Connect Schwab

1. If another program on this computer already signs in to Schwab with the app key you mean to use, don't sign in twice -- AlertKeeper's sign-in would end that program's. Set that program to use AlertKeeper's sign-in instead (Sharing the sign-in with your own programs, below), and only then Connect here.
2. On developer.schwab.com, sign up for a developer account with your Schwab login. Schwab looks at new developer accounts before they can make apps; that can take a few days.
3. Make one app, just for AlertKeeper (the product Accounts and Trading Production). For its callback, copy the address Settings → Broker shows -- this computer (127.0.0.1), port 8080, /callback -- exactly; choose another port there first if 8080 is taken on your computer. Schwab reviews new apps: wait until it says Ready For Use.
4. Your app's page there shows its App key and Secret. In AlertKeeper: Settings → Broker, type both and the callback port, and press Connect. Both go into your Keychain (Mac) or Credential Manager (Windows), never into a file.
5. Schwab's sign-in opens in your browser: sign in, allow access, and choose the accounts AlertKeeper may read.
6. The browser then warns that 127.0.0.1's connection isn't private: that's AlertKeeper on your own computer, catching Schwab's answer. Choose to go on (Advanced → Proceed). If the browser won't, copy the whole address from its address bar into Or paste the address on Settings → Broker.
7. Press Read now on Settings → Broker for the first read (two years of transactions, a minute or two); after that it happens by itself once a day, and the button says when: Read at 2:17 PM.

• Settings → Broker: Connected · sign in again by a day 7 days ahead (and how long that is), and a table of your Schwab accounts -- each with the AlertKeeper account it fills, when it was last read, its cash and its value. An account AlertKeeper already had (the same last digits) is filled; a new one appears as "Schwab ...123" -- rename it on Settings → Accounts. An account you don't want (an empty one, say): Read it? says Reading; change makes it Not read -- the daily read leaves it alone and never makes it again.
• A position moved whole from one of your accounts to another ends in the first with no gain or loss and goes on in the second.
• A close of a position opened before the oldest history Schwab gives (two years back) is a grey note on Trades -- its gain isn't known, so it's in no total. Nothing to do.
• Two days before the 7-day sign-in ends, Positions and AlertKeeper's dot say "Sign in to Schwab again by Tue 10/21 2:16 PM": Connect again on Settings → Broker, and it clears.
• Positions: your Schwab positions and trades, as with your files, and Δ · Θ (delta and theta) beside each open option.
• Health's Broker card: when each account was last read, and the daily refresh. Schwab's sign-in lasts 7 days; then it wants you to sign in again: Connect again.

• Health's Broker card is red, "Schwab refused the token's refresh" with Schwab's reason: the sign-in ended early (often another program signed in with the same app key). Connect again; if another program uses the key, give AlertKeeper an app of its own.
• "Port 8080 is in use": another program is listening there right now. Try again in a minute, or paste the address.
• "Schwab said no": the key or secret was typed wrong, or the app isn't Ready For Use yet, or its callback isn't exactly the one Settings → Broker shows.
• A row under Review in Schwab's own words: a kind of transaction AlertKeeper doesn't read yet. It's kept as Schwab gave it, never guessed; your broker file for those days fills the gap.
• An account's line on Settings → Broker says what went wrong when a read didn't finish; the next day's read tries again from where the last whole one ended.
• To stop: Disconnect wipes the key, the secret and the tokens.

Most people never need this. It's for someone who also runs a program of their own that reads Schwab with the same app key: rather than signing in itself -- which would end AlertKeeper's sign-in -- that program can use AlertKeeper's.

The sign-in's state, always: AlertKeeper keeps a small file other programs on this computer may read, broker/schwab-status.json in AlertKeeper's data folder (~/Library/Application Support/AlertKeeper on a Mac, %LOCALAPPDATA%\AlertKeeper on Windows): when the current access token runs out (expires_at), when it was last refreshed (last_refresh_at) and, if Schwab refused a refresh, its code, words and time (refusal) -- times in seconds since 1970. No token is ever in it.

The token itself, only when you say: on Settings → Broker, Share the sign-in with other programs on this Mac (off until you turn it on). AlertKeeper then writes broker/schwab-share.json, which only you can read, with the address to ask and the key. Your program sends a GET to that address with the header Authorization: Bearer and the key, and gets back access_token and expires_at (seconds since 1970); AlertKeeper keeps the token fresh, so it answers at once. A wrong key gets 401 -- read the file again, AlertKeeper may have started since; with sharing off, or no sign-in, 503. Never the refresh token, the app key or the secret; only from this computer; a new key each time AlertKeeper starts; nothing at all while the switch is off. The Broker page says it's on, and when the sign-in was last given.

• What is stored where: the app key, the secret and the tokens only in your Keychain (Mac) or Credential Manager (Windows) -- never in a file, a backup or a log. AlertKeeper's data folder keeps only the names of those entries, the callback port, the dates, and for each Schwab account its last digits and Schwab's own name for it -- never the full account number.
• AlertKeeper never trades: it doesn't use Schwab's order functions at all.