Swarms API Documentation - Build AI Agents & Multi-Agent Systems

Every 5 minutes during market hours, an unusual-activity watchlist lands in Slack — and the engineer who built it goes back to actually trading.

What This Example Shows

A ConcurrentWorkflow of three specialist agents — Flow Scanner, Greeks Analyzer, Vol Surface Watcher — fanning out in parallel on the same options snapshot
Per-agent tools_list_dictionary wired to live options market-data endpoints (Polygon / Tradier) and a Slack webhook
An intraday cron firing every 5 minutes (*/5 9-16 * * 1-5) that turns into ~80 swarm runs per session
The rate-limit math: a 5-minute cadence is 12 requests per hour, comfortably inside the Free tier’s 350/hour cap — this workload doesn’t require Premium on request volume alone
Model diversification across providers — gpt-4.1-mini, gpt-4.1, claude-haiku-4-5, claude-sonnet-4-5 — each picked for what that node actually needs
A Trade Idea Generator merging the three parallel briefs into a ranked watchlist and posting to a Slack channel before the next 5-minute window

A 5-minute cron during the 6.5-hour cash session generates ~78 swarm runs per day, each launching 4 agents. Rate limits count API requests, not agents, so that is 12 requests/hour against the Free tier’s 350/hour and 1,200/day caps — this cadence fits comfortably within the Free tier’s request limits on its own. Full limit table at Rate Limits.

Why This Matters

Unusual options activity has historically led equity returns by 10 to 30 minutes — large sweeps, abnormal volume-vs-OI ratios, IV expansions, and skew shifts are exactly the footprints big books leave when they take a directional view before it shows up in the tape. A single human eyeballing a Bloomberg flow scanner can cover maybe 20 names attentively in a session. The S&P 500 has 500 names, the Russell 3000 has 3,000, the optionable US equity universe is roughly 5,000. You cannot scan that manually, and you cannot scan it once a day either — flow that mattered at 10:05 is dead by 10:35. The only way to win this is a 5-minute heartbeat with parallel specialist agents that survive the firehose and only escalate the names that actually deserve a look.

The Architecture

                            ┌──────────────────────────────┐
                            │ Cron */5 9-16 * * 1-5 (NY)   │
                            └──────────────┬───────────────┘
                                           │
                                           ▼
                          ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
                          │ Pull options chains             │
                          │  • Polygon /v3/snapshot/options │
                          │  • Tradier /markets/options     │
                          └─────────────┬───────────────────┘
                                        │
                                        ▼
                    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │           ConcurrentWorkflow             │
                    │ ┌─────────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌────────┐ │
                    │ │ Flow Scanner│ │ Greeks   │ │ Vol    │ │
                    │ │ gpt-4.1-mini│ │ Analyzer │ │ Surface│ │
                    │ │             │ │ gpt-4.1  │ │ haiku  │ │
                    │ └──────┬──────┘ └────┬─────┘ └───┬────┘ │
                    └────────┼─────────────┼───────────┼──────┘
                             │             │           │
                             └─────────────┼───────────┘
                                           ▼
                          ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
                          │ Trade Idea Generator            │
                          │ claude-sonnet-4-5               │
                          │ (merge → rank → conviction)     │
                          └─────────────┬───────────────────┘
                                        ▼
                          ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
                          │ Slack #options-flow             │
                          └─────────────────────────────────┘

Step 1: Setup

Grab your Swarms key at https://swarms.world/platform/api-keys, then wire up the options data vendor and Slack.

pip install requests python-dotenv
export SWARMS_API_KEY="your-swarms-key"
export POLYGON_API_KEY="your-polygon-key"          # or TRADIER_TOKEN
export TRADIER_TOKEN="your-tradier-token"
export SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL="https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../..."

import json
import os

import requests
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

API_KEY = os.getenv("SWARMS_API_KEY")
BASE_URL = "https://api.swarms.world"

headers = {"x-api-key": API_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json"}

Step 2: Define the Function Tools

Tools are OpenAI function-call schemas attached per-agent via tools_list_dictionary. The agents decide when to call them — your backend executes them against Polygon / Tradier / Slack and feeds results back into the loop.

