AI Code Battle

A competitive bot programming platform where participants write HTTP servers that control units on a grid world. Bots compete in real-time matches, and the winner is the last player with surviving cores.

Overview

• Write a bot in any language — it just needs to run an HTTP server
• The game engine calls your bot every turn with the current game state
• Your bot responds with move orders for each of its units
• Matches run offline; results are published as animated replays with a leaderboard
• Ratings use Glicko-2 (same system as chess.com)

Table of Contents

1. Game Rules
2. Writing a Bot
3. Starter Templates
4. Strategy Bots
5. Running Locally
6. Project Structure
7. Architecture
8. Testing

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Game Rules

The Grid World

Matches are played on a toroidal (wrapping) grid — moving off one edge brings you out the other side. Tiles:

Tile	Symbol	Effect
Open	.	Units can occupy and traverse
Wall	#	Impassable
Energy	*	Collected by units standing on it
Core	C	Win condition — protect yours, destroy theirs

Win Condition

The last player with at least one surviving Core tile wins. Cores are destroyed when an enemy unit occupies an undefended core tile during the Capture phase.

Turn Phases

Each turn resolves in this order:

1. Move — Each unit executes its ordered direction (N, E, S, W) or stays
2. Combat (focus-fire) — Units in the same tile deal damage; outnumbered units take extra damage
3. Zone — A shrinking storm closes in from the edges, dealing damage to units caught in it
4. Capture — Enemy units on undefended Core tiles raze them
5. Collect — Units on Energy tiles collect energy for their player
6. Spawn — Players spend energy to spawn new units at Core tiles
7. Energy Tick — Passive energy regeneration
8. Endgame Check — Victory condition evaluated

Key Rules

• Self-collision: If two or more of your own units move to the same tile, they all die
• Energy economy: Spawning units costs energy; energy is collected from * tiles and regenerated passively
• Visibility: Bots only see tiles and units within their units' sight radius (fog of war)

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Writing a Bot

A bot is an HTTP server with two endpoints. The game engine calls your server every turn.

Required Endpoints

GET /health

Returns 200 OK when your bot is ready. The engine polls this before starting a match.

GET /health HTTP/1.1

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

POST /turn

The engine sends the current game state; your bot responds with move orders.

Request headers:

Header	Value
Content-Type	application/json
X-ACB-Match-Id	Match identifier string
X-ACB-Turn	Current turn number (integer as string)
X-ACB-Signature	HMAC-SHA256 signature of this request

Request body (JSON game state):

{
  "turn": 42,
  "player_id": "player-1",
  "bots": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "x": 5,
      "y": 3,
      "health": 100,
      "owner": "player-1"
    }
  ],
  "tiles": [
    { "x": 4, "y": 3, "type": "open" },
    { "x": 5, "y": 3, "type": "energy" }
  ],
  "energy_locations": [{ "x": 5, "y": 3 }],
  "core_locations": [
    { "x": 0, "y": 0, "owner": "player-1" },
    { "x": 9, "y": 9, "owner": "player-2" }
  ],
  "scores": {
    "player-1": { "energy": 150, "cores": 2 },
    "player-2": { "energy": 80, "cores": 1 }
  }
}

Only tiles and units visible to your bots are included (fog of war).

Response body (JSON move orders):

{
  "moves": [
    { "bot_id": 1, "direction": "N" },
    { "bot_id": 2, "direction": "E" },
    { "bot_id": 3, "direction": "stay" }
  ]
}

Valid directions: N, E, S, W, stay

Response header:

Header	Value
X-ACB-Signature	HMAC-SHA256 signature of your response body

HMAC Authentication

Every request and response is signed. The signing key is your SHARED_SECRET environment variable.

Signing string format:

{match_id}.{turn}.{sha256_hex(body)}

Signature:

HMAC-SHA256(key=SHARED_SECRET, message=signing_string)  →  hex-encoded

To verify an incoming request:

1. Read X-ACB-Match-Id, X-ACB-Turn, and the raw request body
2. Compute sha256(body) as hex
3. Build the signing string: "{match_id}.{turn}.{body_sha256}"
4. Compute HMAC-SHA256(SHARED_SECRET, signing_string) as hex
5. Compare with X-ACB-Signature (constant-time comparison)

To sign your response:

1. Compute sha256(response_body) as hex
2. Build the same signing string with the same match_id and turn
3. Compute HMAC-SHA256(SHARED_SECRET, signing_string) as hex
4. Set X-ACB-Signature response header to that value

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
SHARED_SECRET	Shared HMAC key provided by the match coordinator
PORT	Port your HTTP server listens on (default: 8080)

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Starter Templates

Ready-to-use templates are in the starters/ directory. Each implements /health and /turn with HMAC auth and a random-move strategy — replace the move logic with your own.

Language	Directory
Python	starters/python/
Go	starters/go/
Rust	starters/rust/
TypeScript	starters/typescript/
JavaScript	starters/javascript/
Java	starters/java/
PHP	starters/php/
C#	starters/csharp/

Quick-start with Python

cd starters/python
pip install -r requirements.txt
SHARED_SECRET=test PORT=8080 python main.py

Then in another terminal, test your bot health:

curl http://localhost:8080/health

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Strategy Bots

The bots/ directory contains 21 reference bots demonstrating different strategies. These serve as benchmarks and opponents in the automated ladder.

