Development

How to run QuoteBridge for MetaTrader from source while you change it. You don't need the installer for this: it is only for testing installs and updates.

Requires Windows and Node.js 24. Install the dependencies once with npm ci.

npm run dev

One command runs the app with live reload. Options are passed after --:

npm run dev                      # fake terminals and fake EAs, dashboard in your browser
npm run dev -- --app             # the same inside the app window
npm run dev -- --real            # your real terminals, dashboard in your browser
npm run dev -- --real --app      # your real terminals inside the app window

Every mode does the same three things while it runs:

You save a file in	What happens	Typical time
src/dashboard/	The dashboard is rebuilt and every open page (browser tab or app window) reloads itself.	under 1 s
src/server/, src/shared/	The server is rebuilt and restarted through its normal stop path (database checkpoint included). Open pages sign in again by themselves, and EAs reconnect.	about 1 s
src/main/, src/shared/ (only with --app)	The main process is rebuilt and the whole app relaunches.	1–2 s

A build error leaves the running version in place and prints build failed; nothing reloaded. Fix the error and save again.

To stop, type q and Enter, or press Ctrl+C. With --app, Quit in the tray menu also ends the dev run.

Default: fake terminals and fake EAs

npm run dev

Use this for most work on the dashboard and the server. Nothing on your machine's MetaTrader side is touched.

• Ports: EA 6655, HTTP 6680, away from the app's 5555/5580, so it can run while the installed app or another server is running.
• Data folder: %TEMP%\quotebridge-dev. Settings, installs into fake terminals and the database survive restarts of the dev run.
• Fake terminals: a folder laid out like a MetaTrader user's machine, with four MT4 terminals and one MT5 terminal. One fails to compile, and one reports MetaEditor as open, so every state on the Terminals view and the setup screen can be seen. The compiler is a stand-in that takes about 1.5 s, so progress is visible.
• Fake EAs: feeds that cover every row state of the Feeds view: live quotes, a stale quote, a symbol without a valid quote, a duplicate chart, dropped samples, and a feed that goes offline after a few seconds. They report the fake CMC installation/data-folder pair like EA 1.11, so Feeds and Terminals share its ID/name even before installation. They answer bar requests with 900 synthetic bars of any period ending at their price, so their charts are full. Installing into a fake terminal also starts a fake EA there, which ticks that terminal's checklist.
• Simulated trading accounts: three fake charts carry accounts, so the Trading page, chart trade lines and the CLI can be tried without MetaTrader: a USD demo account on Demo-Broker (the CMC terminal's EURUSD chart, trading enabled, EA cap 0.5, with an EURUSD position placed outside QuoteBridge and a GBPUSD buy limit), a EUR demo account on Demo-Broker in a second terminal (Second Demo MetaTrader 4, EA cap 1) and a real account on Real-Broker (Real Broker MetaTrader 4, its chart with EnableRealTrading), read-only until Real-account trading is on. They answer Funds, conditions and executions from memory; nothing reaches a broker. Switch on Demo trading in Settings to try them. An order of exactly 0.07 lots is never answered, so it becomes unknown after 20 seconds and can be reviewed.
• Opening the dashboard: open http://127.0.0.1:6680/ (the terminal prints it; Enter prints it again). In a browser tab a dev run needs no sign-in, so you can reload, open more tabs or use another browser, and scripts can call the API with no cookie. Requests still have to come from this computer under 127.0.0.1, localhost or [::1]: other sites and other host names are refused, as in the app. The app window (--app) and the installed app keep the one-time sign-in.
• Settings view: the dev ports override the saved ones, and the view says so; a port change is saved but the run stays on 6655/6680. The theme applies at once in the app window and in a browser tab (the page sets data-theme); System follows the colour mode of the window or browser.

--app: inside the app window

npm run dev -- --app

Runs the real Electron app (tray, window, supervisor, utility process) instead of a browser tab, still with fake terminals and fake EAs unless --real is also given. Use it when working on the tray, the window, start-up and shutdown, or anything else in the main process.

• Server changes restart the server inside the app, the same way the app recovers from a crash.
• Dashboard changes reload the app window.
• Main-process changes quit and relaunch the app.
• The app uses the same dev data folder and ports as the mode it runs in, never the installed app's.
• The app window signs itself in. A browser next to it needs a one-time sign-in link, as with the installed app: take it from dev-sign-in-link.txt in the data folder (it is not printed). Only your Windows user can read the file; it is rewritten with each new link (Enter makes one, and uses up the one before) and deleted when the dev run stops. Treat the link as a secret: don't paste it into issues or logs.

--real: your real terminals

npm run dev -- --real
npm run dev -- --real --app

Uses the MetaTrader terminals on this computer and their own MetaEditor, so you can try a change against real EAs.

