BLOG / FIELD GUIDEPLAYOFFS · SEPTEMBER 1—6, 2026

THE FIRST ROTE PLAYOFFS

Publish Plays for
the work you repeat.

Ship as many public Plays as you can by turning repetitive tasks into methods anyone can inspect and run.

Start with recurring work that drains your time, or reclaim a hosted workflow you pay to invoke every time it runs. Rote preserves the method so you can inspect, repair, and run it again from any harness.

START WITH SETUP ↓

Finish setup, then publish a public Community Play as your submission.

BEFORE YOU ARRIVE · COMPLETE STEPS 01—06

From curl to Playmaker.

Install now. Finish the six-step warm-up, then post “warmed up” in Discord.

CURRENTLY TESTED + VERIFIED✓ macOS✓ Linux✓ Windows via WSL
curl -fsSL https://getrote.dev/playoffs/install.sh | sh
THE FULL SIX-STEP CHECKLIST STARTS DIRECTLY BELOW.
Rote Playoffs Hackathon poster with registration details and five thousand dollars in prizes.REGISTER FOR THE HACKATHON↗
PRE-EVENT WARM-UP · 6 STEPS

Finish all six steps before the hackathon.

Arrive ready to build. Each step removes setup risk before the clock starts.

  1. 01

    Confirm the field kit.

    Run the installer above once. When it finishes, confirm all three checks below.

    PLAY INSTALLEDAvailable in your harnessHARNESS DETECTEDAgent app foundREADY TO SIGN INAccount check comes next
    STUCK? ASK IN DISCORD
  2. 02

    Choose your harness.

    Open a fresh conversation and ask what is new. The run command changes by app; the Play does not.

    CODEX / CURSOR$play what's newCLAUDE / HERMES / OPENCODE/play what's newKIMI/skill:play what's new
  3. 03

    Claim your jersey.

    Play checks for a Rote account. If it finds none, Play pauses cleanly and guides Google or GitHub sign-in. Claim a memorable handle—it becomes your public author namespace when you publish.

  4. 04

    Read the scoreboard.

    What’s new shows the live public Plays you can use, grouped by organization. Pick any Play that looks useful, then inspect its card before anything runs.

    $play what's new
    BROWSE PLAYS →
    STUCK? ASK IN DISCORD
  5. 05

    Take two warm-up laps.

    Run Hello first: public data, no account credentials, no declared writes. Then choose another useful Play so you feel the difference between asking from scratch and running a proven method.

    $play run hello
    STUCK? ASK IN DISCORD
  6. 06

    Finish one practice Play.

    Choose repeated work that costs real time. Guide the run, correct the agent, and define what “done” means. When Play asks where the method should live, choose Team, Community, or Skip.

    $play [do something useful]

    Before the hackathon, confirm that the Play runs. Then post “warmed up” in Discord so the hosts know you are ready.

    READY BEFORE THE HACKATHON. ★
    YOUR READY SIGNALwarmed up
UNLOCKABLES · OPTIONAL

Find the Easter eggs. Earn brownie points.

A working Play comes first. These bonus laps show the exploration behind it and make a useful Play return on schedule.

SECRET 01 · DIRECTOR’S CUT+ BROWNIE POINTS

Catch your agent in the act.

Start the viewer, open Journeys in the top-left, and choose the workspace marked Live · updating. Record the exploration while you steer it.

play journey view --active
SECRET 02 · CLOCKWORK+ BROWNIE POINTS

Make a useful Play come back.

Check the clock, then schedule an exact version of a pulled or newly created Play. The example runs Hello daily for six days.

play recurring probe
play recurring schedule --reference modiqo/[email protected] --cadence daily --why "Start with a fresh stack check" --for 6d
MAKE YOUR SUBMISSION · 3 PARTS

How to make your submission

Complete the warm-up, create one useful Play, then publish it to Community before the deadline.

“Warmed up” confirms your setup only. It is not a submission. Each public Play you publish from September 1 through September 6 counts as a separate submission.

START CREATION IN YOUR HARNESS$play [do something useful]

Ask naturally. Do not design an automation or write a workflow first.

  1. 01Warm up before the event.

    Finish the six-step checklist above and post “warmed up” in Discord. This proves your install, sign-in, and first Play run work.

  2. 02Create a Play.

    Choose real work you already repeat. Guide one successful run, correct the agent, set boundaries, and define “done.” Rote turns the successful actions into an inspectable Play and verifies the rerun.

  3. 03Submit it publicly.

    Choose Community when Play asks where the method should live. The submission is complete when the public Play URI opens and runs through Rote. Publish another eligible Play to make another submission.

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.

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, and the Play contract must disclose writes.
  • Teams are welcome, and judges award prizes per Play.
  • Reach Awards recognize genuine human attention; 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