summary: how to connect your TopstepX account to edgeful for algo automation — account setup, ProjectX API subscription, API key, linking to TopstepX, your first test trade on eval or live, and common gotchas.
this is your start-to-finish guide for connecting a TopstepX account to edgeful so your TradingView alerts can fire trades on your eval or funded account automatically.
quick note on terminology: TopstepX is the prop firm — that's what you pay, where you take your eval, and where you get funded. underneath the hood, TopstepX uses a broker layer called ProjectX to route orders. that's why parts of this guide send you into ProjectX directly to subscribe to the API and generate your key. the end result is the same — edgeful firing trades into your TopstepX account.
what you'll need
before you start:
an active edgeful all access plan — algo automation is included with all access
a funded or evaluation TopstepX account
a ProjectX API subscription — $29/month, paid directly to ProjectX (not TopstepX, not edgeful). this is a hard requirement — without it, you cannot generate an API key
a TradingView account — the free tier works, as long as you can create alerts
if you already have a TopstepX account and your ProjectX API subscription active, skip to generating your ProjectX API key below.
creating a TopstepX account
if you already have an eval or funded TopstepX account, skip this section.
eval vs funded — which one first
TopstepX offers an evaluation (eval) account and a funded account.
eval is where you prove your rules-compliance and profit target to get funded. eval accounts trade with simulated capital but real market data.
funded accounts trade on TopstepX's capital once you pass the eval. real P&L, real payouts, real drawdown rules.
the path I recommend: set up edgeful on an eval account first, confirm the pipe works end-to-end, then switch the connection to your funded account once you pass.
signing up
sign up at topstep.com. eval fees, payout structures, and drawdown rules are all set by TopstepX — pick the plan whose rules fit how you want to trade.
subscribing to the ProjectX API ($29/month)
this one catches people off guard. to automate TopstepX through edgeful, you need a ProjectX API subscription. ProjectX charges $29/month for API access, and the subscription has to be active before you can generate a key. it's paid to ProjectX directly — not TopstepX, not edgeful.
to subscribe:
log into your TopstepX account.
go to ProjectX directly and subscribe to the API plan ($29/month).
confirm the subscription is active before moving on to the next step.
think of this as a separate bill from your TopstepX eval or funded account fee. it's the cost of running automated trading through the ProjectX API, which is the layer edgeful talks to.
generating your ProjectX API key
once your ProjectX API subscription is active, you can generate a key. the key is what lets edgeful route orders into your TopstepX account.
log into ProjectX directly (not TopstepX — ProjectX itself).
in the left nav, click Settings.
on the right side, click API.
click Add API key.
use the copy icon next to the key to copy it to your clipboard.
store it somewhere secure. treat it like a password — anyone with this key can place trades on your account.
keeping your API key secure
a few rules:
don't share your API key with anyone — even other edgeful users, TopstepX support, or edgeful support. nobody should ever ask for it.
if you think your key has leaked, delete it inside ProjectX (Settings → API) and generate a new one. the old key immediately stops working.
after regenerating, update it inside edgeful (disconnect + reconnect your account) or trades will stop routing.
linking your TopstepX account to ProjectX
before edgeful can see your TopstepX accounts, ProjectX needs to be linked to your TopstepX login. this is a one-time step inside ProjectX.
make sure you're logged into both platforms at the same time — TopstepX and ProjectX. in separate tabs is fine.
in ProjectX, click the link button. this opens the linked accounts page.
confirm the link when prompted.
your TopstepX accounts will now show up inside ProjectX's linked accounts view.
[SCREENSHOT NEEDED: ProjectX linked accounts page showing TopstepX accounts successfully linked]
a small detail that confuses people: linked accounts only show up on the ProjectX side, not inside TopstepX. if you go to TopstepX looking for a "linked accounts" view, you won't find it — that's by design. check ProjectX for the linking status.
connecting TopstepX to edgeful
now that you have your API key and your TopstepX account is linked to ProjectX, you can connect edgeful.
log into your edgeful account.
open the algo dashboard — https://www.edgeful.com/algos-automation/dashboard
click connect ProjectX.
read the popup carefully — it covers the terms of automated trading.
click I accept these terms.
select TopstepX from the prop firm dropdown.
enter the email address associated with your TopstepX account. (if that doesn't work try your TopstepX username)
paste the API key you copied from ProjectX.
click connect.
on success, edgeful will show the TopstepX accounts tied to that API key — including any eval and funded accounts — as selectable broker accounts.
a few things worth calling out:
the connection is tied to your API key, not your TopstepX login. if you delete or regenerate the key inside ProjectX, the edgeful connection breaks — disconnect and reconnect in edgeful with the new key.
if TopstepX closes your account (rule break, payout, etc.), the account stops accepting orders — not an edgeful issue.
