Bracketsbot Skill

Generate, validate, and submit BracketsBot NCAA tournament brackets.

This skill helps agents run the bracketsbot CLI safely and consistently.

When To Use

Use this skill when user asks to:

• generate tournament bracket picks with AI/model logic
• step through matchups and decide winners incrementally
• run a custom policy function over the bracket
• prepare (not directly sign) transaction payloads for onchain submission
• generate a shareable frontend URL so a human can review and submit a model-picked bracket (in-progress or full)

First-run onboarding (do this before filling a bracket)

When: The user has just asked to generate a bracket, fill out picks, or do something with the BracketsBot bracket—and you have not already agreed on how to proceed in this conversation.

Do not run walk-next, walk-run-policy, or semantic-run until you have done onboarding and the user has answered (or clearly chosen a path).

1. Relay this (or similar) text first:

“I can help you build a March Madness bracket for BracketsBot. We’ll pick winners for all 63 games, then you can submit it on-chain. Before I start, I need a couple of choices from you.”

2. Ask these questions (one at a time or together):

• How do you want to pick the games?

  • “Together: We chat about every game step by step. I’ll follow simple rules, learn your approach, and make suggestions as we go.
  • Instructed: You give me a single general instruction for your bracket. I’ll check each matchup on my own and pick winners based on your rules.
  • Coded: We write a complex model using team statistics. At each matchup I’ll run our code that weighs stats and other heuristics. Which do you prefer?”

• How do you think you’ll want to submit when we’re done?

  • “Browser link: I’ll give you a link; you open it and submit with your browser wallet (e.g. MetaMask) on the BracketsBot site—no extra wallet tools needed.
  • Wallet/CLI: You’ll use something like Bankr or another signer; I’ll prepare the transaction and you sign from there. No need to decide now; I’ll ask again when the bracket is complete. Any preference for now?”

3. After they answer, proceed with the workflow that matches their choice: Together → A (stepwise walk), Instructed → B (semantic-run with their rule), Coded → C (walk-run-policy with a stats module). If they didn’t choose a submission path yet, that’s fine; ask again when the bracket is complete (see below).

Key Principles

1. Canonical winner ID is seed (1..64) for all predictions/submission.
2. Two distinct tasks: (1) filling out the bracket (picks), and (2) submission (getting it on-chain). Do first-run onboarding before filling (see above). When the bracket is complete (63 picks), prompt the user for how they want to submit—don’t assume.
3. Prefer validation before submission (validate command).
4. Use stepwise commands for chat-agent loops, policy command for developer code loops.
5. For chat agents, prefer natural-language policy execution (do not write JS unless user asks).

When the bracket is complete (63 picks): ask how to submit

After generating or walking a full bracket, prompt the user for their preferred submission path:

1. Suggest the share link first: Run share-link (or share-link --predictions-file ./out/model-bracket-output.json if the bracket came from Instructed or Coded and was written to that file). Give them the shareUrl and say they can open it in a browser and submit with their browser wallet (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, etc.) on the BracketsBot site—no CLI or external wallet needed.
2. Otherwise ask: “Do you want to use a wallet skill or CLI (e.g. Bankr, prepare-submit-tx) to sign and submit from here?” If yes, run prepare-submit-tx and hand the payload to their chosen tool.

Example prompt you can use: “Your bracket is complete. How do you want to submit? I can give you a link to open in your browser and submit with your browser wallet, or we can prepare a transaction for you to sign with Bankr / another wallet tool—which do you prefer?”

Commands

Prefer direct CLI commands:

bracketsbot validate --json
bracketsbot prepare-submit-tx --json

Stepwise / instructed / share:

bracketsbot walk-next --json
bracketsbot walk-apply --winner-seed <seed> --json
bracketsbot walk-run-policy --policy-module <path> --json
bracketsbot semantic-run --policy "<policy text>" --predictions-file <file> --json
bracketsbot share-link --json

share-link: Defaults to in-progress walk state (./out/model-walk-picks.json). After walk-apply (Together), run share-link with no arguments to get a link for the current picks. For a full bracket from Instructed or Coded (e.g. written to ./out/model-bracket-output.json), run share-link --predictions-file ./out/model-bracket-output.json. The frontend shows only the picks in the link (no auto-fill).

If bracketsbot is not on PATH in local development, fallback to:

pnpm run cli <command> ...

Recommended Workflows

A) Together (stepwise chat)

User chose Together in onboarding: chat each game, learn their approach.

1. call walk-next
2. apply the user's rules / suggestions to teamA vs teamB; call walk-apply --winner-seed ...
3. repeat until done: true
4. Then ask how they want to submit (share link vs wallet tool)

Example natural-language policy prompts:

• "Pick based on mascot battle outcomes."
• "Always favor better defense unless the underdog has higher recent momentum."
• "Prioritize upset potential in round 1, then revert to strongest teams."

B) Instructed (one general rule)

User chose Instructed in onboarding: one general instruction; agent applies it to every matchup.

1. Agent reasons through all 63 matchups using the user's rule; produces 63 winner seeds.
2. Write picks to a JSON file.
3. Run semantic-run --policy "<user's instruction>" --predictions-file <file>.
4. Then ask how they want to submit (share link vs wallet tool)

C) Coded (stats/heuristic module)

User chose Coded in onboarding: we write a model using team stats; code runs at each matchup.

1. create module exporting chooseWinner (weighs stats, etc.)
2. call walk-run-policy --policy-module ...
3. call validate
4. Then ask how they want to submit (share link vs wallet tool)

D) Share link (frontend review / submission)

When the user wants to open the bracket in the frontend to review or submit:

1. In-progress (Together, stepwise walk): run share-link with no arguments. It reads the same file walk-apply writes. Give the user the shareUrl from the JSON output.
2. Full bracket (Instructed or Coded, output in a file): run share-link --predictions-file ./out/model-bracket-output.json (or the path where picks were written). Give the user the shareUrl.

The frontend shows only the picks in the URL (no auto-fill of remaining games). If the user doesn’t have wallet tools set up (e.g. no Bankr or CLI signer), the share link is the submission path: they open it in a browser and submit using their browser-based wallet (e.g. MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet) from the BracketsBot site.

Wallet Submission

Two paths; the agent should ask when the bracket is complete (see “When the bracket is complete” above):

• Browser: Run share-link, give the user the URL; they open it and submit on the BracketsBot frontend with their browser wallet. No CLI or external wallet needed.
• Wallet tools: Use prepare-submit-tx, then submit via bankr submit json (if Bankr is installed) or another EVM signer (see reference/WALLET_INTEGRATIONS.md).

Avoid requiring private-key custody in this package unless user explicitly requests local submit flow.

Important Files

• reference/WALK_STATE.md
• reference/WALLET_INTEGRATIONS.md