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This page covers the manager and creator side of a vault: deploying it, choosing its parameters, and operating it day-to-day. Depositor mechanics are described in Depositing.

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Creating a Vault

Vault creation is a single signed call. The creator provides:
  • An optional manager address. If omitted, the vault is created as a “fresh vault” with no manager - any address can later claim the manager seat.
  • An optional nickname, for display on the vaults page. Nicknames are unique across all vaults.
  • An optional configuration object. If omitted, the default configuration applies (no caps, no fees, no cooldowns, no symbol restrictions).
  • An optional seed deposit. If provided, the same call also performs a deposit_to_lake from the creator into the new vault.
A creation fee of 10 USDC is charged to the creator at vault creation. The vault is assigned a freshly-generated address and starts with zero balance, zero shares, and zero positions. A vault may itself be designated as the manager of another vault (a “subvault”). Subvaults are limited to one level of nesting.

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Claiming a Fresh Vault

A fresh vault (created without a manager) can have its manager seat claimed by any address via a signed claim_lake_manager call. Claiming requires:
  • An initial deposit of at least 10 USDC.
  • If the vault was created with manager_min_balance_portion set, the post-claim manager balance ratio must satisfy manager_balance / (manager_balance + lp_balance) >= manager_min_balance_portion.
Once claimed, the manager seat is permanent for the lifetime of the vault.

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Configuration

A vault’s behavior is governed by a LakeConfig. Some fields are fixed at creation; others can be updated by the creator. All fields are optional. Where a field is None the vault behaves as if no constraint of that kind exists.

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Mutability

Only the creator can update mutable fields. Updates take effect immediately on the next operation. The non-mutable fields are deliberately fixed at creation: they govern the vault’s economics, withdrawal cadence, and risk thresholds.

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Operating the Vault

The vault is a real Pacifica account. The manager places orders for it through the Pacifica frontend or by using the standard order endpoints, signed by the manager’s wallet or by an agent key bound to the manager’s address. All Pacifica trading rules apply unchanged: order types, margin model, mark price, funding, liquidation. See Trading on Pacifica. The manager is also subject to the standard exchange-wide constraints such as rate limits and individual deposit requirements for the vault account itself.

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Manager Economics

Manager Shares and LP Shares are separate share classes against the same underlying balance and positions.
  • The manager’s deposits and withdrawals follow the same minimum amount and the same available_to_withdraw constraints, and the same period-PnL ledger sync as LP deposits and withdrawals.
  • deposit_min_duration_ms and withdraw_window_s/duration_s apply to manager withdrawals as well.
  • When a vault is configured with manager_min_balance_portion, the manager must satisfy the threshold to claim the seat and to lift a trading halt. See Risk Controls → Manager Balance Portion.
The manager’s earnings come from two sources:
  1. The pro-rata return on Manager Shares, identical in form to an LP’s return.
  2. The performance fee on profits above the high-water mark, set by manager_profit_share. The fee is credited to manager_balance and accrues to Manager Shares automatically. See Profit & Loss → Performance fee.