Signing in and connecting an exchange
There are two ways to sign in, and they lead to the same place: your accounts.
- Username and password. Nothing else is needed for a journal, or for a desk account where you paste a trading key yourself.
- A wallet, an email address or Google. All three end in one Ethereum address that the server has verified: your own wallet, or one created for you when you sign in with email or Google. This is what makes connecting an exchange in one step possible.
You can start with a password and link a wallet later, from Settings.
Adding an account
Section titled “Adding an account”| Kind | What you do | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Journal | Name it. There is no exchange and no key. | Recording trades you place yourself, anywhere |
| Desk, pasted key | Create an agent or API key at the exchange and paste it. | Any sign-in |
| Desk, connected from your wallet | Read the disclosure, tick it, sign in your wallet. | Signed in with a wallet |
Connecting from your wallet
Section titled “Connecting from your wallet”On the accounts page, Connect Hyperliquid or Connect Lighter:
- Harness shows what you are agreeing to. Read it; it is short and it is the whole agreement.
- Harness generates a trading key and keeps it encrypted. You never see or paste it.
- Your wallet signs an approval of that key at the exchange. Where a platform fee applies, it signs a second approval that sets the most that fee can ever be.
- Only when the exchange has accepted the approval does the account appear.
A wallet that has never deposited at the exchange has no account there to connect: deposit first, then connect.
What the key can do depends on the exchange. A Hyperliquid trading key can place and cancel orders and cannot withdraw or transfer funds. A Lighter API key can do more; the disclosure says exactly what.
What changes once it is connected
Section titled “What changes once it is connected”- The account is an ordinary desk account: the same agent, the same risk limits, the same record.
- It starts in manual mode. Nothing is placed until you accept it, unless you change that.
- Use a dedicated exchange account. Positions and orders you open by hand elsewhere on the same exchange account are not tracked by Harness’s limits, and Harness may change or close them.
- You can revoke the key at the exchange at any time.