Let your AI
do the setup.

Step 1

Tell your AI this

Open Claude Code or Codex in any folder and paste this one line:

Set up my Ballast Trade Desk using https://ballastdigital.xyz/desk/ai

Copy the line

The AI downloads the signed skill from this page, checks its signature, and then runs the setup helper step by step. Each step tells you in plain words what it does and asks before anything that costs money.

What to expect

The steps, in order

1. Check your computer has what the helper needs (Node 18 or newer and a web browser).
2. Sports Desk, if you want it. Your AI asks which desk you want: the Sports Desk, the Trade Desk, or both. For the Sports Desk it opens your Sports Desk in your browser. There you open Settings, then Your own AI, confirm it is you if it asks, and press Copy next to the code. The helper saves that permission and adds the Sports Desk tools to your AI. Your AI can then read your board, reports, picks and bets, and act for you on your slip, practice bets, bet tracking and preferences. It never places a real bet, and you do not need an AI to use the Sports Desk. You can remove the tool in Sports Desk settings at any time. Ballast never places a bet.
3. Your Ballast account. The helper opens the setup page in your browser. There you sign in to your Ballast account (or enter an invite code and email and pick your username), and read and tick the four beta statements yourself. The page gives you an install command. You press Copy and tell your AI. The helper reads the command from your clipboard, so it never goes through the chat.
4. Server. You create a DigitalOcean API token yourself and press Copy. The helper reads it from your clipboard. It is never shown, saved or sent to Ballast. Your AI shows you the server plan and the price (about $12 a month, paid to DigitalOcean). The server is created only after you say yes in the chat to that plan. The helper then runs its --confirm step with a one-time code it printed for that plan.
5. Wait. Installing takes about 5 to 10 minutes. The helper tells you how far along it is.
6. Open. The helper fetches your one-time setup link, sealed so only your computer can read it, and opens your desk in your browser. You add a passkey and save your recovery codes.
7. Robinhood. Robinhood's sign-in only finishes on your own computer, so the helper runs it here and hands the result to your desk over an encrypted channel. For crypto, your desk makes its own key; you paste the public half into Robinhood.
8. Done. Your desk starts in PAPER (practice money) with a short tour. Real trades happen only if you type GO LIVE yourself.

Trust

What the skill never does

• It never asks you to paste a token, code, password or passkey into the chat. If you do by accident, it tells you to make a new one.
• It never sends your DigitalOcean token, setup code or Robinhood sign-in to Ballast. Ballast keeps only your email, your username, your server's public IP address and public key, and a daily check-in.
• It never turns on LIVE trading or types GO LIVE. Only you can, in your desk, after its checks pass.
• It creates one server, and only after you say yes in the chat to the plan and price it shows you. It deletes nothing unless you ask, and then you type DELETE yourself in your own terminal.

For the careful

Check it yourself

Looking up the published skill…

Download ballast-setup.zip and its signature. With Node 18 or newer, this checks the signature against the Ballast release key on Windows, macOS and Linux. Run it in the folder that holds both files:

node -e "const c=require('crypto'),f=require('fs');const k=c.createPublicKey({key:Buffer.from('MCowBQYDK2VwAyEAdt10LGDApV1g0wLcQORbVV52LsOgz3wAc2bwU2yIs2k=','base64'),format:'der',type:'spki'});const ok=c.verify(null,f.readFileSync('ballast-setup.zip'),k,f.readFileSync('ballast-setup.zip.sig'));console.log(ok?'SIGNATURE OK':'SIGNATURE BAD');process.exit(ok?0:1)"

It prints SIGNATURE OK when the zip is the one Ballast published. With OpenSSL 3 this line does the same. The LibreSSL that comes with macOS may not accept -rawin, so use the Node line there:

echo MCowBQYDK2VwAyEAdt10LGDApV1g0wLcQORbVV52LsOgz3wAc2bwU2yIs2k= | base64 -d > k && openssl pkeyutl -verify -pubin -keyform DER -inkey k -rawin -in ballast-setup.zip -sigfile ballast-setup.zip.sig

Manual install: unzip it inside .claude/skills/ (Claude Code) or .agents/skills/ (Codex) in your project folder. The zip already contains the ballast-setup folder, so do not make one first. The zip holds SKILL.md, the helper ballast-setup.mjs and the assistant's playbook pages for Claude Code and Codex (also readable at ballastdigital.xyz/desk/ai), and installs nothing else. Questions: hello@ballastdigital.xyz. Ballast support never asks for your codes, passkeys, broker logins or DigitalOcean password.