affaan-m/ECC · critical · EnvironmentError

TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY not set

Error message

TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY not set

What it means

At startup, the agent reads `TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY` from the environment; if unset/empty, it raises `EnvironmentError("TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY not set")` before constructing the `Account`. This is a fail-fast on missing secret so the agent never runs unauthenticated.

Source

Thrown at skills/llm-trading-agent-security/SKILL.md:120

        if self.hour_start_value <= 0:
            self.halt("Invalid hour_start_value")
            return

        hourly_pnl = (portfolio_value - self.hour_start_value) / self.hour_start_value
        if hourly_pnl < -self.MAX_HOURLY_LOSS_PCT:
            self.halt(f"Hourly PnL {hourly_pnl:.1%} below threshold")
```

### Wallet isolation

```python
import os
from eth_account import Account

private_key = os.environ.get("TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY")
if not private_key:
    raise EnvironmentError("TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY not set")

account = Account.from_key(private_key)
```

Use a dedicated hot wallet with only the required session funds. Never point the agent at a primary treasury wallet.

### MEV and deadline protection

```python
import time

PRIVATE_RPC = "https://rpc.flashbots.net"
MAX_SLIPPAGE_BPS = {"stable": 10, "volatile": 50}
deadline = int(time.time()) + 60
```

## Pre-Deploy Checklist

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Set the variable in the runtime environment (`.env` for local, secret manager / k8s secret for prod) and confirm with `printenv TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY`.
2. Load `.env` explicitly at startup (`load_dotenv()`) before the check.
3. Make sure the var name casing matches exactly — environment variables are case-sensitive on POSIX.
4. If using a masked CI value, confirm the real value is what reaches the process (not the `***` placeholder).

Example fix

# before
private_key = os.environ.get("TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY")
if not private_key:
    raise EnvironmentError("TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY not set")

# after — fail fast with actionable message; load .env in dev
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()
private_key = os.environ.get("TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY")
if not private_key or private_key.startswith("***"):
    raise EnvironmentError("TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY missing or masked; set it in the environment/secret manager")

import os
def has_wallet_key() -> bool:
    v = os.environ.get('TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY')
    return bool(v) and not v.startswith('***')

null

try:
    account = Account.from_key(os.environ['TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY'])
except (KeyError, EnvironmentError) as e:
    log.error('secret missing: %s', e)
    sys.exit(2)  # fail fast, do not run unauthenticated

When it happens

Trigger: Process started without `TRADING_WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY` in the environment — `.env` not loaded, secret manager unreachable, deployed without the var, or name typo.

Common situations: Forgot to `export` the var in the shell. `python-dotenv` not loaded in the entrypoint. Container missing the secret volume/env. Different casing (`Trading_Wallet_Private_Key`). CI masked the var and the run used the literal masked string.

Related errors

• The canonical ito-compute-cli is unpublished and ECC will no
• Project memory .gitignore does not contain the required fail
• Refusing to save memory containing a suspected secret (${sec
• Refusing to ${action} '${target}': no trusted install root r
• Potential prompt injection: {text[:100]}

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/343e52613dc0669f. Report an issue: GitHub.