Mechanism

How Hyperliquid agent approvals actually work

Approving an agent is the single step that makes automated trading possible without custody, and it is the step people understand least. It is worth knowing exactly what the signature says, because the safety of the whole arrangement rests on its contents rather than on anyone's assurances.

In short

An agent approval is a typed message you sign with your own wallet that names a separate signing key as an authorised trading agent for your Hyperliquid account. Hyperliquid records the authorisation, then accepts order actions signed by that agent key. No funds move when you sign, the agent key never gains withdrawal or transfer rights, and you can de-authorise it at any time from the wallet that approved it.

At a glance

What the agent approval does and does not authorise
Action	Agent signature	Your wallet
Place, modify, cancel orders	Agent signatureAllowed	Your walletAllowed
Open and close positions	Agent signatureAllowed	Your walletAllowed
Move funds between your own sub-accounts	Agent signatureAllowed within your account	Your walletAllowed
Withdraw to any address	Agent signatureNot possible	Your walletAllowed
Transfer to a third party	Agent signatureNot possible	Your walletAllowed
Revoke the agent	Agent signatureNot possible	Your walletAllowed

What actually gets signed

The approval is a structured, human-readable typed message rather than an opaque blob. You sign it in your wallet, exactly as you would sign a login message: there is no contract call that pulls tokens, no allowance, and no approval of a spending limit on an ERC-20.

Once the signature is submitted, Hyperliquid stores the relationship between your account and the agent key. From that point, order actions carrying a valid agent signature are treated as instructions from your account.

It names the agent key that is being authorised.
It is signed by your own wallet, so only you can create it.
It authorises order actions — not withdrawals, not transfers, not ownership changes.
It is recorded by the exchange and is visible to you as an authorised agent on your account.

Why it is not a transfer

A transfer moves a balance from one account to another and leaves a settlement record. An approval creates no balance change at all: your USDC is in the same account before and after, and nothing about the signature can be replayed to construct a withdrawal.

This is the reason deposits in a non-custodial flow never touch a platform address. You fund your own Hyperliquid account directly, and mirroring happens inside it.

How the approval is used afterwards

When a mirrored leader opens or closes a position, HyperMirror constructs the corresponding order for your account, signs it with the agent key, and submits it. Hyperliquid validates the agent authorisation and executes against the order book like any other order.

Because the order lands in your account, the fill appears under your address on-chain. There is no internal ledger to reconcile against — your trade history is the record.

Orders are routed into the isolated sub-account assigned to the leader that produced them.
Fills, funding and PnL accrue to your account, not to a pooled position.
Nothing in the loop requires you to be online or to sign again.

The second signature: builder fee

Onboarding asks for a second, unrelated signature that approves a maximum builder-fee rate. That is Hyperliquid's native mechanism for a builder to earn a fee on volume it routes, and it is how HyperMirror is funded — a transparent 0.1% of mirrored notional volume, with no profit share and no subscription.

What the approval does not protect you from

A trade-only agent cannot take your funds, but it can open positions that lose money, and mirrored perpetual positions can be liquidated. Non-custodial architecture removes counterparty custody risk; it does not remove market risk.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Perpetual futures are leveraged instruments and carry a substantial risk of loss, including the loss of your entire position.

Methodology

Scoring and replacement are documented in full on How it works and in the Docs (Policy v3). In short: the Elite basket is sticky, emergencies remove a leader immediately, and soft issues accrue at most one strike per UTC day with three strike-days triggering replacement. Read how it works or the documentation for the full table.

Questions

Frequently asked

Does approving an agent move my funds?

No. Nothing is transferred. Your balance is identical before and after signing; the signature only records a trading authorisation.

Is this like an ERC-20 token approval?

No. A token approval grants a spending allowance. An agent approval grants no spending or withdrawal ability at all — only the right to submit order actions on your account.

Do I have to sign every trade?

No. That is the point of the agent key: it signs orders on your behalf inside the authorised scope, so mirroring continues without you being present.

Can I see the approval on-chain?

Yes. Authorised agents are visible on your Hyperliquid account, which is how you verify the arrangement rather than trusting a description of it.

Keep reading

Agent vs API keysWhy protocol-enforced scope beats an exchange key.Approve and revoke safelyThe practical checklist for both directions.Builder-fee approvalThe second signature, in depth.Start autopilotWallet connect, agent approval and builder-fee approval in one flow.

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