• Ports: the ones in the dev settings, 5555 (EA) and 5580 (HTTP) by default. Real EAs send to the port in their template, normally 5555.

• Data folder: %APPDATA%\QuoteBridge-dev, separate from the installed app's %APPDATA%\QuoteBridge. Managed terminals, install records and settings of a dev run never mix with the installed app's.

• Port check: it refuses to start while another program holds one of its ports, and says which:

  The EA port 5555 on 127.0.0.1 is in use by another program.
  npm run dev -- --real needs the real ports: quit the installed QuoteBridge (tray > Quit) and stop the legacy server, then try again.
  

  So before using it: Quit the installed QuoteBridge from the tray, and stop any other server on those ports.

• EA changes: the dev app installs the EA sources from the repo's mt4/ folder. After editing them, click Recompile on the terminal's card in the Terminals view. The terminal's MetaEditor compiles the EA, and MetaTrader reloads it on its charts.

• Nothing is installed until you ask: the first --real run creates the dev settings with setup already done and no managed terminals, so there is no setup screen and every detected terminal is only offered. The bridge files go into a terminal only when you click Install on its card; from then on that terminal is managed by the dev run, and later --real runs update it on start when the repo's bridge files differ (as the installed app does after an update). Terminals you never installed into are never touched on start.

• Your terminals are real: the Terminals view shows a banner saying so. Installing, recompiling and removing change the bridge files in those terminals, just as the installed app does. A terminal the installed app also manages then has two install records, one per data folder, and Remove in the dev run takes out the files the installed app's EA uses too.

• Existing dev settings are kept: a %APPDATA%\QuoteBridge-dev\settings.json from an earlier run is used as it is, including its managed terminals. To start clean, quit the dev run and delete %APPDATA%\QuoteBridge-dev.

When you are done, Quit the dev run and start the installed QuoteBridge again so your EAs have their server back.

Environment overrides

Variable	Default	Effect
QUOTEBRIDGE_DATA_FOLDER	see the modes above	Data folder of the dev run. The installed app's %APPDATA%\QuoteBridge is refused.
QUOTEBRIDGE_EA_PORT	6655, or the settings with --real	Port EAs connect to.
QUOTEBRIDGE_HTTP_PORT	6680, or the settings with --real	Port of the dashboard and API.
QUOTEBRIDGE_DEV_RELOAD_PORT	6681; 6682 with --real	Port the reload signal uses, so a fake run and a --real run can run at once. Only dev builds of the dashboard listen for it; production builds contain no reload code.

In PowerShell, set one for a single run like this:

$env:QUOTEBRIDGE_EA_PORT = '7755'; npm run dev; Remove-Item Env:QUOTEBRIDGE_EA_PORT

Other commands

Command	What it does
npm test	All tests (a few seconds).
npm run typecheck	Type-checks everything.
npm run build	Builds the main process, server (with the bundled indicator packages) and production dashboard into dist/.
npm start	Builds once, then runs the app with Electron, without live reload.
npm run package	Builds the Windows installer into release/.
npm run verify:package	Checks the unpacked build in release/win-unpacked.

Releasing

The Release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) builds the installer on GitHub Actions; no local build machine is needed.

1. Compile the EA locally with MetaEditor: 0 errors, 0 warnings. npm run compile:ea does it from the command line: it compiles a staged copy of mt4/ with the first MT4 metaeditor.exe in Program Files (or --metaeditor <path>, or QB_METAEDITOR) and fails on any error or warning. Close that MetaEditor first. npm run build:release runs it and then npm run build. CI cannot do this step: its runners have no MetaTrader.
2. Push a tag v<semver>, for example git tag v0.2.0 && git push origin v0.2.0. The tag sets the app's version.
3. The workflow builds the ZeroMQ DLL, runs the type check and tests, builds QuoteBridge-Setup-<version>-x64.exe, checks the package against the tagged commit (EA sources, DLL and notices, no .ex4, native modules) and creates the GitHub release with the installer and its .sha256. A tag with a pre-release part (v0.2.0-beta.1) makes a pre-release.

Run the workflow by hand (Actions › Release › Run workflow) to get the installer as a workflow artifact without a release. The installer is not code-signed until the SignPath application is approved.

Which mode to use

You are working on	Use
Dashboard pages, styling, the Feeds or Terminals views	npm run dev
Server: EA protocol, feeds, installer logic	npm run dev, plus npm test
Tray, window, start-up and shutdown	npm run dev -- --app
The EA (mt4/) or anything that must meet a real terminal	npm run dev -- --real (add --app for the full app)
The installer, updates of the installed app	npm run package, then install the result

MetaTrader is the registered trademark of MetaQuotes Ltd. QuoteBridge for MetaTrader is not affiliated with or endorsed by MetaQuotes.