Create a KuCoin API key
Used for: Signals and positions view (Auto-Trade on KuCoin is coming soon). Menu names can differ slightly between the website and app versions.
Watch it in one minute
Account
Illustration · menu names can differ slightly on the website and app
Tick only these
- General
- Futures
Never tick
- Withdraw / Withdrawals
- Transfer / Universal transfer
- Anything else you do not need
Our server IP (whitelist this on the key)
Before you start
- Identity verification, 2FA and a trading password are set up.
Step by step
- 1
Open API management
Log in at kucoin.com, open the avatar menu → API Management.
- 2
Create the key
Click Create API → API Trading, name it Kestrel and choose an API passphrase (write it down).
- 3
Choose permissions
Tick General (read) and Futures.
Leave Withdrawal and Transfer unticked. Spot and Margin are not needed.
- 4
Restrict to our server IP
Under IP restriction choose Yes and add 187.127.177.38.
- 5
Confirm and copy
Confirm with your trading password, email and authenticator codes, then copy the API key and Secret.
- 6
Paste into Kestrel
Open Exchanges & keys → KuCoin, paste the key, secret and passphrase and click Save.
Fund your futures wallet
For the positions view, keep your futures USDT in the Futures account (Assets → Transfer from Funding/Trading to Futures).
If saving the key fails
- "Invalid KC-API-PASSPHRASE"
- Use the API passphrase you chose for the key, not your trading password.
- "IP not in whitelist"
- Add 187.127.177.38 to the key's IP restriction on KuCoin.
Kestrel stores keys encrypted (AES-256-GCM) and checks them live with KuCoin before saving.