FETCH_OPTIONS_CHAIN = {
    "type": "function",
    "function": {
        "name": "fetch_options_chain",
        "description": (
            "Pull the live options chain for an underlying ticker across a "
            "near-term expiry range. Returns strikes, bid/ask, IV, volume, and "
            "open interest per contract."
        ),
        "parameters": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "symbol": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "description": "Underlying ticker, e.g. 'NVDA'.",
                },
                "expiry_range": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "description": (
                        "ISO date range, e.g. '2026-05-30:2026-06-20'. "
                        "Limit to weeklies + front month for flow work."
                    ),
                },
            },
            "required": ["symbol", "expiry_range"],
        },
    },
}

COMPUTE_GREEKS = {
    "type": "function",
    "function": {
        "name": "compute_greeks",
        "description": (
            "Compute Black-Scholes delta, gamma, vega, theta, rho for a "
            "single contract given strike, IV, expiry, underlying spot, "
            "and risk-free rate."
        ),
        "parameters": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "strike": {"type": "number", "description": "Strike price."},
                "iv": {"type": "number", "description": "Implied vol as a decimal, e.g. 0.42."},
                "expiry": {"type": "string", "description": "ISO expiry date."},
                "underlying": {"type": "number", "description": "Spot price of the underlying."},
                "rfr": {"type": "number", "description": "Risk-free rate as a decimal, e.g. 0.045."},
            },
            "required": ["strike", "iv", "expiry", "underlying", "rfr"],
        },
    },
}

VOLUME_VS_OI_RATIO = {
    "type": "function",
    "function": {
        "name": "volume_vs_oi_ratio",
        "description": (
            "Return today's contract-level volume / open interest ratio for "
            "every strike on the chain. Ratios > 2.0 are the headline "
            "unusual-activity tell."
        ),
        "parameters": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "symbol": {"type": "string", "description": "Underlying ticker."},
            },
            "required": ["symbol"],
        },
    },
}

COMPUTE_IV_RANK = {
    "type": "function",
    "function": {
        "name": "compute_iv_rank",
        "description": (
            "Compute IV rank (0-100) for the at-the-money 30-day vol vs. its "
            "trailing window. High IV rank = vol is rich, sellers favored. "
            "Low IV rank = vol is cheap, gamma is on sale."
        ),
        "parameters": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "symbol": {"type": "string", "description": "Underlying ticker."},
                "lookback_days": {
                    "type": "integer",
                    "description": "Lookback window in trading days, e.g. 252.",
                },
            },
            "required": ["symbol", "lookback_days"],
        },
    },
}

POST_SLACK_ALERT = {
    "type": "function",
    "function": {
        "name": "post_slack_alert",
        "description": (
            "Post a formatted unusual-activity alert to the #options-flow "
            "Slack channel via the configured webhook."
        ),
        "parameters": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "text": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "description": "Full markdown body of the alert.",
                },
                "ticker": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "description": "Headline ticker for the alert.",
                },
                "conviction": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "enum": ["LOW", "MEDIUM", "HIGH"],
                    "description": "Conviction bucket, drives channel emoji + colour bar.",
                },
            },
            "required": ["text", "ticker", "conviction"],
        },
    },
}

Step 3: Define the Four Agents

Four agents, four models, four jobs. Cheap and fast on the wide scan; reasoning-heavy where the math actually matters; Sonnet at the top to merge.

FLOW_SCANNER_PROMPT = (
    "You are an Options Flow Scanner. For the given universe of tickers, call "
    "fetch_options_chain and volume_vs_oi_ratio to flag contracts with "
    "volume/OI > 2.0, abnormal block prints, and sweeps that hit the ask. "
    "Return a tight list of (ticker, strike, expiry, side, V/OI, $premium). "
    "No prose. No hedging. Be fast — you are the first pass."
)

GREEKS_ANALYZER_PROMPT = (
    "You are a Greeks Analyzer. For each contract surfaced by the Flow Scanner, "
    "call compute_greeks and report delta exposure, gamma per $1 move, vega per "
    "vol point, and the dollar size of the position. Flag any single trade with "
    "more than $250k notional gamma or vega. Output one line per contract."
)

