wizardshit.ai
Joel's AI education platform. The crux: teach the exploratory journey of building systems with and around AI.
Not a polished curriculum factory — a system that teaches by showing the system being built. Digital garden philosophy applied to AI education.
Repositories
App: ~/Code/badass-courses/gremlin/apps/wizardshit-ai/
Next.js 16 app in the gremlin monorepo (badass-courses/gremlin). Uses the badass-courses platform:
@badass-courses/core,@badass-courses/sdk,@badass-courses/next,@badass-courses/ui- Convex backend via
@badass-courses/convex-adapter - Package name:
@wizardshit/web
The gremlin monorepo has its own AGENTS.md — read it before any gremlin work:
cat ~/Code/badass-courses/gremlin/AGENTS.md
Brain/Design: ~/Code/joelhooks/manage/
Vercel manage repo with PARA-structured brain vault. Course design docs live here:
brain/01 Projects/Agent Game Generation/— The Claw course design bibleskills/the-claw-course-design/SKILL.md— course design process skilldocs/decisions/— ADRs for the manage workspace
Key design documents (read in order):
Course Concept.md— canonical spec (~5K words)Lesson Bookends.md— first and last lesson, fully workshoppedGame Design Patterns.md— 20 patterns mapping game mechanics → agent architectureResearch - Schell Lenses x Dwarf Fortress x The Claw.mdResearch - 4CID Learning Design Bible.mdResearch - Dwarf Fortress Design Philosophy.mdResearch - just-bash as Game Engine.mdResearch - Game Design Bibles.md— Koster + SchellResearch - Prior Art and Landscape.mdResearch - Multi-Agent Frameworks as MUD Architecture.mdResearch - MUD Architecture and Platform Primitives.md
Public gist (full design docs):
https://gist.github.com/joelhooks/99b7188fdd775b32b646ee72484774cc
Two Versions
- Vercel Academy — toned-down business version. Vercel-native stack (Workflow, Sandbox, Queues, AI Gateway, just-bash). Draft: https://vercel.com/academy/draft/agent-game-generation
- wizardshit.ai — the full unfiltered version. Free to use whatever infra. Inngest, k8s, Redis, self-hosted — whatever's best.
The Claw: Minions of Toil
The flagship course. A roguelite colony management sim where Zots (autonomous AI agents) toil in a fantasy dungeon generated from real codebases.
Core insight: the game mechanics ARE agent architecture patterns. Health bar = context window. Abilities = tools. Party = multi-agent delegation. Combat = error handling. The representation IS the thing.
Design foundations:
- Koster — fun = learning patterns in a safe space
- Schell — 100+ lenses for design evaluation
- 4C/ID — whole-task from day 1, scaffolding fades, driven by what breaks
- Dwarf Fortress — colony management, autonomous actors, "losing is fun", emergent narrative
Tech (wizardshit version — free to choose):
- just-bash — the game engine (virtual filesystem sandbox)
- AI SDK — Zot brains
- Inngest — tick engine, durable workflows
- Whatever persistence/state makes sense
Linear: DX-2875
Working With This Project
- For gremlin app work:
cd ~/Code/badass-courses/gremlinand read its AGENTS.md - For course design:
cd ~/Code/joelhooks/manageand read the brain vault docs - For joelclaw integration: this is where wizardshit infra decisions may overlap with joelclaw patterns
- Load the
gremlinskill for gremlin-repo-specific guidance