diff --git a/piker/clearing/_paper_engine.py b/piker/clearing/_paper_engine.py
index 802dcf46..944f933b 100644
--- a/piker/clearing/_paper_engine.py
+++ b/piker/clearing/_paper_engine.py
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ import trio
 import tractor
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 
-from .. import data
 from ..data._source import Symbol
+from ..data.feed import open_feed
 from ..pp import Position
 from ..data._normalize import iterticks
 from ..data._source import unpack_fqsn
@@ -441,14 +441,11 @@ async def trades_dialogue(
 ) -> None:
     tractor.log.get_console_log(loglevel)
 
-    async with (
+    async with open_feed(
+        [fqsn],
+        loglevel=loglevel,
+    ) as feed:
 
-        data.open_feed(
-            [fqsn],
-            loglevel=loglevel,
-        ) as feed,
-
-    ):
         # TODO: load paper positions per broker from .toml config file
         # and pass as symbol to position data mapping: ``dict[str, dict]``
         # await ctx.started(all_positions)
diff --git a/piker/data/__init__.py b/piker/data/__init__.py
index e98195b4..55dca991 100644
--- a/piker/data/__init__.py
+++ b/piker/data/__init__.py
@@ -30,19 +30,19 @@ from ._sharedmem import (
     get_shm_token,
     ShmArray,
 )
-from .feed import (
-    open_feed,
-    _setup_persistent_brokerd,
-)
+# from .feed import (
+#     # open_feed,
+#     _setup_persistent_brokerd,
+# )
 
 
 __all__ = [
-    'open_feed',
+    # 'open_feed',
     'ShmArray',
     'iterticks',
     'maybe_open_shm_array',
     'attach_shm_array',
     'open_shm_array',
     'get_shm_token',
-    '_setup_persistent_brokerd',
+    # '_setup_persistent_brokerd',
 ]
diff --git a/piker/data/_sharedmem.py b/piker/data/_sharedmem.py
index 82f61e79..8ea51eb7 100644
--- a/piker/data/_sharedmem.py
+++ b/piker/data/_sharedmem.py
@@ -128,12 +128,15 @@ class _Token(Struct, frozen=True):
 
     @classmethod
     def from_msg(cls, msg: dict) -> _Token:
-        if isinstance(msg, _Token):
-            return msg
 
         # TODO: native struct decoding
         # return _token_dec.decode(msg)
 
+        if isinstance(msg, _Token):
+            return msg
+
+        # assert 0
+
         msg['dtype_descr'] = tuple(map(tuple, msg['dtype_descr']))
         return _Token(**msg)