no writable disk, so it needs DATABASE_URL. |
| Vercel Blob | Optional (recommended on Vercel) | Operator | Keeps the aggregate counters (AI requests, tokens, page loads) across cold starts. Without it they live in /tmp and reset. |
| Anthropic Claude API | Optional | Operator (your own key) | AI chart reading only. Anthropic bills your account per request, by tokens. Every AI request a visitor makes on your desk is on your bill; the desk never uses a key of its own. Without a key everything else works. |
| Hyperliquid trading costs: exchange trading fees, funding, slippage | Only for testnet or mainnet runs | Each user, from their own Hyperliquid account | Charged by Hyperliquid on the user's own orders and positions. Testnet uses test funds. If you turn on a builder fee, users also pay that fee to you on each order (Builder fee). |
| Builder address capital | Only if you charge a builder fee | Operator (your own funds, which stay in your account) | Hyperliquid accepts builder-fee orders only when the builder address holds at least 100 USDC of perps account value. It is not a fee, but it is capital you must keep there. Status → Builder address holds ≥ 100 USDC perps value checks it. |
| Hyperliquid public API (REST and WebSocket) | Required | No charge and no key at release | Market data, candles, funding, account state; orders signed in the user's tab. Hyperliquid rate-limits by IP address (the code budgets for 1,200 request weight per minute per IP) and the desk retries with backoff. Your server also reads it for the Status checks, Pro plan payments and revenue. |
| Telegram Bot API | Optional, per user | No charge and no key for you at release | Each user who wants Telegram alerts creates their own bot and enters its token in their own browser. Your server is not involved. |
| Domain name and HTTPS | Recommended | Operator | Your own domain from any registrar; HTTPS from your host or reverse proxy. |
| Legal and tax advice | Recommended before you host it for others | Operator | Automated trading and fees on executed trades may be regulated where you or your users are. THESIS does not give legal or tax advice (Risk note). |
"No charge at release" describes the providers' public services when this version was released. They can change their terms and limits at any time; check them before you launch.
02What THESIS itself never charges
- No licence server, no phone-home, no usage fee to the author. The pages load nothing from the author's servers.
- No built-in keys: no Anthropic key, no builder address and no referral code ship with the item. Every money setting is off and empty until you fill it.
- Users' funds never pass through you or your server: orders go from the user's tab to Hyperliquid (Architecture).
03Keep the AI bill bounded
The Anthropic API is the only cost that grows with your visitors' activity. These admin settings limit it (Admin → AI chart reading):
| Setting | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| AI chart reading | on | Switch it off and no request reaches Anthropic. |
| Requests per visitor per hour | 20 | Each visitor's hourly limit (counted in memory by a salted IP hash). |
| Daily cap for the whole desk | 500 | Once reached, chart reading answers "This desk has reached its daily limit of AI requests" until the next day. |
| Model and effort | claude-opus-5, high | Smaller models and lower effort use fewer or cheaper tokens; see Anthropic's own pricing. |
| Plans: AI chart reads per day | 3 free · 60 for plan members | Only while paid plans are on: separate daily limits for free visitors and plan members. |
The admin Overview shows AI requests, errors, refusals, tokens in and tokens out for the period, so you can compare them with your Anthropic invoice. Set a spending limit in your Anthropic account as well, following Anthropic's own documentation.
04Where to go next
What to install and which accounts each feature needs: Requirements. How to set up each external account: First run walkthrough → External accounts.