layout	title	parent	nav_order
default	Chapter 1: Getting Started with OpenBB	OpenBB Tutorial	1

Chapter 1: Getting Started with OpenBB

Welcome to your journey with OpenBB! This chapter will guide you through installing and setting up the OpenBB Platform, understanding its core components, and creating your first investment research analysis.

🎯 What You'll Learn

OpenBB Platform architecture and components
Installation methods (pip, Docker, source)
Basic configuration and setup
First investment analysis walkthrough
Core concepts and terminology

🏗️ OpenBB Architecture

OpenBB consists of several key components working together to provide comprehensive investment research capabilities:

graph TB
    subgraph "Data Providers"
        A[Alpha Vantage]
        B[Financial Modeling Prep]
        C[Intrinio]
        D[Polygon.io]
        E[Custom APIs]
    end

    subgraph "Core Engine"
        F[Data Fetcher]
        G[Analysis Engine]
        H[Portfolio Manager]
        I[Charting Engine]
    end

    subgraph "User Interfaces"
        J[Terminal CLI]
        K[Web Dashboard]
        L[Python SDK]
        M[REST API]
    end

    subgraph "Extensions"
        N[Custom Providers]
        O[Analysis Modules]
        P[Integration Hooks]
    end

    A --> F
    B --> F
    C --> F
    D --> F
    E --> F
    F --> G
    G --> H
    G --> I
    G --> J
    G --> K
    G --> L
    G --> M
    N --> F
    O --> G
    P --> M

Core Components

Data Providers: Integration with 100+ financial data sources
Core Engine: Data processing, analysis, and portfolio management
User Interfaces: Terminal, web, SDK, and API access
Extensions: Custom providers and analysis modules

🚀 Installation Methods

Method 1: pip Installation (Recommended)

# Install OpenBB Platform
pip install openbb

# Verify installation
openbb --version

# Update to latest version
pip install --upgrade openbb

# Install optional dependencies
pip install openbb[all]  # Install all optional dependencies

Method 2: Docker Installation

# Pull OpenBB Docker image
docker pull ghcr.io/openbb-finance/openbb:latest

# Run OpenBB container
docker run -it --rm ghcr.io/openbb-finance/openbb:latest

# Run with web interface
docker run -p 8501:8501 ghcr.io/openbb-finance/openbb:latest --web

Method 3: Source Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/OpenBB-finance/OpenBB.git
cd OpenBB

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv openbb_env
source openbb_env/bin/activate  # On Windows: openbb_env\Scripts\activate

# Install in development mode
pip install -e .

# Install optional dependencies
pip install -e .[all]

Method 4: Conda Installation

# Create conda environment
conda create -n openbb python=3.10
conda activate openbb

# Install OpenBB
pip install openbb

# Or install from conda-forge
conda install -c conda-forge openbb

⚙️ Configuration

API Keys Setup

# Set API keys as environment variables
export OPENBB_API_KEY_ALPHA_VANTAGE="your_alpha_vantage_key"
export OPENBB_API_KEY_FMP="your_fmp_key"
export OPENBB_API_KEY_INTRINIO="your_intrinio_key"
export OPENBB_API_KEY_POLYGON="your_polygon_key"

# Or create a .env file
cat > .env << EOF
OPENBB_API_KEY_ALPHA_VANTAGE=your_alpha_vantage_key
OPENBB_API_KEY_FMP=your_fmp_key
OPENBB_API_KEY_INTRINIO=your_intrinio_key
OPENBB_API_KEY_POLYGON=your_polygon_key
EOF

Configuration File

# ~/.openbb/config.json
{
  "data": {
    "sources": {
      "alpha_vantage": {
        "api_key": "your_key_here"
      },
      "financial_modeling_prep": {
        "api_key": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  },
  "interface": {
    "theme": "dark",
    "language": "en"
  },
  "export": {
    "default_format": "csv",
    "output_directory": "~/openbb_exports"
  }
}

Jupyter Notebook Setup

# Install Jupyter support
pip install jupyter

# Launch OpenBB in Jupyter
import openbb
openbb.launch()

# Or use the OpenBB extension
%load_ext openbb

🌐 Launching OpenBB

Terminal Interface

# Launch OpenBB terminal
openbb

# You'll see the OpenBB prompt:
# >>> 

# Get help
help

# List available commands
/

# Exit OpenBB
exit

Web Interface

# Launch web interface
openbb --web

# Or specify port
openbb --web --port 8502

# Access at http://localhost:8501

Python SDK Usage

# Import OpenBB
from openbb import obb

# Initialize with API keys
obb.account.login(
    alpha_vantage="your_key",
    fmp="your_key"
)

# Use OpenBB functions
data = obb.stocks.quote("AAPL")
print(data)

🏃‍♂️ Your First Analysis

Stock Quote Analysis

# Launch OpenBB
openbb

# Get stock quote
/equity/quote AAPL

# Get historical data
/equity/historical AAPL --start 2023-01-01 --end 2023-12-31

# View company information
/equity/profile AAPL

# Get financial statements
/equity/financials AAPL

Technical Analysis

# Load stock data
/equity/load AAPL

# Calculate technical indicators
/ta/sma --length 20
/ta/rsi --length 14
/ta/macd

# Plot charts
/chart

Fundamental Analysis

# Get key metrics
/equity/metrics AAPL

# View valuation ratios
/equity/ratios AAPL

# Get analyst recommendations
/equity/analyst AAPL

# View earnings calendar
/equity/calendar

🔧 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Import Errors

# Clear pip cache and reinstall
pip cache purge
pip uninstall openbb
pip install openbb

# Check Python version compatibility
python --version

API Key Issues

# Verify API keys
openbb
/account

# Test data provider connection
/equity/quote AAPL --source alpha_vantage

Memory Issues

# Check system resources
free -h  # Linux
vm_stat  # macOS

# Increase Python memory limit
export PYTHONOPTIMIZE=1

Docker Issues

# Check Docker status
docker --version
docker ps

# Clean up Docker
docker system prune -a

# Run with increased memory
docker run --memory=4g ghcr.io/openbb-finance/openbb:latest

📊 Basic Commands Reference

Data Commands

# Stock data
/equity/quote SYMBOL          # Get current quote
/equity/historical SYMBOL     # Get historical data
/equity/profile SYMBOL        # Get company profile

