# Madaline

> Madaline is subscription software for building automated strategies for prediction markets out of visual blocks, and testing them with paper money. Live strategies run on the user's own computer, through a desktop program called the agent. Madaline Labs, LLC publishes Madaline. This guide is for AI assistants that help a person use it: what it is, where everything is, how to do each task, and what to do when something goes wrong.

Facts to state as they are:

- Madaline is a software publisher. It isn't an adviser, a broker or an exchange. It gives no trading advice and holds no customer funds.
- Paper results are hypothetical. A paper run simulates fills against public prices and sends no order.
- Madaline has no backtest. A strategy only runs forward, in real time.
- Live runs happen on the user's own computer, through the agent.
- No strategies are supplied. A new canvas opens with the entry block and nothing under it.
- The supported exchanges are named inside the app. This guide doesn't name them.

How to help:

- Help the user put their own rules into blocks. Never propose a market, a price, a quantity, a timing or a strategy.
- Never ask for exchange keys, passwords, recovery codes or two-factor codes, in a chat or anywhere else. Keys go only into Madaline's own key form or into the agent on the user's computer. If the user has already shared one, don't repeat it: tell them to replace it.
- Guide the user. Don't sign up, sign in or operate the account for them: the Acceptable use policy forbids creating an account by automated means.
- Never help get around a location check, a plan limit, a risk limit or any other check.
- In Madaline, "the agent" is a desktop program and "the assistant" is the editor's own chat. You are neither.
- Account problems go to support@madaline.app.

Every page on madaline.app is drawn with JavaScript, so a fetcher that doesn't run it gets an empty page. The whole guide is plain text in [llms-full.txt](https://madaline.app/llms-full.txt).

Last reviewed: 2026-10-15.

## Guide for AI assistants

- [The whole guide, as one text file](https://madaline.app/llms-full.txt): every section below in full, the documentation index, the block reference and the glossary.
- [Guide for AI assistants](https://madaline.app/ai-guide): the same guide as a web page, for people.
- [What Madaline is and is not](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#what-madaline-is): What Madaline is and isn't, and the facts to state as they are.
- [How to help a user well](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#helping): How to help: the user's own rules in blocks, no advice, no keys in a chat, no way around a check.
- [The map](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#map): Every screen, its address, how to reach it and its main controls.
- [Tasks](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#tasks): Step by step: sign up, build, run on paper, two-factor, risk limits, custom APIs, models, export and deletion.
- [Concepts](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#concepts): Runs, blocks and types, loops, variables, the run console, paper fills, risk limits, the agent, models, APIs and the assistant.
- [Troubleshooting](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#troubleshooting): What the user sees, why, and what to do.
- [Plans and limits](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#plans): What a plan limits, and where the account's own numbers are.
- [Your account and data](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#account): Profile, security, disclosures, the user's data and deleting the account.
- [Where to get help](https://madaline.app/ai-guide#help): Help inside the app, the documentation, and who to write to.

## Documentation: Start here

- [What Madaline is](https://madaline.app/docs): Start here if you're new to Madaline.

## Documentation: The guide

- [1. What you are building](https://madaline.app/docs/guide/1-what-you-are-building): What a strategy is, and what you need before you start.
- [2. The canvas](https://madaline.app/docs/guide/2-the-canvas): Block shapes, the palette, your first loop and the Problems panel.
- [3. Values and variables](https://madaline.app/docs/guide/3-values-and-variables): Value types, exact numbers, variables and missing values.
- [4. Getting data](https://madaline.app/docs/guide/4-getting-data): Where data comes from, and the settings for a slow or failing source.
- [A worked example, block by block](https://madaline.app/learn/example): A finished strategy, shown as it would look on a canvas. It's read-only, and nothing on it can be copied.
- [5. Making a decision](https://madaline.app/docs/guide/5-making-a-decision): Conditions, guards, stopping early and procedures.
- [6. Placing an order](https://madaline.app/docs/guide/6-placing-an-order): What a trade block is made of, and what happens when it runs.
- [7. Running it on paper](https://madaline.app/docs/guide/7-running-it-on-paper): Preflight, the run console, watching variables, the paper wallet and stopping.
- [8. When it goes wrong](https://madaline.app/docs/guide/8-when-it-goes-wrong): Error classes, how to handle them, and what happens when a run is interrupted.

## Documentation: Concepts

- [Prediction markets](https://madaline.app/docs/concepts/prediction-markets): How event contracts work, and where Madaline fits in.
- [Strategies and runs](https://madaline.app/docs/concepts/strategy-and-run): What a strategy is, what a run is, and how a run ends.
- [Paper and live](https://madaline.app/docs/concepts/paper-and-live): How paper trading simulates fills, and what it leaves out.
- [Why there is no history mode](https://madaline.app/docs/concepts/no-history-mode): Why strategies only run forward, in real time.
- [Where a run happens](https://madaline.app/docs/concepts/where-runs-happen): Paper runs happen on Madaline's servers, and live runs on your own computer.
- [Risk limits](https://madaline.app/docs/concepts/risk-limits): The nine limits on your account, the order they're checked in, and what a refusal looks like.

