150+ pages of research + playbooks to build a Solana-native signal engine + autonomous trading bot solo, on a $0/mo infrastructure budget.
4 months of solo work compressed into 12 engineering + strategy + risk + compliance + infra playbooks.
Free + MIT. Fork it, ship your own, no strings.
All 12 playbooks are public in bundle/:
| # | Doc | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 00 | MASTER | 90-day plan: $0 → autonomous $1000 SOL bot → first paying customer |
| 01 | Trading | Universe, top-K signal filtering, eighth-Kelly sizing, ATR stops |
| 02 | Risk | 5 circuit breakers, 30-day paper gate, kill switches, incident runbooks |
| 03 | Security | 3-tier wallet ($100/$300/$600), KMS envelope, isolated signer |
| 04 | Architecture | 18 new Python modules, 7-day MVP calendar, SQL schemas |
| 05 | Revenue | Top 3 streams Week 1, SR&ED hidden goldmine, subscription gate |
| 06 | Compliance (Canada) | NI 31-103 exemption, CCPC timing, MSB triggers, PIPEDA |
| 07 | Infra | Oracle Cloud Always Free deploy, 99% SLO, 8 P0 runbooks |
| 08 | Downloads bot audit | Salvage from 3 prior attempts, 3 anti-patterns to avoid |
| 09 | Tooling audit | ~1000 tools, 30 P0 picks, $0/mo vs typical $105/mo stack |
| 10 | Credentials queue | 13 free-tier accounts, priority order |
| 11 | API signup queue | Captcha-blocked flagged, which to skip |
This repo is documentation-first. No code to run, just 12 playbooks plus one landing page. If you want to rebuild the landing page locally:
- Any modern browser (the landing page is a single static
index.html) - Optional: GitHub Pages or any static host to publish your fork
git clone https://github.com/cryptomotifs/cipher-starter
cd cipher-starter
# edit bundle/*.md to reflect your own research
# edit index.html to point at your own donation wallet + handles
# commit + push to your forkThen enable GitHub Pages in your fork's Settings → Pages → Source: main / (root) and your landing lives at
https://<your-handle>.github.io/cipher-starter/.
The bundle/ markdown is MIT-licensed. Copy any playbook into your own
docs, rename it, adjust the jurisdiction / stack sections, and ship it.
Attribution appreciated but not required.
- Indie devs building Solana signal engines or trading bots solo
- You know how to code (Python / TypeScript) and can read production-quality scaffolding
- You've tried building bots before; flash-loan / MEV latency killed you; you want to know what to prioritize instead
- You don't have team, budget, or runway beyond what you can self-fund
- Beginners looking for "learn to code" content. This assumes production-dev skill.
- Anyone expecting "guaranteed returns" or a managed signal subscription
- People who don't want to touch compliance or security architecture
- Wallet A + B from prior bots were compromised (plaintext keys in
.env+ mnemonic as comments). 3-tier wallet split recommended: $100 hot / $300 warm / $600 cold with KMS + isolated signer subprocess. - MEV sandwich tax = ~40% annualised drag if unmitigated. Required defenses: Jito bundles (tip-based, not pub-mempool) + limit orders + illiquidity blocklist + oracle gate rejecting trades >0.5% off Pyth spot.
- No perps at $1k scale. Liquidation cascade risk dwarfs the upside of using margin at that account size. Solana spot only via Jupiter.
- Canadian NI 31-103 exemption path: position Phase 2 product as "quantitative market data + research content," never recommend / personalize / custody. Sole proprietor until $60-80k/yr, then CCPC in home province.
- SR&ED R&D tax credit is the hidden goldmine for Canadian solo devs: 35-43% refundable on imputed founder-salary rate of R&D spend. Likely outvalues 12-24 months of $1k trading P&L. Start the logbook day 1.
- Oracle Cloud Always Free (4 ARM cores, 24 GB RAM, forever) is the right host at this scale. Systemd native, not Docker. $0/mo at zero P&L.
- 30-day paper-trade gate before live capital: Sharpe ≥ 0.8, max DD < 12%. If not green, extend paper; don't force-go-live.
- Salvageable from prior Rust/Node bots:
sol-volume-bot-v3/index.jslines 188-236 (bundle landing),solana-arb-bot/predator-execution/{jito,simulator,alt,ata}.rs. Skip all memecoin strategy crates. - 23 free-tier API workflows pre-captured: Sentry + PostHog + Resend + Neon + Upstash + Cloudflare + Helius + Alchemy + Finnhub + FRED + Tiingo + Polygon + Etherscan V2 + Bitquery + Solscan + CoinGecko + Alpha Vantage + more. Ordered by priority, captcha-blocked ones flagged.
- Subscription launch gate: 30 days live P&L + Sharpe ≥0.5 + 50 email subs OR 200 Twitter followers. Earliest plausible Day 61, target Day 90.