VOL_SURFACE_PROMPT = (
    "You are a Vol Surface Watcher. For each underlying flagged by Flow Scanner, "
    "call compute_iv_rank with lookback_days=252 and read the chain for skew "
    "shifts and term-structure dislocations vs. the prior snapshot. Flag IV "
    "rank > 70 (rich vol) and < 20 (cheap vol). Note any 25-delta skew that "
    "moved more than 2 vol points in the last hour."
)

TRADE_IDEA_PROMPT = (
    "You are the Trade Idea Generator. Merge the Flow Scanner, Greeks Analyzer, "
    "and Vol Surface Watcher briefs into a ranked watchlist. For each idea:\n\n"
    "TICKER: <symbol>\n"
    "STRUCTURE: <single-leg or spread>\n"
    "THESIS: <one sentence on why this flow matters now>\n"
    "CONVICTION: <LOW | MEDIUM | HIGH>\n"
    "INVALIDATION: <one sentence on what would kill the idea>\n\n"
    "Then call post_slack_alert for every MEDIUM and HIGH conviction idea. "
    "Skip LOW conviction — Slack is not a log file."
)


def build_options_flow_swarm(universe: list[str]) -> dict:
    return {
        "name": "Options Flow Detector",
        "description": "ConcurrentWorkflow scanning unusual options activity intraday.",
        "swarm_type": "ConcurrentWorkflow",
        "max_loops": 1,
        "task": (
            "Scan the following universe for unusual options activity in the "
            "last 5 minutes and produce a ranked watchlist of trade ideas: "
            f"{', '.join(universe)}"
        ),
        "agents": [
            {
                "agent_name": "Flow Scanner",
                "description": "First-pass unusual-activity scan across the universe.",
                "system_prompt": FLOW_SCANNER_PROMPT,
                "model_name": "gpt-4.1-mini",
                "role": "worker",
                "max_loops": 1,
                "max_tokens": 4096,
                "temperature": 0.2,
                "tools_list_dictionary": [FETCH_OPTIONS_CHAIN, VOLUME_VS_OI_RATIO],
            },
            {
                "agent_name": "Greeks Analyzer",
                "description": "Delta / gamma / vega / theta sizing on flagged contracts.",
                "system_prompt": GREEKS_ANALYZER_PROMPT,
                "model_name": "gpt-4.1",
                "role": "worker",
                "max_loops": 1,
                "max_tokens": 4096,
                "temperature": 0.2,
                "tools_list_dictionary": [COMPUTE_GREEKS],
            },
            {
                "agent_name": "Vol Surface Watcher",
                "description": "IV rank, skew, and term-structure dislocations.",
                "system_prompt": VOL_SURFACE_PROMPT,
                "model_name": "claude-haiku-4-5",
                "role": "worker",
                "max_loops": 1,
                "max_tokens": 4096,
                "temperature": 0.2,
                "tools_list_dictionary": [COMPUTE_IV_RANK, FETCH_OPTIONS_CHAIN],
            },
            {
                "agent_name": "Trade Idea Generator",
                "description": "Merges briefs into a ranked watchlist and posts to Slack.",
                "system_prompt": TRADE_IDEA_PROMPT,
                "model_name": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
                "role": "coordinator",
                "max_loops": 1,
                "max_tokens": 6144,
                "temperature": 0.3,
                "tools_list_dictionary": [POST_SLACK_ALERT],
            },
        ],
    }

The cheapest model (gpt-4.1-mini) does the widest pass because flow scanning is mostly pattern recognition over structured data — Greeks reasoning and final ranking is where the smarter models earn their tokens. Diversifying providers across OpenAI and Anthropic also means if one provider has a 5-minute outage, three out of four agents still ship.

Step 4: Run One Intraday Pass

UNIVERSE = [
    "SPY", "QQQ", "IWM",
    "NVDA", "AAPL", "MSFT", "GOOGL", "META", "AMZN", "TSLA",
    "AMD", "AVGO", "NFLX", "COIN", "PLTR", "SMCI", "MSTR",
    "JPM", "BAC", "XOM", "OXY",
]


def run_options_flow_pass(universe: list[str]) -> dict:
    payload = build_options_flow_swarm(universe)
    response = requests.post(
        f"{BASE_URL}/v1/swarm/completions",
        headers=headers,
        json=payload,
        timeout=300,
    )
    response.raise_for_status()
    return response.json()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    result = run_options_flow_pass(UNIVERSE)

    for output in result.get("output", []):
        print("=" * 60)
        print(output["role"])
        print("=" * 60)
        content = output["content"]
        if isinstance(content, list):
            content = " ".join(str(c) for c in content)
        print(str(content)[:600])

    cost = result["usage"]["billing_info"]["total_cost"]
    elapsed = result["execution_time"]
    print(f"\nPass cost: ${cost:.4f}  |  wall time: {elapsed:.1f}s")

