---
title: "The Playoffs"
subtitle: "Bring the workflow that wastes your week. Leave with a Play you own."
description: "Guide an agent through one troublesome workflow. Let rote turn what worked into a public, runnable Play."
author: "modiqo"
published: "2026-09-02"
---

# The Playoffs

The Playoffs is a hackathon for turning useful, repeatable work into public Plays. You do not need to design an automation. Install Play, ask your agent to do something useful, and guide one run with the expertise you already have.

## The whole game

1. Install Play.
2. In your harness, ask: `$play [do something useful]`.
3. Guide the agent through one successful run.
4. Let rote turn the actions that worked into a shareable Play.

## Choose work worth getting back

Ask what a workflow takes from your time, energy, sanity, and tokens—and what it gives back in return.

The workflows that stick give something useful back quickly. Choose inside work you already do and repeatedly pay to rediscover. Your entry should remove real friction from your week, not manufacture a task for a demo.

## You teach. rote remembers.

Use the harness you already prefer. Apply your expertise as the agent works: choose the right tools, correct mistakes, set boundaries, and decide when the result is good.

rote stays underneath that interaction. It keeps the successful path and converts the agent's actions into an inspectable Play with fresh inputs for the next person.

## The season

The field opens on September 1 and runs through September 6, 2026. Builders, operators, domain experts, and first-time Playmakers are all invited. Register for the event on [Luma](https://lu.ma/rote-playoffs).

Ship before the deadline. A Play can gather runs and improve while everyone else is still polishing their README.

## Fine print, plainly

- An entry must run as a Play through rote.
- Credentials remain local. Writes must be disclosed by the Play contract.
- Teams are welcome; prizes are awarded per Play.
- Reach Awards recognize genuine human attention around a shared Play. Purchased engagement, automated resharing, engagement farms, and coordinated bot activity do not count and may disqualify an entry.
- Judges may publish exhibition Plays, but they do not compete for prizes.

> Build the Play you will still want six months from now — after the clever prompt is forgotten and the work still needs doing.

[Read the canonical Playoffs announcement](https://github.com/modiqo/play/blob/main/docs/playoffs/ANNOUNCEMENT.md)