# How the app works

> What you do on tango.finance and what agents and Tango do, how each strategy is a Tango vault on Base, and what a strategy can and cannot do today.

Source: https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/overview

tango.finance is where you build your own trading strategies and let agents run them. You describe a strategy in a sentence, check what it became on Review, and deploy it with cash from your Tango wallet. From then on agents run it by the rules you reviewed, and you can watch it, change its limits, close its positions and take your cash back. Your strategies are private: nobody else sees them in the app.

> **Key points**
>
> - Every strategy is its own Tango vault on Base, deployed on contract release 0.15.0. Your wallet holds its top role.
> - Agents run each strategy by its rules: buying on a schedule, trading perps on a condition, or making judgement calls, within limits set at deployment.
> - You can turn a strategy's agents off at any time. Closing a position and withdrawing work whether agents are on or off.
> - tango.finance runs on Base only. Prediction markets, options, liquidity pools and lending stocks are not supported.

## Who does what

| Who | What they do |
| --- | --- |
| You | Describe and review a strategy, deploy it, deposit and withdraw, close positions, turn agents on or off, change Max Leverage and rule settings, and grant roles or change rate limits |
| Agents | Run the strategy by its rules: buy, sell, park cash in money markets, trade perps, and move cash between the vault and its accounts |
| Tango | Deploys the vault and pays its network fees, runs the agents through an account you authorize, posts the value of a perps account, and co-signs every Hyperliquid action |

Tango provides the tools. It does not decide what your strategy does or judge whether it suits you. Agents follow the strategy you reviewed, and nothing else.

## What is a strategy?

Every strategy is a [Tango vault](https://app.tango.finance/docs/vault/overview.md): a set of smart contracts that holds the strategy's cash and positions and enforces its limits. A vault splits its money into **sub-accounts**, separate contracts that each hold one part of the strategy.

| Account | Vault sub-account | Holds |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Strategy | [Tracked](https://app.tango.finance/docs/vault/tracked-sub-accounts.md) | Spot tokens, tokenized stocks and money market positions |
| Perps | [Attested](https://app.tango.finance/docs/vault/attested-sub-accounts.md) | Cash on its way to or from Hyperliquid, linked to a trading account there |

A strategy has a Perps account only if it trades perps. The Advanced tab on a strategy's page uses these names.

## What a strategy can do

| Kind of strategy | What it does | How it runs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hold | Keeps cash in money markets, which are lending markets that pay interest | Agents park and return cash |
| Program | Buys spot tokens or stocks on a schedule, with a share of the strategy's cash, and can park the rest in money markets | Code, with no AI, on its schedule |
| Rule | Opens a perp on Hyperliquid when a price moves by a set amount, with optional stop loss and take profit | Code, with no AI, when its condition is met |
| Autopilot | Makes moves that need judgement, within the strategy's assets and limits | An AI model, on an interval |

Rules and Autopilot are offered once Tango turns them on. Until then, a prompt that needs one is answered as not available yet. See [How agents run a strategy](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/agents.md).

These are not supported, and a prompt asking for one says so:

- prediction markets, options, liquidity pools and memecoins;
- lending stocks: a strategy buys stocks and holds them;
- any network other than Base;
- Hyperliquid's xyz markets for stocks, indices, commodities and currencies.

## Network and release

Every tango.finance strategy runs on Base and is deployed from Tango vault contract release 0.15.0. A **contract release** is a fixed version of the vault's code, and a vault keeps its release for life. Release 0.15.0 lets each strategy choose its own timelocks and lets agents run it through narrow roles. See [Architecture overview](https://app.tango.finance/docs/vault/overview.md#contract-release).

The Tango app at app.tango.fun is a separate product. Its strategies don't appear here, and yours don't appear there, though both use the same Tango wallet.

## The pages

| Page | What it shows |
| --- | --- |
| Home | The market tape and the prompt box. An arrow on the box opens example strategies. See [Build a strategy](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/build-a-strategy.md) |
| Review | What your prompt became, all of it editable, then Timelocks, Costs, Amount and Deploy Strategy. See [Review](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/build-a-strategy.md#review) |
| Strategies | A table of your strategies with their assets, value and 7-day return. See [Strategies and a strategy's page](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/strategies.md) |
| A strategy's page | Its value, returns and chart, Deposit and Ask Tango, then the Positions, Settings, Advanced and Activity tabs. See [The tabs](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/strategies.md#the-tabs) |
| Account | Your cash, Add Cash, Withdraw, your wallet's address and Sign Out. See [The Account page](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/get-started.md#the-account-page) |
| Documentation | These docs, linked from the footer |

Times in the app are in UTC.

## Moving money in and out

1. Add Cash puts USDC in your Tango wallet, by card or bank, or from another wallet. See [Sign in and add cash](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/get-started.md).
2. Deploy Strategy, and later Deposit on a strategy's page, moves cash from your wallet into the strategy. See [Deposits in the app](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/deposits.md).
3. Withdraw on a strategy's page brings cash back to your wallet. See [Withdrawals in the app](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/withdrawals.md).
4. Withdraw on the Account page sends cash from your wallet to another address.

Tango pays the network fees on Base for deploying a strategy and for the deposits, withdrawals and changes you sign in it. Trading and bridging costs come out of the strategy. See [Costs](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/fees.md).

## Where to go next

- To build your first strategy, read [Build a strategy](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/build-a-strategy.md), then [How agents run a strategy](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/agents.md).
- To follow a running strategy, read [Strategies and a strategy's page](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/strategies.md), then [Positions, Close and Activity](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/positions-and-closing.md).
- To see who can change what, read [Timelocks, roles and limits in the app](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/advanced.md) and [Fixed configuration](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/fixed-configuration.md).
- If a strategy trades perps, read [Perps on Hyperliquid](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/venues/hyperliquid.md) and [Hyperliquid trading wallets](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/venues/hyperliquid-wallets.md).
- If a strategy buys stocks, read [Tokenized stocks](https://app.tango.finance/docs/app/tokenized-stocks.md).
- Before you deploy, read [Risks](https://app.tango.finance/docs/vault/risks.md).