How Hummingbot Connectors Link Strategies to Exchanges and DEXs
Summary
The document explains Hummingbot connectors as adapters between its trading engine and exchange or blockchain interfaces. Using WebSocket and REST APIs, connectors standardize access to market and blockchain data and support actions such as placing, cancelling, or managing orders and transactions. This common interface lets strategies interact with platforms whose native APIs differ.
It distinguishes connectors for central limit order book venues from Gateway connectors for automated market makers and other decentralized protocols. CLOB connectors provide order book data and order operations for centralized and decentralized order book exchanges; Gateway connects through protocol software development kits and exposes REST endpoints for trading and liquidity provision. The document also describes ongoing maintenance and governance: maintainers update connectors as APIs and standards change, while community proposals influence which connectors are supported. It is an architectural overview rather than a strategy guide, and provides no performance comparisons or execution analysis.
Key ideas
- Connectors standardize Hummingbot's interaction with exchange and blockchain APIs.
- CLOB connectors support order book data and order placement or cancellation.
- Gateway connectors connect to automated market makers and other blockchain protocols.
- Connector maintenance addresses API changes, bugs, and updates to Hummingbot standards.
- Community governance can influence connector support and maintenance priorities.
Tags
Full text
# What are Connectors? ## What are Connectors? Connectors are packages of code that link Hummingbot's internal trading engine with real-time and historical data from different cryptocurrency exchanges and blockchains, via WebSocket and/or REST API. They standardize interactions with the idiosyncratic APIs offered by these platforms, for purposes such as gathering order book and blockchain data, as well as sending and cancelling transactions and orders. ## CLOB Connectors CLOB (Central Limit Order Book) connectors integrate into a CLOB exchange's WebSocket API, enabling standardized order placement/cancellation and order book data fetching from the perspective of Hummingbot strategies. These connectors work with both centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX) that utilize a central limit order book model. See [CLOB Connectors](clob.md) for a list of the current CLOB connectors in Hummingbot ## Gateway DEX Connectors Gateway connectors establish and maintain connections to automated market maker (AMM) DEXs and other protocols on various blockchain networks, interfaces with their Javascript SDKs, and exposes standard REST API endpoints for trading and liquidity provision-related actions on these DEXs. See [Gateway](../gateway/index.md) for comprehensive documentation about Gateway, including supported DEX connectors, API commands, and configuration. ## Connector Maintenance CLOB connectors requires ongoing maintenance: fixing bugs, addressing user issues, and keeping up with updates to both the exchange/blockchain API as wel as improvements to the Hummingbot connector standard. Hummingbot Foundation maintains certain reference connectors to maintain an updated standard and leverages community-based developers to maintain other connectors to the same standard. We assign [Bounties](../bounties/index.md) to community developers to upgrade and fix bugs for each exchange's connectors in the codebase. ## Connector Governance Hummingbot Foundation governance lets HBOT holders which exchanges are supported by the open source codebase. New connectors may be contributed by community members via [Hummingbot Governance Proposals (HGP)](../about/proposals.md), which require a pull request with the connector code to the Hummingbot Github repo, along with a minimum HBOT balance to create. For existing connectors, the community can propose changes to connector maintenance, bounty allocations, and connector removals through [Proposals](../about/proposals.md). See the **Connector Pots** tab in [HBOT Tracker](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UNAumPMnXfsghAAXrfKkPGRH9QlC8k7Cu1FGQVL1t0M/edit?usp=sharing) for the current allocations for each exchange.
Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: Apache-2.0
This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.