> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.polaris.supply/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Frontier Markets Primer

> What frontier venues are, how Polaris categorizes them, how their data is captured, and what access states mean.

This page explains the venue categories Polaris covers and the pipeline behind the data. Read it once, then discover real markets with [Catalog](/endpoints/catalog).

## What frontier venues are

Frontier venues publish market data over public WebSockets or onchain events rather than licensed feeds. They appear and disappear faster than legacy exchanges, and each has its own identifiers, timestamp conventions, and payload shapes. Examples include Hyperliquid and dYdX v4 (order-book DEXes), Deribit and Aevo (options DEXes), and onchain quoting protocols like FermiSwap.

Polaris records these venues and normalizes their output into one query surface, so switching venues does not mean rewriting a parser. The venue-native payloads stay available through [Raw data](/endpoints/raw) for replay and validation.

## Venue categories

| Category | What it publishes | Guides |
| - | - | - |
| Perpetual and order-book exchanges | Trades, L2 updates, funding rates, venue ticker state, candles | [Perpetuals](/guides/perpetuals) |
| Hyperliquid + HIP-3 builder DEXes | Markets deployed by builders on Hyperliquid's book, with `xyz:`, `cash:`, `flx:` style market IDs | [Perpetuals](/guides/perpetuals) |
| Options exchanges | Contract-level tickers per underlying; `market` is the underlying, `instrument` is the contract | [Options](/guides/options) |
| PropAMMs | Onchain size-dependent quote ladders recorded per router contract under `market="ethereum"` | [PropAMMs](/guides/propamms) |
| Intent and RFQ venues | RFQ, quote, executable-intent, and settlement observations under `market="intents"` | [Intents and RFQs](/guides/intents-and-rfqs) |
| RWA, prediction, and compute markets | Order-book derivatives on real-world assets, events, or compute capacity | [Perpetuals](/guides/perpetuals) |

Browse the live source list on [Market coverage](/markets/market-coverage).

## How data is captured

1. A Polaris **recorder** subscribes to each venue's native channels and persists every raw message as a capture envelope.
2. Captures are **standardized** into normalized event rows — trades, L2 updates, funding-rate observations, and more. Each keeps the `source_capture_id` of the raw message it was decoded from.
3. Standardized history is published in snapshot files that the CLI, SDKs, and REST API share. SDKs resume from a recent snapshot instead of reading row by row from day one; this is [snapshot-first replay](/sdks/python#snapshot-first-replay).

Two consequences worth remembering:

* `collector_timestamp` (when the recorder saw the message) is the reliable ordering timeline; `exchange_timestamp` is nullable venue provenance. See [Data conventions](/concepts/data-conventions).
* Because raw captures are kept, anything standardized can be cross-checked against the original payload with [Raw data](/endpoints/raw).

## Access states

Each Catalog market carries `access.status` and an optional `public_cutoff_date`:

| Status | Meaning |
| - | - |
| `open` | Current data is broadly accessible without a key |
| `preview` | A bounded public window around `public_cutoff_date`; wider history needs an API key |
| `restricted` | Requires an API key with the appropriate entitlement |

Limits and windows per endpoint are summarized in [Access and rate limits](/endpoints/access-and-rate-limits).

## Where to go next

| Question | Page |
| - | - |
| What do these fields and timestamps mean? | [Data conventions](/concepts/data-conventions) |
| How do I authenticate, and what is public? | [Access and rate limits](/endpoints/access-and-rate-limits) |
| Which markets exist right now? | [Catalog](/endpoints/catalog) |
| Which SDK method do I call? | [Method map](/sdks/method-map) |
| Show me a worked analysis | [Backtesting](/guides/backtesting), [Cross-venue analysis](/guides/cross-venue-analysis), and the other guides |


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