The vault screener toolbox — part 6: the builder layer (scrapers and the API)
If you can code, the most powerful and honest screener is the one you build yourself, on Hyperliquid's public API. Scrapers and the raw API are the materials every other tool — and this blog — is made from. How that compares to a finished product like Altcopy.
The most powerful screening tool isn't a website at all — it's the public API and a little code. This is the layer every other tool in the series is secretly built on.
What it is
Hyperliquid's public API exposes everything: each vault's details and history, live positions via clearinghouse state, the full stats feed. On top of it sit ready-made Apify scrapers that extract leaderboard, vault and wallet data for you. With either, you control the math: you recompute every metric, define your own filters, and trust nothing you didn't derive. It's exactly what this blog runs on — twice-daily snapshots, every figure rebuildable from raw data.
Where to stay critical
It demands coding, and you own the correctness — a wrong formula is your wrong formula. Scrapers cost money and maintenance; the raw API is the truth but it's raw. This path is for builders, not most depositors.
vs. the Altcopy leaderboard
| Builder layer | Altcopy leaderboard | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Raw materials (API + scrapers) | A finished product built from them |
| Control | Total — you build it | We built it; rules shown |
| Skill needed | Coding | None |
| Black box? | No (it's yours) | No (flags are transparent) |
The honest truth: if you can build, you don't need any tool in this series — you can make a better screener than all of them for your exact needs. Most people can't or won't, which is the entire reason curated products exist. The Altcopy leaderboard is simply "we did the build for you, and we show you the rules so you don't have to take it on faith."
Use any third-party tool read-only — type the URL yourself, paste only a public address, never connect a wallet you don't have to, never enter a seed phrase. Not an endorsement; verify before you trust.
← Part 5: wallet & whale terminals | Part 7: everything vs. Altcopy →