# FlashAlpha

> Real-time and historical options analytics for US equities. Dealer gamma/delta/vanna/charm exposure, key levels, volatility surfaces (SVI), VRP dashboards, and minute-resolution historical replay back to April 2018. All endpoints use a single `X-Api-Key` header.

The FlashAlpha API has two surfaces: live (`api.flashalpha.com`) and historical replay (`historical.flashalpha.com`). Response shapes are identical between the two — backtesting code that parses live responses works against historical with only a base-URL swap. Historical endpoints take a required `at=YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss` query parameter (ET wall-clock) and require the Alpha plan or higher. Both surfaces share quota.

## API reference

- [Live API reference](https://lab.flashalpha.com/llms/api.md): every endpoint at api.flashalpha.com — quotes, exposure (GEX/DEX/VEX/CHEX), volatility analytics, VRP, screener, account info, error shapes.
- [Historical replay reference](https://lab.flashalpha.com/llms/historical.md): point-in-time replay of every analytics endpoint at minute resolution since April 2018. Identical response shapes to live + the `at` parameter semantics.
- [Volatility estimators reference](https://lab.flashalpha.com/llms/volatility.md): range-based realized estimators (Parkinson, Garman-Klass, Rogers-Satchell, Yang-Zhang) and conditional forecasts (EWMA, HAR-RV, GARCH) — formulas, response shapes, and when to use each. Alpha tier.
- [MCP server reference](https://lab.flashalpha.com/llms/mcp.md): Model Context Protocol server — 40 tools (23 live + 17 historical replay), 6 markdown reference resources, plus 4 canonical workflow prompts (`analyze_exposure`, `vrp_regime_check`, `historical_comparison`, `zero_dte_brief`). Two endpoints: `/mcp` (apiKey tool param) for self-hosted clients (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code Copilot) and `/mcp-oauth` (OAuth 2.1 + PKCE + DCR) for the Claude Connector Directory.

## Screener

- [Screener overview](https://lab.flashalpha.com/llms/screener.md): real-time options screener with filter DSL, sorts, computed formulas. Updates every 5–10s.
- [Screener field taxonomy](https://lab.flashalpha.com/llms/screener-field-taxonomy.md): every field exposed by `/v1/screener` with type and description.

## Authentication

Every endpoint requires `X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY`. Get a key at https://flashalpha.com. Free tier allows 5 calls/day; paid tiers unlock higher quota and Alpha+ unlocks historical.

`GET /v1/account` returns your plan, daily limit, and current usage — the fastest way to verify a key is wired up correctly.

## MCP

FlashAlpha exposes two MCP endpoints. `https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp` is the legacy/self-hosted path — clients pass the API key as the `apiKey` tool parameter on each call. `https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp-oauth` is OAuth-protected (DCR + PKCE against `https://flashalpha.com/oauth`, scope `flashalpha.mcp`) for the Claude Connector Directory and other hosts that require remote-MCP OAuth. Tool catalog, parameters, and response shapes are identical on both — only the auth differs. RFC 9728 protected-resource metadata is at `https://lab.flashalpha.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource`. See [mcp.md](https://lab.flashalpha.com/llms/mcp.md) for client-config snippets.