# Getting started

Zauber is a trading interface for Solana. Strategies are **spells**: short lists of readable steps such as "buy now", "sell if the price falls 10%" or "sell in four parts". You pick the token and the amount, read exactly what will be signed, and approve every step in your own wallet.

Zauber never asks for your seed phrase or private key and never signs for you. Swaps and price orders run through third-party routing and order infrastructure. Trading is risky and nothing here is financial advice.

## What Zauber is
- **A terminal**: a chart, a token search, levels you can drag, and a panel to cast a spell.
- **A spellbook**: public spells you can read and copy. Copying takes the steps only; it never mirrors anyone's trades and never shows who published a spell.
- **A builder**: write your own spell from steps, check it, and publish a link.

What Zauber is not: it does not trade on its own, it does not copy other people's trades, it has no leaderboards, and it has no token.

## Connect a wallet
1. Open the app and choose **Connect wallet**.
2. Zauber lists the Solana wallets your browser exposes through the Wallet Standard. Pick yours and approve the connection in the wallet.
3. If no wallet is listed, install a Solana wallet that supports the Wallet Standard and reload the page.

Connecting lets Zauber read your public address and your SOL balance. It does not give Zauber access to your funds.

## Sign in
To save spells and see your orders, sign in. Your wallet shows a short **message** that starts with "…wants you to sign in to Zauber". It is not a transaction and costs nothing. Zauber keeps a session cookie for 7 days; **Disconnect** ends it.

The message names the site address, the network (mainnet), a one-time code and an expiry 5 minutes later. Check that the address is the site you are on; Zauber accepts each message once and only from that address.

The first time you place a price order, your wallet asks for a second message so the order engine accepts orders from your wallet. That message is also not a transaction.

### Hardware wallets
Some wallets, including most hardware wallets, can sign transactions but not messages. With such a wallet, both sign-ins ask you to sign a **sign-in transaction** instead:

- It holds only a memo with the same text as the message: "…wants you to sign in to Zauber…" for Zauber, and the order engine's challenge for the order engine.
- It is **never submitted**. Zauber and the order engine only check your signature. The Zauber sign-in transaction uses a made-up block reference, so the network would refuse it even if someone tried to send it.
- It moves no funds and costs nothing. If your wallet shows a transfer, a fee payment to someone else or any instruction other than a memo, reject it.

Zauber picks this path on its own when your wallet cannot sign messages.

## Cast a spell
1. In the **Terminal**, search for a token.
2. Choose a spell, or open one from the spellbook or the builder.
3. Adjust the levels: drag them on the chart, use the arrow keys on a focused level, or type a price or a percentage.
4. Enter the amount in USD. This release allows up to 250 USD per spell, and every price order must be worth at least 10 USD.
5. Choose **Review and sign**.

## What you sign
Before anything is signed, Zauber shows a review sheet that lists every request your wallet will receive, in order:

| Request              | What it is                                                                    | Moves funds |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- |
| Order engine sign-in | A message (or a sign-in transaction that is never submitted), first time only | No          |
| Swap                 | Buys or sells now through the best available route                            | Yes         |
| Deposit              | Moves the amount for a price order into the order engine's vault              | Yes         |
| Withdrawal           | Returns funds from the vault when you cancel or after expiry                  | Yes         |

Each item shows the amounts, the trigger prices, the slippage and the expiry. Tick the confirmation and approve each request in your wallet. Your wallet always shows its own preview too; if the two disagree, reject the request.

If a step fails, the sheet says exactly what already happened (for example, "The swap went through, but a later step did not") and **Try again** continues from the failed step without repeating finished ones.

## Orders
Orders you place appear under **Orders** and in the terminal. Statuses, cancelling and where funds sit are explained in [Orders and custody](/docs/orders).