ai-code-battle/docs/starter-kits.md

Starter Kits for AI Code Battle

This document describes the starter kit templates created for AI Code Battle participants.

Overview

All 8 starter kits are complete and ready for deployment to GitHub repositories. Each starter kit provides:

• A working HTTP server with HMAC verification
• Type definitions for game state and move schemas
• Grid utility functions (toroidal distance, BFS, neighbor enumeration)
• A stub strategy function (holds all bots in place)
• A Dockerfile for container deployment
• A README with quickstart instructions

Starter Kits

Kit	Language	Location	Notes
acb-starter-python	Python 3.13	~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-python/	Flask-based, stdlib only
acb-starter-go	Go 1.23	~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-go/	stdlib net/http
acb-starter-rust	Rust 1.83	~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-rust/	axum + serde
acb-starter-php	PHP 8.4	~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-php/	Built-in stream socket server
acb-starter-typescript	TypeScript	~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-typescript/	Node.js built-in http, no external deps
acb-starter-javascript	JavaScript	~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-javascript/	Node.js built-in http
acb-starter-java	Java 21	~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-java/	Javalin framework
acb-starter-csharp	C#	~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-csharp/	ASP.NET Core minimal API

Deployment to GitHub

To deploy these starter kits to GitHub repositories:

# For each starter kit
cd ~/scratch/starter-kits/acb-starter-XXX
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit: AI Code Battle starter kit for XXX"

# Create GitHub repo and push
# (Requires gh CLI or manual GitHub creation)
gh repo create acb-starter-XXX --public --source . --push

File Structure per Kit

Each starter kit follows this pattern:

acb-starter-XXX/
├── README.md          # Quickstart guide
├── Dockerfile         # Container build
├── [main files]       # Server + strategy
├── [grid utilities]   # Toroidal distance, BFS, neighbors
└── [language-specific] # package.json, pom.xml, Cargo.toml, etc.

Verification

All starter kits include:

• ✅ HMAC signature verification (request and response)
• ✅ /health endpoint for health checks
• ✅ /turn endpoint for game engine requests
• ✅ Game state parsing and type definitions
• ✅ Grid utilities (distance2, distance, neighbors, BFS)
• ✅ Stub strategy function
• ✅ Dockerfile for containerized deployment
• ✅ README with documentation

Next Steps

1. Create GitHub repositories for each starter kit
2. Add links to platform documentation at /docs/protocol.md
3. Update registration page to suggest starter kits for new users