How ARES actually works.

Overview

ARES runs entirely on your machine. No remote execution, no custodial wallet, no hosted signal service. The dashboard at portal.aresresearch.org is read-only — it pairs to your agent over an encrypted WebSocket and displays trade events your agent signs and pushes.

The goal is simple: catch volume surges on freshly launched four.meme tokens, flip them for a 30–50% move, exit before liquidity dries up, rotate. The bot never holds a position longer than it has to. Every decision is deterministic — no LLM in the hot path, no sentiment analysis, no "vibes."

Installation

Requires Node 18+, git, and a funded BNB Chain wallet.

1. Install the CLI

$ curl -fsSL https://aresresearch.org/install.sh | bash

This downloads the ares binary to ~/.ares/bin and adds it to your PATH. If you prefer, you can clone the repo and build from source — see Building from source.

2. Verify the installation

$ ares --version
ares v0.1.0 (bnb-chain, four.meme)

First Run

Initialize your agent. This creates a fresh encrypted keystore at ~/.ares/keystore.enc and writes a default config.toml.

$ ares setup

→ Generating new wallet...
→ Address: 0x4a7F...c9E1
→ Set keystore passphrase: ********
→ Confirm passphrase: ********
→ Writing config.toml
✓ Setup complete. Fund your wallet and run `ares start`.

Start the agent

Once your wallet has BNB for gas and USDT to trade with, start the agent in listen mode so the portal can pair with it:

$ ares start --listen

[19:42:01] Loaded config.toml
[19:42:01] Wallet 0x4a7F...c9E1 · balance 0.084 BNB · 412.31 USDT
[19:42:02] Connected to BNB Chain RPC
[19:42:02] Subscribed to four.meme factory events
[19:42:02] Listening for portal pairing on :4731
[19:42:03] Ready. Watching 47 pairs.

Connect to Portal

The dashboard at portal.aresresearch.org pairs to your running agent so you can watch its session live, review trade history, and adjust risk parameters from the browser.

Open the portal, copy the pairing command it displays, and paste it into the terminal where your agent is running:

$ ares link a8f3-2b9e-7c41

→ Initiating handshake with portal.aresresearch.org
→ Exchanging ed25519 session keys
✓ Paired. Session ID: s_k8f3...

The browser updates in real time. The portal never sees your private key — only session events your agent signs and streams.

Architecture

Four components, running locally, each doing one thing well.

• Watcher — subscribes to the four.meme factory contract and streams every new token deploy plus its live volume over the first 60 seconds.
• Filter — runs every candidate through static checks (honeypot, dev wallet concentration, liquidity lock, sell tax). Takes 80–120ms per token.
• Executor — builds the swap transaction, signs it with your keystore, submits it to your RPC. Holds the position for a configured duration and closes it.

Strategy

ARES runs a single, well-defined strategy. No regime detection, no multiple playbooks. The thesis: if a newly launched four.meme token clears the rug filter and shows a volume surge in its first 60 seconds, it has a ~70% chance of running 30–50% before the first wick.

Entry conditions

• Token was deployed within the last 60 seconds
• Cumulative buy volume exceeds 3× the rolling baseline for new launches (configurable)
• Passes all rug filter checks (see below)
• At least $2,000 of locked liquidity
• Your agent is not already holding a position (one concurrent trade max, by default)

Exit conditions

The position closes on whichever happens first:

• Time stop: default 12 seconds after entry
• Take profit: mark-to-market reaches +40%
• Stop loss: mark-to-market reaches −12%
• Liquidity drop: pool liquidity falls below 60% of entry level (rug in progress)

Rug Filters

Every candidate token is run through a static check pipeline before the executor ever looks at it. If any check fails, the token is skipped and logged to the session.

Risk Model

Position sizing is percentage-of-equity, not fixed dollar. Default is 12% of your current USDT balance per trade, capped between $20 and $100. This means the bot cannot over-leverage on a bad day and cannot get greedy on a good one.

Config File

Your configuration lives at ~/.ares/config.toml. Edit it with any text editor — changes require a restart to take effect.

# ARES agent configuration
# Generated by `ares setup`

[agent]
name = "my-ares"
listen_port = 4731

[chain]
rpc_url = "https://bsc-dataseed1.binance.org"
chain_id = 56

[strategy]
volume_threshold = 3.0      # multiple of baseline
min_liquidity_usd = 2000
hold_time_seconds = 12
take_profit_pct = 0.40
stop_loss_pct = -0.12

[risk]
risk_pct = 0.12
min_size_usd = 20
max_size_usd = 100
max_concurrent = 1
daily_stop_pct = -0.15

[filters]
require_verified = true
max_dev_wallet_pct = 0.35
max_sell_tax_pct = 0.15

Wallet Setup

ares setup generates a fresh BNB Chain wallet. You can also import an existing wallet with ares import, which accepts a private key or a 12/24-word mnemonic.

Fund the wallet with at least:

• 0.05 BNB for gas (enough for ~200 swaps)
• $200+ USDT as trading capital (smaller amounts will hit the min_size_usd floor and the bot will idle)

ARES only ever spends from this wallet. It does not need approval for any other address, and cannot touch funds on other chains or in other wallets.

RPC Endpoints

The public Binance RPC works out of the box but is rate-limited. For serious use, we recommend a private RPC with low latency and high throughput. Good options:

• Ankr — free tier is enough for solo use
• QuickNode — paid, lowest latency
• Running your own BSC node — most reliable, most work

Update chain.rpc_url in config.toml and restart the agent.

CLI Commands

FAQ

Does ARES work on chains other than BNB Chain?

Not currently. four.meme is BNB Chain native and the strategy is tightly coupled to it. Support for other meme launchpads (pump.fun on Solana, for example) is on the roadmap but has no ETA.

What if my agent goes offline while holding a position?

On restart, ares start reads any open position from disk and resumes monitoring it. If the time stop already elapsed while offline, the bot closes immediately on the next block.

Can I run multiple agents from one wallet?

Technically yes, but nonce management becomes a headache and you'll see occasional replacement transaction underpriced errors. We recommend one agent per wallet.

Is the source available?

ARES is closed-source during the beta. Binaries are signed and reproducible builds are published with each release so you can verify integrity.

How do I uninstall?

Run ares uninstall or manually delete ~/.ares/ and remove the binary from your PATH. Make sure to back up your keystore first if the wallet still holds funds.