Order Placement Debugging

Systematic approach to fixing strategies that log entry/exit signals but do not place orders, or that hit OpenAlgo smart-order API errors. Use with the order-placement-debugger subagent and debug-mode workflow (hypotheses → instrument → reproduce → analyze → fix → verify).

When to Use

•Strategy logs show SIGNAL: or [ENTRY]/[EXIT] but "Order ID: N/A" or no order ID
•Logs show: Order API Error: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0) or TradingUtils - ERROR
•HTTP log shows POST .../smartorder "HTTP/1.1 200 OK" but no order in order book
•Adding or fixing placesmartorder / APIClient in a strategy

OpenAlgo Smart Order API (Reference)

Endpoint

Correct	Wrong
`POST {host}/api/v1/placesmartorder`	`POST {host}/api/v1/smartorder`

Namespace in app: path="/placesmartorder" → full path is /api/v1/placesmartorder.

Request Payload (Required Fields)

Field	Type	Example	Notes
`apikey`	string	OpenAlgo API key	Required
`strategy`	string	Strategy name	Required
`symbol`	string	e.g. GOLDM05FEB26FUT	Required
`action`	string	BUY, SELL	Required (not `transaction_type`)
`exchange`	string	MCX, NSE, NFO	Required
`pricetype`	string	MARKET, LIMIT, SL, SL-M	Required (not `order_type`)
`product`	string	MIS, CNC, NRML	Required
`quantity`	string	"1"	Required; send as string
`position_size`	string	"1"	Required; send as string
`price`	string	"0"	Optional in API docs but often expected
`trigger_price`	string	"0"	Optional
`disclosed_quantity`	string	"0"	Optional

Success Response (200)

json

{ "orderid": "2016727642073505792", "status": "success" }

Common Client-Side Bugs

•
Wrong URL
Using /api/v1/smartorder → server may return 200 with empty or non-JSON body → response.json() raises "Expecting value: line 1 column 1".
•
Wrong payload keys
- •transaction_type → must be action
- •order_type → must be pricetype
•
Missing fields
Omit price, trigger_price, disclosed_quantity → set to "0" if server expects them.
•
Wrong types
Sending quantity/position_size as int → send as string (e.g. str(quantity)).
•
No handling for non-JSON 200
Calling response.json() on 200 without try/except → on empty/HTML response, catch ValueError, log, and return a safe dict (e.g. {"status": "success", "message": "Order placed (non-JSON response)"} or similar) so strategy does not treat the call as a hard failure.

Code Locations

What	Where
Client implementation	`openalgo/strategies/utils/trading_utils.py` → `APIClient.placesmartorder()`
Strategy usage	`openalgo/strategies/scripts/*.py` (e.g. `mcx_global_arbitrage_strategy.py`)
Server route	`openalgo/restx_api/__init__.py` → `path="/placesmartorder"`
Server handler	`openalgo/restx_api/place_smart_order.py`
Schema/docs	`openalgo/restx_api/schemas.py` (SmartOrderSchema), `openalgo/docs/userguide/12-smart-orders/README.md`

Hypotheses to Test (With Runtime Evidence)

Use instrumentation (e.g. NDJSON to .cursor/debug.log) to confirm or reject:

Id	Hypothesis	What to log	Confirmed if
A	API client not passed or not initialized	In strategy `__init__`: `has_api_client`, `host`	Log shows `has_api_client: false` or missing host
B	`entry()` only logs, doesn’t call order API	Start of `entry()`: `side`, `price`, `has_api_client`	No "Attempting order placement" after "entry() called"
C	`exit()` only logs, doesn’t call order API	Start of `exit()`: `side`, `price`, `has_api_client`	No "Attempting exit order placement" after "exit() called"
D	Wrong endpoint or payload	In `placesmartorder()`: `url`, payload keys	URL is `/smartorder` or payload has `transaction_type`/`order_type`
E	Response not JSON or empty	After `httpx.post`: `status_code`, `content_type`, `content_length`; then parse	`content_type` not JSON or `response.json()` raises

Fix Checklist (trading_utils.py)

• URL is f"{self.host}/api/v1/placesmartorder".
• Payload uses action (not transaction_type), pricetype (not order_type).
• Payload includes price, trigger_price, disclosed_quantity (e.g. "0").
• quantity and position_size sent as strings.
• On 200, try response.json(); on ValueError, do not crash—log and return a safe dict.
• On non-200, log response.text and return error dict.
• On exception (e.g. timeout), log and return error dict.

Verification

•
Minimal test script
Create a script that instantiates APIClient(api_key=..., host=...) and calls placesmartorder(...) with valid args. Run it and check:
- •Log: "Order Placed" with a real orderid.
- •No "Order API Error" or JSON decode error.
•
Strategy run
Run the strategy until it generates a signal; check strategy log for [ENTRY] or [EXIT] with a real order ID.
•
Debug log
If using NDJSON instrumentation, confirm entries for "Response parsed as JSON" and has_orderid: true / status: "success".

•Subagent: order-placement-debugger — use for full workflow and evidence-based fixes.
•Skills: trading-operations (server/strategy status), log-monitoring (finding entries/errors in logs), trading-strategy-development (strategy structure).
•Docs: openalgo/docs/userguide/12-smart-orders/README.md, openalgo/docs/api/order-management/placesmartorder.md.

Resolved Case (2026-01-29)

Symptom: MCX Global Arbitrage strategy logged signals and "Order placed" but "Order ID: N/A"; log showed Order API Error: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0).

Root cause: placesmartorder() in trading_utils.py used wrong endpoint (/api/v1/smartorder), wrong payload keys (transaction_type, order_type), missing fields, and called response.json() on 200 without handling non-JSON body.

Fix: Switched to /api/v1/placesmartorder, payload with action, pricetype, price/trigger_price/disclosed_quantity as "0", string quantity/position_size, and safe handling of non-JSON 200 response.

Verification: Test script called placesmartorder; response contained orderid and status: "success". Debug log showed "Response parsed as JSON", has_orderid: true.

order-placement-debugging