Deployment Guide (Windows Service)

This guide describes how to deploy the mt5api REST API as a Windows service alongside the MetaTrader 5 terminal.

This is a Windows-only deployment target. The API server cannot run on Linux or macOS because the MetaTrader5 Python package is supported only on Windows.

Prerequisites

  • Windows 10/11
  • MetaTrader 5 installed and logged in
  • Python 3.11+
  • mt5api installed
  • PowerShell access with permission to install and manage services

Service Setup (NSSM)

  1. Download NSSM: https://nssm.cc/download
  2. Open an elevated PowerShell session.
  3. Create a service:
nssm install mt5api

  1. Set the application path and arguments:

  2. Path: C:\Path\To\Python\python.exe

  3. Arguments: -m uvicorn mt5api.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

  4. Startup directory: your project directory

  5. Set environment variables in the NSSM GUI:

# Optional: set MT5API_SECRET_KEY only when you want to require X-API-Key headers.
MT5API_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-api-key
MT5API_LOG_LEVEL=INFO
MT5API_MAX_MARKET_BOOK_SUBSCRIPTIONS=100
MT5API_ROUTER_PREFIX=/api/v1
  1. Start the service:
nssm start mt5api

Validation

In PowerShell, use curl.exe if curl resolves to Invoke-WebRequest.

curl "http://localhost:8000/health"

Expected status: healthy (or unhealthy if MT5 is not connected).

Troubleshooting

  • Ensure the MT5 terminal is running and logged in.
  • Confirm firewall rules allow inbound traffic on the API port.
  • Check Windows Event Viewer for NSSM service logs.