Migrating to QuantRed

The project was called TradeFlow and was distributed as tradeflow-engine. It is now QuantRed, distributed as quantred, and the main command is quantred. This page is for anyone who already has the old distribution installed. If you are installing for the first time, you do not need it: see installation.

Two releases carry the move (QuantRed 2.4.1 is a later fix, described under MCP clients). QuantRed 2.4.0 is the first release published as quantred. tradeflow-engine 2.3.1 is the last release under the old name and is published after it: a transition package with no engine code of its own. It depends on quantred, still provides the tradeflow command (which runs QuantRed's command line), and ships a tradeflow import shim, so import tradeflow and from tradeflow.strategies.base import Strategy keep working and give you the same objects as quantred.*, with a DeprecationWarning. python -m tradeflow.cli ..., which older MCP client configs use, keeps working too.

quantred itself installs no tradeflow command. That command exists only while tradeflow-engine 2.3.1 is installed.

The upgrade paths below were run with locally built wheels of quantred 2.4.0 and tradeflow-engine 2.3.1 standing in for the package index, starting from the real tradeflow-engine 2.3.0 from PyPI, on Python 3.12. The published packages themselves, Windows, the checkout swap and the --excludes / --no-deps recipes were not checked; those are marked not verified.

Which path

• A. Upgrade in place and move at your own pace. Upgrade tradeflow-engine the way you always have. It pulls in quantred and keeps old scripts, cron entries, MCP client configs and private packs importing tradeflow working (the alias warns with a DeprecationWarning, visible under -W default or in test runs, and QuantRed logs one line when a pack used it). Move each of those across when it suits you, then drop the transition package.
• B. Move fully now. Install quantred, change the names yourself (below), and remove tradeflow-engine.

The two distributions no longer share any file, so neither path needs the old distribution removed first for correctness.

What changed

	Before	Now
Display name	TradeFlow	QuantRed
Distribution (what you install)	tradeflow-engine	quantred
Main command	tradeflow	quantred (tradeflow only via tradeflow-engine 2.3.1)
Import package	tradeflow	quantred (tradeflow only via the 2.3.1 shim)
Plugin entry-point groups	tradeflow.strategies, tradeflow.scanners	quantred.strategies, quantred.scanners (the old groups are still read)
Provenance code identity (installed copy)	tradeflow <version>	quantred <version>
MCP server name (what a client sees)	tradeflow	quantred

What did not change

• Your state. ~/.tradeflow, TRADEFLOW_HOME, the journal, trial store, bar cache, saved configs and your .env are untouched, so recorded history carries over.
• Old entry-point groups still register. A pack declared against tradeflow.strategies or tradeflow.scanners keeps registering. Its imports are a separate matter: see Update a private pack.
• The documentation address.

Path A: upgrade in place

Upgrade tradeflow-engine with whatever installed it.

pip or uv pip, in a virtual environment:

python -m pip install -U tradeflow-engine      # or: uv pip install -U tradeflow-engine

From 2.3.0 this ended with quantred 2.4.0 and tradeflow-engine 2.3.1 installed, pip check clean, both quantred and tradeflow on the path printing quantred 2.4.0, and import tradeflow.strategies.base working (the same objects as quantred's) with a DeprecationWarning. Extras carry over: the transition package forwards every quantred extra, so tradeflow-engine[mcp] resolves to quantred[mcp], and pip does not remove packages an extra installed earlier.

uv tool. uv tool exposes only the executables of the package you installed. uv tool upgrade tradeflow-engine moved a tool installed as tradeflow-engine[mcp] to 2.3.1 with quantred 2.4.0 and kept the mcp extra, and tradeflow --version printed quantred 2.4.0. But only the tradeflow command is exposed: quantred is not on the path from that tool. To get quantred, switch tools as in Path B.

A tool installed with a pin (tradeflow-engine==2.3.0) does not move on uv tool upgrade, which reports it as pinned; uv tool install --reinstall tradeflow-engine (no pin) moves it.

Whichever installer, when you are ready to finish the move, follow Path B.

Path B: move fully now

In order: switch the requirement to quantred; update private packs' imports and entry-point groups; change scripts, cron entries and MCP client configs from tradeflow to quantred; then remove tradeflow-engine. Removing it takes out the shim and the tradeflow command and leaves quantred installed.

If you installed with uv tool

List what you have, including the extras you chose and any --with packs, and run the old doctor:

uv tool list --show-extras --show-with
tradeflow init --check

The entry reads like tradeflow-engine v2.3.0 [extras: mcp, viz], and init --check shows an [ok] extra: row for each extra that is installed. Those are the extras to re-add. Then swap:

uv tool uninstall tradeflow-engine
uv tool install 'quantred[mcp,viz]'

Add --with <pack> for any extension pack listed under --show-with. A pack that was installed from a directory is listed as name followed by a file:// path (for example my-signalsfile:///work/my-signals); re-add it with --with-editable /work/my-signals, using the path. If a pack declares a dependency on tradeflow-engine, see If you write or use an extension pack. Afterwards quantred --version should print quantred <version> and the same state root as before (not verified end to end). tradeflow is gone from the path, so update anything that called it.

