Start Game

Start Game - Coordinated Multi-Agent Architecture

This skill spawns ALL agents (gamemaster + players) upfront and they coordinate via file-based protocol.

Architecture Overview

Coordinator (this skill)
├─> Spawns Gamemaster (background, long-running)
├─> Spawns Player-1 (background, long-running)
├─> Spawns Player-2 (background, long-running)
└─> Spawns Player-3 (background, long-running)

All agents run in parallel, coordinate via files + hooks:
- Gamemaster writes turn-signal.json → Stop hook guides to wait
- Players use inotifywait (blocking) for turn-signal.json
- Players write player-actions/*.json → Stop hook guides to wait
- Gamemaster uses inotifywait (blocking) for player actions
- Zero polling overhead - all coordination via event-driven hooks

Arguments

• $0 or $ARGUMENTS[0]: Game name (e.g., "markovs-chains")
• $1 or $ARGUMENTS[1]: Number of players (optional, defaults to game config)

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Load Game Configuration

Read the game rules and extract configuration:

const gameName = "$0"; // e.g., "markovs-chains"
const numPlayersOverride = "$1" ? parseInt("$1") : null;

// Read game rules
const rulesPath = "games/" + gameName + "/RULES.md";
const rulesContent = await Read(rulesPath);

// Parse YAML frontmatter for config
// Extract: name, version, players, starting_cards, max_turns, win_condition

Step 2: Clean Up Previous Game State

CRITICAL: Remove any existing game state files:

rm -f games/${gameName}/state/game-state.json
rm -f games/${gameName}/state/turn-signal.json
rm -f games/${gameName}/state/player-actions/*.json

Step 3: Create Game Directories

mkdir -p games/${gameName}/state/player-actions
mkdir -p games/${gameName}/logs
mkdir -p games/${gameName}/traces

Step 4: Load and Fill Agent Templates

Load templates from engine/templates/:

• gamemaster-hook-orchestrated.md for gamemaster (uses stop hooks)
• player-hook-orchestrated.md for players (uses stop hooks)

Fill template variables: {{GAME_NAME}}, {{NUM_PLAYERS}}, {{RULES_CONTENT}}, etc.

IMPORTANT: These templates work with stop hooks in .claude/hooks/ to orchestrate coordination without polling.

Step 5: Spawn ALL Agents in Parallel

CRITICAL: Spawn all agents in a SINGLE message with multiple Task calls.

// 1. Spawn gamemaster (Sonnet for reasoning)
await Task({
  subagent_type: "general-purpose",
  model: "sonnet",
  description: "Gamemaster for " + gameName,
  prompt: gamemasterPrompt,
  run_in_background: true
});

// 2-4. Spawn players (Haiku for speed)
for (let i = 1; i <= numPlayers; i++) {
  await Task({
    subagent_type: "general-purpose",
    model: "haiku",
    description: "player-" + i + " for " + gameName,
    prompt: playerPrompts[i-1],
    run_in_background: true
  });
}

Step 6: Monitor Game Completion

Poll games/${gameName}/state/game-state.json every 5 seconds until gameStatus === "completed".

Step 7: Report Final Results

Display winner, total turns, and point to log files.

Reference Files

For detailed templates and schemas, see:

• engine/templates/gamemaster-hook-orchestrated.md - Hook-based gamemaster
• engine/templates/player-hook-orchestrated.md - Hook-based player
• engine/HOOKS-INTEGRATION-GUIDE.md - Complete hook orchestration guide
• engine/ARCHITECTURE-V2.md - Blocking waits architecture
• .claude/hooks/agent-stop-hook.sh - Player stop hook
• .claude/hooks/gamemaster-stop-hook.sh - Gamemaster stop hook