- v1 (shipped 2026-04): 12 playbooks published
- v2 (planned 2026-05): Add 30-day live paper-trade data, backtest validation suite, performance attribution per strategy
- v3 (planned 2026-07): Full
cipher/trading/Layer K reference implementation (Python, MIT-licensed)
Q: This is a lot of research for free. What's the catch? A: None. The research is public. It's the engineering, risk discipline, and ongoing iteration that's the hard part. If the research saves you a month, a tip in SOL is appreciated but never required.
Q: Is this actually useful for non-Solana quants? A: ~70% jurisdiction/stack-neutral. Infra, risk, security, architecture apply broadly. Trading + compliance sections are Solana / Canada specific.
Q: Can I fork it? A: Yes, MIT. Attribution appreciated.
Q: Investment advice? A: No. Not a recommendation on any trade, token, or security. Engineering + strategy + infrastructure guidance only. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All risk is yours.
Writeups that expand on the bundle:
- 10 non-obvious findings from the playbook build (dev.to). Covers wallet compromise postmortem, MEV sandwich tax math, 3-tier wallet architecture, Canadian NI 31-103 exemption, SR&ED credit, 30-day paper gate.
- I shipped an x402 AI-crawler paywall in 3 hours on Vercel's free tier (dev.to). Covers the Next.js 16 +
@x402/nextstack, the three deploy gotchas, full proxy code. - Also on Hashnode: solana-developer.hashnode.dev
Want the playbook as a PDF, or more structured sidecars? All direct-pay, no platform middleman:
- cipher-checkout.vercel.app. Three products, pay by card (Stripe) or crypto (Base USDC, Solana USDC, BTC):
- Solana Solo-Dev Playbook (PDF), $9. 150-page playbook, same content as this repo but as one offline-ready PDF. Trading, risk, security, architecture, revenue, compliance, infra, solo mode, 2026.
- x402 Paid Endpoint Starter Kit, $19. Next.js 16 starter repo + 7-page tutorial PDF + one-command Vercel deploy. Working x402 endpoint.
- Solana Bot Toolkit Walkthrough, $29. Deep walkthrough of the MIT-licensed cipher-solana-bot-toolkit. 5-module integration guide, gotcha matrix, anti-patterns.
This is free + MIT. If it saved you time, tips in SOL are appreciated:
cR9KrbsLVJvir5rY9cfY3WeNoxMwUGofzpCoVyobryy
No pressure. Star the repo or share it and that's equally valued.
Landing page with QR code: https://cryptomotifs.github.io/cipher-starter/
Solo Canadian dev (Ontario, ET). Available 20 hr/wk for x402 / MCP / Solana integration + Solana bot architecture work. The 150-page playbook is the same engineering discipline I apply on paid engagements.
Fixed-price SKUs:
| # | Service | Price | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wire x402 into your Next.js / Node app (merged PR + live test) | $900 | 2 days |
| 2 | Solana bot architecture + security review (3-tier wallet, MEV defense, Jito) | $1000 | 1 day |
| 3 | AI-agent paid-API: 0 → live on Base with MCP wrapper | $1200 | 3 days |
Hourly: $150/hr open-scope, 5-hour minimum block. $125/hr if 40+ hours upfront.
Payout: USDC on Base 0x2a33D2414312e8776dA4011c2586c2d067267210, USDC on Solana cR9KrbsLVJvir5rY9cfY3WeNoxMwUGofzpCoVyobryy, or Wise-USD on request.
Engage: open an issue titled [Consulting]: <what you need> on cryptomotifs/cipher-x402-mcp, or DM @cryptomotifs@techhub.social. I reply within the hour with scope + 50% deposit address.
Also: prompt packs for Solana / x402 / MCP devs at cipher-checkout.vercel.app — 5 packs covering Anchor audit, x402 + MCP design, Solana bot engineering, crypto dev productivity, and a 20%-off bundle. Card or crypto.
- cipher-solana-bot-toolkit. Free MIT: flash-loan router, volume bot, arb/MEV predator, memecoin launcher, copy trader. 5 scrubbed modules extracted from months of private iteration. Pair with this playbook.
- cipher-x402-mcp. Free MIT MCP server exposing 8 Solana + macro tools to any MCP-aware client, 7 of them gated via x402 USDC on Base. Managed hosted plans ($0/$9/$29/$99) live on MCPize.
- cipher-solana-wallet-audit. Free GitHub Action (v1.1.0) that fails CI on plaintext Solana private keys.
- cipher-scan. Paste any Solana wallet, get portfolio value plus hygiene flags (dust, stale stake accounts, low-liquidity warnings) plus referral CTAs for Jupiter/Backpack/Drift/Kamino. No signup, no tracking.
- Mastodon: @cryptomotifs@techhub.social
- GitHub issues, for bundle errata / typo PRs
Built by someone who actually did the work. Questions → open a GitHub issue.