Controllers - Condor

Controllers are V2 strategy components that implement algorithmic trading logic. They run inside bot containers and manage complex, multi-step trading strategies by creating and supervising executors.

What Are Controllers?

Controllers are Python classes that:

Define trading strategy logic
Process market data into a signal
Create and manage executors
Expose status and custom metrics

A single bot can run multiple controllers at once — each targeting a different market — within one container.

Built-in Controllers

Controllers ship under three controller_type categories. A selection of the built-ins:

`controller_type`	Controller (`controller_name`)	Description
`market_making`	`pmm_simple`	Two-sided market making with fixed spreads
`market_making`	`pmm_dynamic`	Market making with spreads driven by volatility
`directional_trading`	`bollinger_v1`	Bollinger Bands trend signal
`directional_trading`	`dman_v3`	Multi-level directional strategy
`directional_trading`	`macd_bb_v1`	MACD + Bollinger Bands signal
`generic`	`grid_strike`	Grid of orders across a price range
`generic`	`arbitrage_controller`	Cross-exchange arbitrage
`generic`	`xemm_multiple_levels`	Cross-exchange market making
`generic`	`pmm_mister`	Market making with position hold and profit protection

directional_trading, market_making, and generic are controller types, not controller names. The exact set of built-ins tracks the Hummingbot repository — browse controllers/ for the current list.

Controller Structure

A controller overrides two core methods from ControllerBase:

update_processed_data() — pull market data and compute a signal into self.processed_data
determine_executor_actions() — decide which executors to create or stop

The specialized base classes DirectionalTradingControllerBase and MarketMakingControllerBase already implement determine_executor_actions() for you, so trend and market-making controllers typically only implement update_processed_data() and get_candles_config(). This is the actual bollinger_v1 directional controller:

from typing import List

from hummingbot.data_feed.candles_feed.data_types import CandlesConfig
from hummingbot.strategy_v2.controllers.directional_trading_controller_base import (
    DirectionalTradingControllerBase,
    DirectionalTradingControllerConfigBase,
)


class BollingerV1ControllerConfig(DirectionalTradingControllerConfigBase):
    controller_name: str = "bollinger_v1"
    interval: str = "3m"
    bb_length: int = 100
    bb_std: float = 2.0
    bb_long_threshold: float = 0.0
    bb_short_threshold: float = 1.0


class BollingerV1Controller(DirectionalTradingControllerBase):
    def __init__(self, config: BollingerV1ControllerConfig, *args, **kwargs):
        self.config = config
        self.max_records = config.bb_length
        super().__init__(config, *args, **kwargs)

    def get_candles_config(self) -> List[CandlesConfig]:
        return [CandlesConfig(
            connector=self.config.candles_connector,
            trading_pair=self.config.candles_trading_pair,
            interval=self.config.interval,
            max_records=self.max_records,
        )]

    async def update_processed_data(self):
        df = self.market_data_provider.get_candles_df(
            connector_name=self.config.candles_connector,
            trading_pair=self.config.candles_trading_pair,
            interval=self.config.interval,
            max_records=self.max_records,
        )
        df.ta.bbands(length=self.config.bb_length, std=self.config.bb_std, append=True)
        bbp = df[f"BBP_{self.config.bb_length}_{self.config.bb_std}"]

        df["signal"] = 0
        df.loc[bbp < self.config.bb_long_threshold, "signal"] = 1
        df.loc[bbp > self.config.bb_short_threshold, "signal"] = -1

        self.processed_data["signal"] = df["signal"].iloc[-1]
        self.processed_data["features"] = df

Market data comes from self.market_data_provider (e.g. get_candles_df(...), get_price_by_type(...)), not from ad-hoc fetches.

Controller Configuration

Each controller instance is configured by a YAML file. This is a real pmm_simple config:

id: pmm_simple_hype
controller_name: pmm_simple
controller_type: market_making
total_amount_quote: '100'
connector_name: hyperliquid
trading_pair: HYPE-USDC
buy_spreads:
- 0.001
sell_spreads:
- 0.001
buy_amounts_pct:
- '1'
sell_amounts_pct:
- '1'
executor_refresh_time: 60
cooldown_time: 15
leverage: 1
position_mode: HEDGE
stop_loss: '0.005'
take_profit: '0.002'
time_limit: 2700

Deploying a Controller

The usual flow is: create one or more controller configs (in the dashboard Editor, in Telegram, or via the API), then deploy a bot that runs them.

Via Telegram

/bots → Create New Bot
→ Select one or more controller configs
→ Deploy

Via API

Deploy a bot from existing controller config files (without the .yml extension). You can pass several configs to run multiple controllers in one bot:

curl -u admin:admin -X POST http://localhost:8000/bot-orchestration/deploy-v2-controllers \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "instance_name": "hype-mm",
    "credentials_profile": "master_account",
    "controllers_config": ["conf_market_making.pmm_simple_hype"],
    "max_global_drawdown_quote": 50,
    "max_controller_drawdown_quote": 25
  }'

Updating a Running Controller

Controllers can be reconfigured while running — no restart required. Only fields a controller marks as updatable are applied; everything else (for example, the connector name) is ignored on update. A config field is made updatable with json_schema_extra:

from pydantic import Field

total_amount_quote: Decimal = Field(
    default=Decimal("100"),
    json_schema_extra={"is_updatable": True},
)

At runtime, ControllerBase.update_config(new_config) copies over only the fields flagged is_updatable. In Condor, push a live update from the dashboard Bots → Active tab by editing the config and saving.

Custom Controller Metrics

Override get_custom_info() to publish controller-specific fields alongside the standard performance report. The payload is sent over MQTT to the Hummingbot API, so keep it small (recommended < 1 KB):

def get_custom_info(self) -> dict:
    return {"inventory_pct": float(self.current_inventory_pct)}

These fields are stored with each controller snapshot and surfaced per controller in the dashboard.

Creating Custom Controllers

Create a new Python file under controllers/ (in the matching controller_type subfolder)
Subclass the appropriate base — ControllerBase, DirectionalTradingControllerBase, or MarketMakingControllerBase
Implement update_processed_data() (and determine_executor_actions() if you subclass ControllerBase directly)
Add a config file and deploy it

Custom controllers run in stock Hummingbot too, and can be uploaded directly from the dashboard Editor.

Monitoring Controllers

The Hummingbot API records a snapshot of every running controller every 5 minutes, giving you a time series of P&L and volume rather than a single point in time.

# Latest snapshot per controller
curl -u admin:admin "http://localhost:8000/bot-orchestration/controller-performance-latest?bot_name=hype-mm"

# Time-series history (interval one of 5m, 15m, 30m, 1h, 4h, 12h, 1d)
curl -u admin:admin "http://localhost:8000/bot-orchestration/controller-performance-history?bot_name=hype-mm&controller_id=pmm_simple_hype&interval=5m"

In Condor, view this history under Bots → Runs, and the combined P&L across a bot’s controllers under Bots → Active.

​What Are Controllers?

​Built-in Controllers

​Controller Structure

​Controller Configuration

​Deploying a Controller

​Via Telegram

​Via API

​Updating a Running Controller

​Custom Controller Metrics

​Creating Custom Controllers

​Monitoring Controllers

What Are Controllers?

Built-in Controllers

Controller Structure

Controller Configuration

Deploying a Controller

Via Telegram

Via API

Updating a Running Controller

Custom Controller Metrics

Creating Custom Controllers

Monitoring Controllers