If you installed into a virtual environment

With the environment activated, run tradeflow init --check first and read the [ok] extra: rows (python -m pip show tradeflow-engine does not list them), then:

python -m pip install 'quantred[mcp,viz]'
python -m pip uninstall tradeflow-engine

Use the extras you had. uv pip install and uv pip uninstall take the same arguments. Reinstall editable packs afterwards, with --no-deps if they still depend on the old distribution (see below).

If you work from a checkout

The command is unchanged for a checkout (python main.py ...). The environment needs one swap, after pulling:

uv pip uninstall tradeflow-engine
uv run --extra dev --reinstall-package quantred python main.py --version

Do not use uv sync without --inexact: it removes editable packs installed by hand. An earlier version of this page described rehearsing this swap, but that was against the old shared-directory layout, which no longer exists, so it is not verified.

Update a private pack

A pack that imports the engine has to change its imports eventually, because the import package is now quantred. Until it does, from tradeflow... keeps working only while tradeflow-engine 2.3.1 is installed, with a DeprecationWarning (visible under -W default or in test runs):

grep -rl 'tradeflow' src/ | xargs sed -i.bak -E 's/\b(from|import) tradeflow\b/\1 quantred/'

(sed -i.bak works on both GNU and macOS sed; delete the .bak files afterwards, and read the diff, since this does not touch strings that mention the old name.) Then change the dependency in the pack's pyproject.toml and, optionally, the entry-point groups:

[project]
dependencies = ["quantred"]            # was "tradeflow-engine"

[project.entry-points."quantred.strategies"]   # was "tradeflow.strategies"
my_breakout = "yourfirm_signals.strategies:BreakoutStrategy"

[project.entry-points."quantred.scanners"]     # was "tradeflow.scanners"
my_liquidity = "yourfirm_signals.scanners:LiquidityScanner"

The group rename is optional for now: the engine reads both the old and the new group names, so a pack that only fixes its imports keeps registering. Declare the new names in anything you maintain.

MCP clients

A client entry written under the old name launches tradeflow or python -m tradeflow.cli. Both keep working only while tradeflow-engine 2.3.1 is installed, and stop once it is removed (Path B). An entry whose command is a path inside the old tool's environment (for example .../uv/tools/tradeflow-engine/bin/tradeflow) stops working as soon as that tool is uninstalled. From quantred 2.4.1, a launch through python -m tradeflow.cli no longer prints a spurious "a pack imports the old name" warning.

To move a client across, run quantred mcp --self-test and paste the absolute command and block it prints, which uses the key and command quantred. The server now reports its name as quantred, so a client may show it, or prefix its tools, differently from before; agents or prompts that referred to tools by a tradeflow prefix may need the new one, since a client's prefix usually follows the key in its config. How a given client shows the renamed server was not tested.

If you write or use an extension pack

Earlier documentation told pack authors they could depend on tradeflow-engine, so packs that declare it exist. Installing one pulls tradeflow-engine in beside quantred. That no longer collides, because the two share no files; with 2.3.1 it is the transition package, which only depends on quantred and provides the tradeflow import alias, so the pack works and its tradeflow imports raise a DeprecationWarning (Python hides it by default outside __main__; it shows under -W default or in a test run, and QuantRed also logs one line when a loaded pack used the old name). Keep that package installed (tradeflow-engine>=2.3.1) for any pack you cannot edit, because the alias is what makes its from tradeflow... imports resolve; without it the pack is dropped. Two cases are worth knowing:

• tradeflow-engine 2.3.0 is still installed, or a pack pins it below 2.3.1. 2.3.0 is the last release with engine code. A pack that pins tradeflow-engine<2.3.1 (or ==2.3.0) pulls that whole engine in, and its classes are subclasses of the old package's Strategy, not quantred's, so the registry rejects them. Override the pin (a uv --overrides file, or pip constraint, naming tradeflow-engine>=2.3.1), or better, loosen it in the pack. QuantRed quietly ignores the old distribution's demo entry points, so a stale 2.3.0 beside it is not noisy, only wrong for packs.

• A pack that never imports tradeflow. If you own the pack, change its dependency to quantred or drop it; the engine is always present where a pack runs. Only for a pack that does not import the old name may you keep tradeflow-engine out entirely:

  • uv tool. Name the distribution in a file and exclude it; the exclusion is recorded and survives rebuilds of the tool environment:

    printf '%s\n' tradeflow-engine > excludes.txt
    uv tool install 'quantred[mcp,viz]' --with-editable ./my-pack --excludes excludes.txt

  • Virtual environment or checkout. Skip the pack's dependencies: python -m pip install --no-deps -e ./my-pack (checkout: uv pip install --no-deps -e ./my-pack). This also skips the pack's other dependencies.

  Do not do either for a pack that still imports tradeflow: with no alias installed it fails to import and is dropped.

The exclusion recipes were rehearsed while the two distributions still shared a directory, a worse case than today's; they are not verified against the transition package, and the override of a low pin was not run at all.

Anyone who still needs the old tradeflow command keeps tradeflow-engine 2.3.1 installed: a plain quantred install, uv tool install quantred included, has no tradeflow command.

The pack's own imports are covered in Update a private pack.

Availability

quantred has to be published to the package index before uv tool install quantred works there; until then, install from a built wheel or a checkout. Publishing both packages is the project owner's step.