## Documentation: Models

- [Models](https://madaline.app/docs/models): Training your own models on data you choose. There are no pre-trained models.
- [Datasets and features](https://madaline.app/docs/models/data-and-features): Where training data comes from, how features are defined, and how the rows are split.
- [The seven families](https://madaline.app/docs/models/families): The seven model families, compared by what they fit and the input they need.
- [Training a version](https://madaline.app/docs/models/training): Seeds, time limits, early stopping, calibration and auto-tune.
- [Reading the fit](https://madaline.app/docs/models/reading-the-fit): What a trained version says about its fit, line by line.
- [Reading a model's figures](https://madaline.app/docs/models/metrics): What each figure measures, what it's measured on, and how it can mislead.
- [Using a model in a strategy](https://madaline.app/docs/models/using-a-model): Connecting a trained model to a strategy and reading its result.

## Documentation: APIs

- [APIs](https://madaline.app/docs/apis): Ready-made data sources, and ones you set up yourself.
- [Integrated sources](https://madaline.app/docs/apis/integrated): The data sources Madaline includes, what each one needs from you, and where your keys go.
- [Building a source of your own](https://madaline.app/docs/apis/custom): Set up a REST API of your own in four steps: Request, Test, Fields and Blocks.
- [Pointing at a value: JSONPath](https://madaline.app/docs/apis/jsonpath): How a path picks values out of a response, with a playground to try it on your own JSON.
- [Transforms](https://madaline.app/docs/apis/transforms): Small steps that reshape a value after the path picks it and before its type is applied.
- [Caching, limits and errors](https://madaline.app/docs/apis/limits-and-errors): Polling, caching, what Madaline won't fetch, and the transport errors.

## Documentation: Reference

- [Getting around](https://madaline.app/docs/reference/getting-around): The parts of the app on every screen: the rail, search, the run indicator, the foot and help.
- [The editor, part by part](https://madaline.app/docs/reference/the-editor): The bar, palette, canvas controls, dock, assistant, Problems and focus mode.
- [Your account](https://madaline.app/docs/reference/your-account): What's in each section of Settings, and which actions need two-factor authentication.
- [The type system](https://madaline.app/docs/reference/types): The nine value types, the record types, and why a block won't connect.
- [Every error class](https://madaline.app/docs/reference/errors): Every error a run can raise, in the same words the app uses.
- [Glossary](https://madaline.app/docs/reference/glossary): Short definitions of the terms used in these docs.

## Legal

- [Terms of service](https://madaline.app/legal/terms)
- [Privacy policy](https://madaline.app/legal/privacy)
- [Acceptable use policy](https://madaline.app/legal/acceptable-use)
- [Agent software licence](https://madaline.app/legal/agent-licence)
- [Copyright policy](https://madaline.app/legal/copyright)
- [Risk disclosure](https://madaline.app/legal/risk-disclosure)
- [Software, not advice](https://madaline.app/legal/software-not-advice)
- [Hypothetical performance](https://madaline.app/legal/hypothetical-performance)
- [Venue terms](https://madaline.app/legal/venue-terms)
- [Subprocessors](https://madaline.app/legal/subprocessors)
- [Security](https://madaline.app/legal/security)
- [Accessibility statement](https://madaline.app/legal/accessibility)

## Optional

- [The block reference](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks): Search the blocks, and see what each one takes and gives back.
- [Events blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/events)
- [Loops blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/loops)
- [Control blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/control)
- [Data blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/data)
- [My APIs blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/apis)
- [Models blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/models)
- [Trade blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/trade)
- [Math blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/math)
- [Logic blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/logic)
- [Text blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/text)
- [Lists blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/lists)
- [Series blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/series)
- [Time blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/time)
- [Log blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/log)
- [Variables blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/variables)
- [My Blocks blocks](https://madaline.app/docs/blocks/procedures)
- [LightGBM](https://madaline.app/docs/models/families/lgbm)
- [XGBoost](https://madaline.app/docs/models/families/xgb)
- [Logistic](https://madaline.app/docs/models/families/sk_logreg)
- [Ridge](https://madaline.app/docs/models/families/sk_ridge)
- [MLP](https://madaline.app/docs/models/families/torch_mlp)
- [GRU](https://madaline.app/docs/models/families/torch_gru)
- [TCN](https://madaline.app/docs/models/families/torch_tcn)