feat(chartctl): Chart Deployments — remote EA deployment over HTTP

[Marinski]

Chart Deployments (chartctl)

Chart Deployments (chartctl) lets you attach Expert Advisors to charts with .set files over the HTTP API — no RDP, no terminal restart, and no manual chart work.

The API stores the desired state, while a resident Loader EA inside the terminal reconciles charts to match that state and reports the observed state back. A deployment only reaches the running state after the Loader confirms the Expert Advisor is actually live on a chart.

New Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST / GET / DELETE	/experts, /experts/<hash>	Stage, list, or remove EA .ex5 files
POST / GET	/sets, /sets/<name>	Stage, list, or inspect .set files (returns parsed inputs)
POST / GET	/deployments	Create or list deployments
GET / PATCH / DELETE	/deployments/<id>	Inspect, pause/resume, change set, or delete a deployment
POST	/deployments/reconcile	Force an immediate reconcile
GET	/charts	Live chart / EA inventory
GET	/loader	Loader EA status and version
POST	/charts/<id>/screenshot	Capture a chart as PNG
POST	/charts/<id>/close	Close any chart by ID
GET / PUT	/webrequest	Read or update the WebRequest allowlist
POST	/webrequest/apply	Re-apply the allowlist immediately

What's Included

• mt5api/chartctl/ — paths, setparse, tpl_builder, registry, command
• mt5api/handlers/chartctl.py — lock-free REST surface, gated by CHARTCTL_ENABLED (config-driven; routes are omitted when disabled)
• mt5api/handlers/webrequest.py — WebRequest allowlist provisioning
• mt5api/chartctl/autoit_webrequest.py — AutoIt GUI automation
• assets/experts/MT5ChartLoader.mq5 — reference Loader EA (~60 lines)
• assets/experts/include/ChartControl.mqh — portable protocol include
• assets/autoit/ — AutoIt interpreter and GUI automation scripts
• scripts/compile-chartctl-loader.bat — zero-touch bootstrap compiler
• scripts/config_helper.py — write_ini emits [StartUp] Expert= and provides the chartctl_enabled query command
• docs/chart-control-protocol.md — complete protocol specification
• tests/test_chartctl_units.py + tests/test_chartctl_endpoints.py — 43 tests plus a Python fake_loader for Linux CI (no MT5 dependency)
• tests/test_webrequest.py — 23 tests covering the allowlist codec and endpoints
• examples/chartctl/deploy.sh — runnable deployment example

Zero-Touch Bootstrap

No RDP step is required.

On VM boot:

1. compile-chartctl-loader.bat compiles the Loader in every broker base using MetaEditor64.
2. The resulting .ex5 is propagated to every terminal instance.
3. config_helper.py write_ini adds a [StartUp] section to mt5start.ini.

The Loader automatically attaches when the terminal starts.

To disable this behavior for a specific terminal, set:

chartctl: false

How It Works

The Loader polls desired.json, reconciles the desired state with actual charts, writes observed.json so the API knows what is actually running. All handler endpoints are lock-free and perform only file I/O.

WebRequest Allowlist

Two application methods selected automatically at runtime: AutoIt GUI automation (Windows VM) or common.ini encoding (Bare Metal).

Changelog

See the CHANGELOG.md Unreleased section for the complete list of changes.

Testing

pytest tests/ --ignore=tests/integration --ignore=tests/test_requirements_sync.py
→ 284 passed
  • 43 chartctl tests
  • 23 webrequest tests
  • 218 existing tests