ai-code-battle/starters/csharp

acb-starter-csharp

C# (.NET) starter kit for AI Code Battle — a competitive bot programming platform.

Uses ASP.NET Core minimal API with zero external dependencies beyond the framework.

Quick Start

# Run locally
export BOT_SECRET=dev-secret
dotnet run

# Run with Docker
docker build -t my-bot .
docker run -e BOT_SECRET=your-secret -p 8080:8080 my-bot

Your bot listens on port 8080 and responds to POST /turn with move commands.

Register Your Bot

Once your bot is deployed and accessible via HTTPS:

curl -X POST https://api.aicodebattle.com/api/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-csharp-bot",
    "endpoint_url": "https://my-bot.example.com",
    "owner": "your-name",
    "description": "My awesome bot"
  }'

Save the bot_id and shared_secret from the response — the secret is shown only once.

Project Structure

Program.cs                    # HTTP server, HMAC auth, types, and strategy
Grid.cs                       # Grid utilities (toroidal distance, BFS, neighbors)
acb-starter-csharp.csproj    # .NET project file
Dockerfile                    # Container build

Grid Helpers

Grid.cs provides static utility methods for the toroidal grid:

• Grid.ToroidalManhattan(r1, c1, r2, c2, rows, cols) — Manhattan distance with wrap-around
• Grid.ToroidalChebyshev(r1, c1, r2, c2, rows, cols) — Chebyshev distance with wrap-around
• Grid.Neighbors(p, rows, cols) — 8-directional neighbors with wrap
• Grid.Bfs(start, goal, passable, rows, cols) — BFS pathfinding, returns path or null

Testing

Unit tests for the Grid helper methods are provided in the tests/GridTests/ directory.

# Run tests locally
cd tests/GridTests
dotnet restore
dotnet test

# Run tests with Docker
docker build --target test -t my-bot-tests .
docker run --rm my-bot-tests

The test suite covers:

• Toroidal distance calculations (Manhattan and Chebyshev)
• Wrap-around behavior at grid boundaries
• 8-directional neighbor enumeration
• BFS pathfinding with obstacles

Customization

Edit ComputeMoves() in Program.cs to implement your strategy. The GameState record provides:

• Bots — all visible bots (yours and enemies)
• Energy — visible energy pickup locations
• Cores — visible core positions
• Walls — visible wall positions
• You.Energy — your current energy count
• You.Score — your current score
• Config — match parameters (grid size, etc.)

Return a List<Move>, each with the bot's current Position and a Direction ("N", "E", "S", or "W"). Bots not included in the response stay in place.

Protocol

• Endpoint: POST /turn — receives game state JSON, returns moves JSON
• Health: GET /health — must return 200
• Timeout: 3 seconds per turn
• Auth: HMAC-SHA256 via X-ACB-Signature header