Rithmic-based accounts (including most Apex accounts) are a different system — they don't work here. this connection is ProjectX-only. see → which broker accounts work with edgeful algo automation?
creating a strategy and grabbing the webhook URL
once TopstepX is connected, head to step 2 on the algo dashboard and create a strategy for the account you want to automate.
each strategy gets its own webhook URL — that's the link between TradingView and edgeful. copy the webhook URL from your new strategy. you'll paste it into your TradingView alert in the next step.
for the full walkthrough on step 2 — strategy naming, entry order type (market vs limit), and managing multiple strategies across accounts — see → using the algo dashboard.
setting up your first TradingView alert
edgeful listens for TradingView alerts and routes them to your TopstepX account. here's the setup — pay close attention to the contract symbol, because it's the #1 thing that trips up TopstepX users specifically.
open TradingView and load a chart.
use the continuous contract symbol — for example,
NQ1!orES1!. notNQM2026. this is the opposite of Tradovate and NinjaTrader.add your edgeful strategy or indicator to the chart.
click the alert icon and create a new alert.
in the webhook URL field, paste the edgeful webhook URL you copied from step 2 of the algo dashboard.
in the message field, paste the JSON payload. it's the same payload used for Tradovate and NinjaTrader — grab the exact text from the alert setup section of → Tradovate and NinjaTrader broker setup guide.
save the alert.
why the continuous symbol matters on TopstepX
TopstepX (through the ProjectX API) routes orders using continuous contract symbols — the ones ending in 1!. if you fire an alert on a specific front-month contract (like NQM2026), ProjectX won't match it to an active contract and the order gets rejected.
rule of thumb: TopstepX = continuous (NQ1!, ES1!, CL1!). Tradovate and NinjaTrader = front-month (NQM2026). if you're running the same algo on a TopstepX account and a Tradovate account at the same time, you need two separate alerts with different symbols — one per broker.
the upside: because TopstepX uses continuous symbols, you don't need to manually roll your alert when a contract expires — TradingView's continuous feed rolls automatically. for the full picture, see → contract rollover: why your algo silently stopped trading.
about edgeful indicators on TopstepX
one point of confusion worth clearing up: TopstepX is an execution broker, not a charting platform that hosts third-party indicators. edgeful's indicators don't install directly onto TopstepX.
how indicators actually work with a TopstepX account:
TradingView — you chart on TradingView, add edgeful's TradingView indicators to your chart, and create alerts that route through edgeful to TopstepX. your visual signals live on TradingView. see → TradingView indicators: access, updates, and troubleshooting
NinjaTrader — if you also chart on NinjaTrader alongside TopstepX, edgeful has a separate 15-indicator library you can install there. see → NinjaTrader indicator library setup
the short version: indicators stay on your charting platform (TradingView or NinjaTrader). the TopstepX connection handles execution only.
sending your first test trade
don't skip this. always verify the pipe works before letting the algo run unattended on a funded account.
make sure you're connected to your eval account — not funded — for the first test.
use a small size (1 contract is fine).
manually fire the TradingView alert, or wait for it to trigger naturally.
check the edgeful algo notification log for a success message.
log into TopstepX and confirm the order hit your account.
if the trade fires on edgeful but doesn't show up in TopstepX, something's blocking execution at the broker. start with → my algo didn't trade — start here.
going from eval to funded
once you pass your eval and get a funded TopstepX account, switching is straightforward:
inside ProjectX, confirm your funded account is linked (same flow as eval — logged into both TopstepX and ProjectX, click link).
in edgeful's algo dashboard, the funded account should now appear as a selectable broker account under the same TopstepX connection. if it doesn't, disconnect and reconnect using your existing API key to refresh the account list.
run one small test trade on the funded account before scaling size.
the TradingView alert, the webhook URL, the API key, and the edgeful strategy stay the same — the only thing changing is which TopstepX account receives the orders.
important on funded accounts: TopstepX drawdown and daily loss limits still apply. algos don't know about them. if TopstepX closes your account for a rule break, orders will start rejecting — check your TopstepX dashboard, not edgeful.
common TopstepX gotchas
a few things catch most traders in the first few weeks:
forgetting the $29/month ProjectX API subscription — no subscription, no API key, no connection. if you can't find the "Add API key" option in ProjectX, check that your subscription is active first.
only logged into one platform when linking — the link flow needs you logged into both TopstepX and ProjectX at the same time. if linking fails, open both in separate tabs and retry.
looking for linked accounts inside TopstepX — linked accounts only show up in ProjectX, not inside TopstepX. don't waste time hunting for them on the TopstepX side.
continuous vs front-month — always continuous on TopstepX (
NQ1!, notNQM2026). this is the opposite of Tradovate. if you're running the same algo on both, you need two alerts with different symbols.API key deleted or regenerated — if you delete the key inside ProjectX, the edgeful connection breaks. reconnect in the algo dashboard with the new key.
account closed for rule break — if TopstepX closes your account (drawdown breach, payout day, etc.), orders will silently reject. the issue is inside TopstepX, not edgeful.
contract size limits — TopstepX eval accounts have contract limits (e.g. 5 NQ max, depending on your plan). if your algo fires a size above the limit, TopstepX rejects it. check your account's rules.
trading hours / lockouts — TopstepX disables trading around certain news events, at specific times of day, and near daily loss thresholds. alerts that fire during a lockout get rejected.
silent rejections — rejections don't always surface as a push notification. if a trade isn't showing in edgeful's log as filled, check your TopstepX dashboard's orders tab directly for the rejection reason.
for the full troubleshooting flow, see → my algo didn't trade — start here.
multi-account setup
a lot of TopstepX traders run multiple accounts — multiple evals, eval + funded, or several accounts in parallel. edgeful supports all of these:
multiple TopstepX accounts under one key — if your API key gives access to more than 1 TopstepX account (eval + funded, or several evals), edgeful shows each as a separate selectable account.
copy trading across accounts — if you want one algo to fire on multiple accounts at once, create a strategy per account and point them at the same TradingView alert.
for the full picture on running algos across multiple accounts — including rule-compliance considerations — see → using edgeful algos with prop firms and multiple accounts.