Bot	Strategy
random	Random valid moves — baseline reference
gatherer	Energy collection priority, avoids combat
rusher	Rushes enemy cores aggressively
guardian	Defends cores, cautious expansion
swarm	Formation cohesion, advances as a group
hunter	Targets isolated enemy units
assassin	Prioritizes high-value targets
coordinator	Coordinates unit actions across the field
defender	Pure defensive posture
economist	Maximizes energy efficiency
farmer	Long-term energy farming strategy
kamikaze	Sacrificial rush tactics
leader-targeter	Focuses fire on the strongest opponent
nomad	Mobile, avoids prolonged engagements
opportunist	Exploits momentary advantages
pacifist	Avoids combat entirely
phalanx	Tight defensive formation
raider	Hit-and-run energy denial
scout	Prioritizes map exploration
siege	Methodical core destruction
zone-driver	Exploits the shrinking zone mechanic

Bot implementations span Go, Rust, Python, TypeScript, PHP, and Java.

Bot Evolver

The acb-evolver/ component mutates and evolves bot strategies automatically. It runs genetic-algorithm-style evolution over strategy parameters, producing improved variants over time.

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Running Locally

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21+ (game engine and CLI tools)
• Node.js 18+ (web app and worker API)
• Docker (for containerized bots and deployment)

Build and Run a Match

# Build CLI tools
go build ./cmd/acb-local
go build ./cmd/acb-mapgen

# Run a match between two built-in bots (outputs replay JSON)
./acb-local -seed 42 -max-turns 100 -output replay.json -verbose

Test Your Bot

# Start the Python starter bot
cd starters/python
pip install -r requirements.txt
SHARED_SECRET=test PORT=8080 python main.py

# In another terminal — run a match against a built-in bot
./acb-local -bot1 http://localhost:8080 -bot2 builtin:rusher \
  -secret1 test -seed 42 -output replay.json -verbose

View Replays

# Start the web dev server
cd web && npm install && npm run dev
# Open http://localhost:3000/ → Replay Viewer → load replay.json

The replay viewer shows turn-by-turn animation on a canvas, win probability tracking, an event timeline, and auto-generated commentary.

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Project Structure

ai-code-battle/
├── engine/              # Go game simulation library
│   ├── types.go         # Core data types
│   ├── grid.go          # Toroidal grid implementation
│   ├── game.go          # Game state management
│   ├── turn.go          # Turn execution phases
│   ├── replay.go        # Replay recording
│   └── *_test.go        # Test files
├── cmd/
│   ├── acb-local/       # CLI match runner (local testing)
│   ├── acb-mapgen/      # Map generator
│   ├── acb-worker/      # Match execution worker
│   ├── acb-api/         # Public Go HTTP service for dynamic endpoints
│   ├── acb-matchmaker/  # Internal match scheduler
│   ├── acb-indexer/     # Index builder for static files
│   └── acb-evolver/     # LLM evolution pipeline
├── web/                 # Cloudflare Pages SPA
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── replay-viewer.ts  # Canvas replay renderer
│   │   └── app.ts            # SPA entry point
│   └── functions/
│       └── r2/               # R2 replay serving (Pages Functions)
├── bots/                # Strategy bot implementations (21 bots)
├── starters/            # Starter templates (8 languages)
│   ├── python/
│   ├── go/
│   ├── rust/
│   ├── typescript/
│   ├── javascript/
│   ├── java/
│   ├── php/
│   └── csharp/
└── wasm/                # WebAssembly bot interface

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Architecture

The platform uses a static-first architecture. The public-facing product is a Cloudflare Pages static site — all data visitors see (leaderboards, match history, bot profiles, replays) is pre-computed JSON served from the CDN. All compute runs in a Kubernetes cluster (Rackspace Spot), which acts as a match factory: it runs battles, generates replays, and periodically publishes the updated site to Pages.

• Cloudflare Pages — Static SPA (replay viewer, leaderboard, match history) with all data pre-computed as JSON
• Cloudflare Pages Functions + R2 — Replay storage and serving through R2 bucket binding
• Kubernetes cluster — Match workers, matchmaker, API service, bot containers, and index builder

Match flow:

1. Matchmaker queries active bots from PostgreSQL and enqueues match jobs to Valkey
2. Match worker pulls a job from Valkey and starts both bot containers
3. Engine runs the match turn-by-turn, calling each bot's /turn endpoint
4. Replay JSON is uploaded to R2 via ARMOR credentials (B2-compatible API)
5. Worker writes results to PostgreSQL
6. Index builder reads PostgreSQL, generates JSON indexes, and deploys to Cloudflare Pages
7. Web frontend fetches the new replay through Pages Functions (R2 proxy)

Rating system: Glicko-2 — accounts for rating reliability (RD) and rating volatility, converges faster than Elo, same algorithm used by chess.com.

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Testing

# Game engine unit tests
go test ./engine/... -v

# Web app tests
cd web && npm test

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License

MIT

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Part of jedarden.com

This GitHub repo is a read-only mirror of git.ardenone.com/jedarden/ai-code-battle — issues and PRs are welcome here either way.

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Last CI test: 2026-08-28

Test: Fri Aug 28 08:11:34 AM EDT 2026