Zerochord
How-to guides

Read your quote

What every row of the quote panel means, and which numbers bind the transaction.

The quote panel is the screen the swap is judged on. It appears before the signing button becomes available, and every number in it comes from the quote itself.

Read the banner, the minimum, and the direct route comparison. Those three decide whether to sign.

The banner: how this route settles

The coloured banner at the top of the panel says one of three things.

BannerWhat it means for you
One transactionYou sign once and the whole route settles in that transaction, or none of it does.
Not immediate: one order, filled laterSigning places one order carrying the minimum below. A batcher fills it afterwards. The rate is bound by that minimum, the timing is not, and the order stays open until it is filled or cancelled.
Not immediate: legs settle separatelyThe route runs on more than one order and they settle independently. Some legs can fill while others do not.

The panel never calls a route immediate when it is not. If the banner is one of the two "Not immediate" forms, your order appears under Pending orders and you can cancel it there.

Why the two kinds exist

Rate

Rate is the price in whole units: one unit of what you pay, expressed in what you receive.

You pay is your input amount.

Quoted output is what the route delivers at the pool state the quote was read from.

Minimum output enforced on chain is the number that matters. It is written into the transaction. If the swap cannot deliver at least this much, it fails rather than filling lower. The note under it repeats the slippage allowance the minimum was derived from.

Price impact is how far the route's price falls short of the price a vanishingly small trade would get on the same route. A larger trade through the same pools moves the price further, and this is that shortfall.

How the minimum is derived

Fees

Four separate charges, each shown in its own unit.

RowWhat it is
Pool feeThe pool's own fee, taken out of what you pay in.
Venue protocol feeThe venue's share of that pool fee.
Venue execution feeLovelace paid to the venue operators. Not refundable.
Refundable depositLovelace that rides along with an order and comes back to you.

The venue execution fee is sometimes an upper bound rather than an exact amount. When it is, the note under it says so: a venue that fills orders in a batch spreads that fee across the batch, so an order filled alone pays all of it and an order in a batch pays less.

Full breakdown of what a swap costs

Against the direct route

Zerochord measures every quote against the best single pool that trades your pair directly, at the same chain state. The panel shows one of three outcomes.

Routing beat the direct pool. You see the baseline output, the venue it came from, and the saving in both the output asset and basis points.

The direct pool is better. The panel says so, names the venue, and offers a button: Quote the direct route on that venue. Pressing it re-runs the same engine restricted to that one pool. See Take the direct route.

No direct pool exists. No single pool holds both of your assets, so there is nothing to compare against and no saving is claimed. The panel states this rather than showing a zero.

If a venue on this network could not be read for this quote, an amber note appears above the comparison naming it. The route and the baseline then cover only the venues that answered, and the note says the comparison is incomplete.

How the baseline is defined

Route

Venues names each venue the route uses.

Branches is how many separate paths your input was split across. More than one branch means part of your input went one way and part went another, because splitting produced a better total.

Execution classes lists the kinds of venue the route touches.

Read at is the block and slot every pool in this quote was read at. Every number above describes that one chain state.

Warnings

When the quote carries anything you need to know, the panel adds a Warnings section and lists each item in plain language. Read it. It is where a route that settles leg by leg, a route filled by a batcher, and a pair where routing loses to the direct pool all announce themselves.

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