A single 21-ticker pass typically runs ~$0.18–$0.25 and completes in 30–45 seconds — well inside the 5-minute window, with a generous buffer for slow data calls.

Step 5: The 5-Minute Cron

Drop the script behind a cron line that only fires during the US cash session, Monday through Friday.

# /etc/cron.d/options-flow  (server is on America/New_York)
*/5 9-16 * * 1-5  trader  /usr/bin/python3 /opt/flow/run_pass.py >> /var/log/flow.log 2>&1

The math on a 5-minute heartbeat:

Window	Passes
Per hour	12
Per 6.5-hour session	~78
Per week	~390
Per month	~1,700

Each pass launches the swarm, which kicks off 4 agents and the underlying tool calls. That is roughly 312 agent-runs per hour during market hours, but rate limits count requests, not agents: 12 requests/hour sits well inside the Free tier’s 350/hour and 1,200/day caps. This single-watchlist cadence does not require Premium on request volume — if you fan this out across multiple watchlists or tighten the cadence below 5 minutes, watch your X-RateLimit-Remaining-* headers so you know how much headroom is left before Premium’s higher per-minute/hour/day caps (2,000/10,000/100,000) become necessary. Full numbers at Rate Limits.

A 5-minute window that completes at minute 6 is a missed window — the next cron fires before the last alert lands in Slack. That is a latency/tuning problem (model choice, max_tokens, tool round-trips), not a rate-limit one at this cadence; watch wall time on each pass and cut max_tokens on the specialist agents if a pass runs long.

Real Cost vs. Bloomberg Options Scanner

Stack	Setup	Annual
This swarm (4 agents × ~78 passes/day)	~$15/day in API + data fees	~$3,750/yr
Bloomberg AIM seat (with options analytics)	$2,000/mo per seat	~$24,000/yr
Tradeshift / OptionsPlay enterprise	$1,500–$3,000/mo	~$18,000–$36,000/yr

This is not a Bloomberg replacement. Nobody is canceling their Terminal because of a Slack bot — Bloomberg owns the ground truth, the chat, and the workflow your counterparties live in. What this stack is: a focused alpha layer on top of the data you already pay for, doing the one thing humans cannot do — scanning the full optionable universe every 5 minutes without getting tired. Cheap enough to run from a side server, cheap enough to fail occasionally, cheap enough that you do not have to justify the spend to a CFO.

Next Steps

Crypto Quant Agent — the same intraday cron pattern applied to 24/7 crypto markets where the heartbeat can stay tight all weekend
AI Hedge Fund Research Pipeline — the overnight HierarchicalSwarm batch pattern that pairs with this intraday loop for a complete research stack
Rate Limits — exact per-tier numbers, the upgrade path, and how priority queueing changes the cadence math

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Options Flow Detector: Unusual Activity to Trade Ideas Intraday

What This Example Shows

Why This Matters

The Architecture

Step 1: Setup

Step 2: Define the Function Tools

Step 3: Define the Four Agents

Step 4: Run One Intraday Pass

Step 5: The 5-Minute Cron

Real Cost vs. Bloomberg Options Scanner

Next Steps

​What This Example Shows

​Why This Matters

​The Architecture

​Step 1: Setup

​Step 2: Define the Function Tools

​Step 3: Define the Four Agents

​Step 4: Run One Intraday Pass

​Step 5: The 5-Minute Cron

​Real Cost vs. Bloomberg Options Scanner

​Next Steps

What This Example Shows

Why This Matters

The Architecture

Step 1: Setup

Step 2: Define the Function Tools

Step 3: Define the Four Agents

Step 4: Run One Intraday Pass

Step 5: The 5-Minute Cron

Real Cost vs. Bloomberg Options Scanner

Next Steps