Build Story · Trading discipline tool · EN
Zen Trader: a brake, not an accelerator
A read-only tool that checks every crypto perps trade against the rules you wrote and shows what breaking them cost you.
In one look
The problem
Crypto trading tools mostly help you trade more: signals, trade ideas, one-click orders. The expensive mistakes are often habits, like a revenge trade after a red day or sizing up after two losses, and nothing counts them.
What we built
Zen Trader reads a Hyperliquid account by wallet address or a Bybit account by read-only key, checks each trade against rules the trader wrote, flags a breach and shows what rule-breaking cost in money. It cannot place a trade.
Where it is now
Live and free during a founding period, with a public leak report, two calculators and a trading dictionary. It is an analytics and journaling tool, not advice. Native iPhone and Android apps are built; the iPhone build is in internal testing.
What this would have cost in 2024
About $33k and 2–3 months
2024 team: 3 people: full-stack developer with exchange-API experience, mobile developer for iOS and Android, product designer. Built here by one founder working with AI in 24 days over 15 months.
| Piece | 2024 hours |
|---|---|
| Exchange sync: Bybit read-only key check, encrypted storage, uncapped sync with fees and funding, P&L reconciliation | ~143 |
| Hyperliquid by wallet address behind a venue adapter, 180-day backfill | ~42 |
| Discipline engine: rules, five-minute checks, alerts, leak report, weekly AI debrief | ~105 |
| Dashboard, P&L views, journal with screenshots | ~103 |
| Landing, pricing, legal and security pages, free leak report, two calculators, 44-term dictionary, sitemap | ~88 |
| Sand-garden look, Balance garden and check-in, phone layout, glass controls | ~73 |
| Native iPhone app (SwiftUI) and TestFlight setup | ~135 |
| Native Android app (Jetpack Compose) | ~105 |
| Mobile JSON API and sign-in callback, tests, QA, security pass | ~74 |
| Total (PERT) | ~869 |
Method: PERT (O+4M+P)/6 per piece; low = O × $25, likely = PERT × $37.5, high = P × $50 (Accelerance 2024 Eastern-Europe band). Only what is live today is priced; 2025 prototype screens that were later removed are not.. These are estimates of what a team would have needed in 2024, not invoices.
How it was built
From first commit to current build in 24 days over 15 months
- A Bybit dashboard
The first version: magic-link sign-in and a Bybit connection, then P&L breakdowns, charts with entry and exit marks, and fees and funding tabs.
- Journal tools, then a long pause
Trade screenshots with before-and-after comparison, deposit tracking, a crypto screener and CSV import. After this the project sat almost untouched for close to a year.
- Rebuilt as a trading copilot
New sign-in and database, a server-rendered app, a daily sync job, TradingView charts, risk guardrails, an AI mode that drafted trade proposals, and a trading dictionary. A security pass followed later that month.
daily sync ran 65/65 times through 9 October - A hard look, and a new direction
A review of the code, the market and EU rules found that trade proposals and order buttons raised regulatory questions, and that the P&L did not yet match the exchange. Ilian chose to relaunch Zen Trader as a read-only discipline tool.
10 improvements, all approved - Relaunch: read-only, with your rules
Order placing switched off on the server and Bybit keys checked for read-only access. Rules, a check every five minutes, alerts, a leak report in money, a trade journal and P&L reconciled with fees and funding.
315/315 sync windows re-fetched · 66/66 tests - Hyperliquid, legal pages and free tools
Hyperliquid read from a public wallet address with no key. Privacy, terms, risk and security pages, a pricing page, a free Hyperliquid leak report, position-size and perp P&L calculators, and a dictionary split into one page per term.
54 URLs in the sitemap - The sand garden
Every colour now comes from one raked-sand picture. A Balance garden tops the dashboard: a red stone drifts from the centre with position size and mood, set by a five-option check-in. On phones each panel becomes a sand bed, with glass controls across the site.
116/116 tests - Native iPhone and Android apps
SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose apps with the Balance garden, P&L, leak report, rules, alerts, journal and settings, on a JSON API that shares its code with the web server. The iPhone build went to internal testing.
147 web tests · iPhone build accepted for TestFlight
Who did what
The founder decided
- Read-only: Zen Trader never places, changes or cancels an order.
- No signals and no trade ideas. The AI only describes the trader's own trades.
- Hyperliquid is read from the public wallet address, with no key and no signature.
- Every colour comes from one raked-sand picture, and red is never a button colour.
- The monk photo stays as the landing hero; the garden lives in the dashboard.
AI built and checked
- The web app, built in Lovable from the founder's briefs over 266 recorded edits.
- Claude Code: the October review, the relaunch briefs and live checks, and the native iPhone and Android apps.
- The sand-garden images, made with an AI image model.
Stack
Want something like this for your team?
From one call to something live. The same method is in the Claude Operator Pack.
From the founder
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