// GLOSSARY

Kill switch

A control that immediately halts all trading — cancelling open orders and blocking new ones — enforced server-side so a runaway bot or misbehaving AI agent can't keep trading. The last line of defense in any automated setup.

Every automated trading system eventually does something its author didn't intend — a loop that re-sends orders, a sign error that buys instead of sells, an agent that misreads a market. The kill switch is the guarantee that "stop everything" is one action away and actually works.

What a real kill switch does

• Rejects all new orders at the API layer, regardless of what the bot sends.
• Cancels resting orders across venues.
• Stays engaged until a human turns it back on — the bot can't reset it.

The critical property is placement: it must live server-side, between the strategy and the venues. A kill switch inside the bot's own code dies with the bot, and an AI agent given direct exchange keys has nothing between it and the venue at all.

In practice

Mithril enforces the kill switch (alongside notional caps and slippage bounds) in the API layer, so it applies to human code and AI agents alike. Design patterns and failure stories in risk limits for AI trading agents.