# Market data
/market/overview              # Market overview
/market/indices               # Major indices
/market/sector                # Sector performance

# Economic data
/economy/gdp                  # GDP data
/economy/inflation           # Inflation data
/economy/interest            # Interest rates

Analysis Commands

# Technical analysis
/ta/sma                       # Simple moving average
/ta/rsi                       # Relative strength index
/ta/macd                      # MACD indicator

# Fundamental analysis
/equity/financials SYMBOL     # Financial statements
/equity/ratios SYMBOL         # Valuation ratios
/equity/metrics SYMBOL        # Key metrics

Portfolio Commands

# Portfolio management
/portfolio/load FILE          # Load portfolio
/portfolio/show               # Show portfolio
/portfolio/holdings           # View holdings
/portfolio/performance        # Performance analysis

🎯 Key Concepts

Data Sources

Primary Sources: Real-time market data providers
Secondary Sources: Financial statements and fundamentals
Alternative Sources: News, social media, satellite data

Analysis Types

Technical Analysis: Price and volume patterns
Fundamental Analysis: Financial health and valuation
Quantitative Analysis: Statistical modeling
Sentiment Analysis: Market psychology

Asset Classes

Equities: Stocks and ETFs
Fixed Income: Bonds and treasuries
Commodities: Gold, oil, agriculture
Cryptocurrencies: Digital assets
Derivatives: Options and futures

📊 Performance Monitoring

System Health Check

import psutil
import openbb

def check_system_health():
    """Check OpenBB system health"""
    
    # Check memory usage
    memory = psutil.virtual_memory()
    print(f"Memory Usage: {memory.percent}%")
    
    # Check disk space
    disk = psutil.disk_usage('/')
    print(f"Disk Usage: {disk.percent}%")
    
    # Test OpenBB connection
    try:
        data = openbb.stocks.quote("AAPL")
        print("OpenBB Connection: OK")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"OpenBB Connection: ERROR - {e}")

def monitor_performance():
    """Monitor OpenBB performance"""
    
    import time
    
    # Test response time
    start_time = time.time()
    data = openbb.stocks.quote("AAPL")
    end_time = time.time()
    
    response_time = end_time - start_time
    print(f"Response Time: {response_time:.2f} seconds")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    check_system_health()
    monitor_performance()

🏆 Achievement Unlocked!

Congratulations! 🎉 You've successfully:

✅ Installed OpenBB Platform
✅ Configured API keys and settings
✅ Launched both terminal and web interfaces
✅ Performed your first stock analysis
✅ Explored basic commands and features

🚀 What's Next?

Ready to explore financial data sources? Let's dive into Chapter 2: Data Access to learn about connecting to various financial data providers.

Practice what you've learned:

Experiment with different installation methods
Configure multiple data source API keys
Try various stock analysis commands
Set up both terminal and web interfaces
Create a basic system monitoring script

What's the first stock or asset you analyzed with OpenBB? 📈

What Problem Does This Solve?

Most teams struggle here because the hard part is not writing more code, but deciding clear boundaries for openbb, OpenBB, equity so behavior stays predictable as complexity grows.

In practical terms, this chapter helps you avoid three common failures:

coupling core logic too tightly to one implementation path
missing the handoff boundaries between setup, execution, and validation
shipping changes without clear rollback or observability strategy

After working through this chapter, you should be able to reason about Chapter 1: Getting Started with OpenBB as an operating subsystem inside OpenBB Tutorial: Complete Guide to Investment Research Platform, with explicit contracts for inputs, state transitions, and outputs.

Use the implementation notes around AAPL, install, quote as your checklist when adapting these patterns to your own repository.

How it Works Under the Hood

Under the hood, Chapter 1: Getting Started with OpenBB usually follows a repeatable control path:

Context bootstrap: initialize runtime config and prerequisites for openbb.
Input normalization: shape incoming data so OpenBB receives stable contracts.
Core execution: run the main logic branch and propagate intermediate state through equity.
Policy and safety checks: enforce limits, auth scopes, and failure boundaries.
Output composition: return canonical result payloads for downstream consumers.
Operational telemetry: emit logs/metrics needed for debugging and performance tuning.

When debugging, walk this sequence in order and confirm each stage has explicit success/failure conditions.

Source Walkthrough

Use the following upstream sources to verify implementation details while reading this chapter:

GitHub Repository Why it matters: authoritative reference on GitHub Repository (github.com).
Extension Marketplace Why it matters: authoritative reference on Extension Marketplace (github.com).
AI Codebase Knowledge Builder Why it matters: authoritative reference on AI Codebase Knowledge Builder (github.com).

Suggested trace strategy:

search upstream code for openbb and OpenBB to map concrete implementation paths
compare docs claims against actual runtime/config code before reusing patterns in production

FilesExpand file tree

01-getting-started.md

Latest commit

History