Fantasy Code RPG

A 90s-RPG harness for AI agent teams. Agents earn autonomy by proving they're reliable.

The game is Fantasy Code RPG; its command is fcrpg.

╔═ PARTY ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Aria       Lv 7 T1 Fighter      REL 0.74 claude-code         ║
║   EXP ████░░░░░░░░ 545/1660                                  ║
║   may: read, write                                           ║
║ Bram       Lv 6 T0 Novice       REL 0.39 codex               ║
║   may: read                                                  ║
║ Cass       Lv 4 T1 Cleric       REL 0.81 anthropic-api       ║
║                                                              ║
║ 💰 Treasury: 97.97 G                                         ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

You recruit AI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, any API model) into a party. Tasks are enemies. Acceptance criteria are their HP. Every agent starts as a Novice that can only read and suggest. Win battles reliably and you're promoted: first you may write files, then run tests, then open PRs, then lead a party yourself. Get sloppy and you're cursed back down a tier.

Under the 16-bit paint, Fantasy Code RPG is a progressive-trust permission system: autonomy is earned from a measured track record, and the harness, not the prompt, enforces it.

Try it in 10 seconds

npx fantasy-code-rpg demo     # Node ≥ 22.18, zero runtime dependencies

Or install the fcrpg command:

npm install -g fantasy-code-rpg
fcrpg demo

The demo runs 40 simulated battles. One fighter is reliable, one is sloppy, and a cleric judges them. Watch who gets promoted.

See it in your browser

fcrpg play --demo             # a practice guild with simulated heroes; open the link it prints

Walk around Guild Town, ask the Clerk for a quest, plan it in the War Room, send the party out, and keep or undo the result at the Treasure Vault. English and Japanese.

Play for real

cd your-project
fcrpg init
fcrpg recruit Aria --adapter claude-code --job fighter --mp 200 --refill 5
fcrpg recruit Cass --adapter anthropic-api --job cleric --billing api
fcrpg fund 5                                  # 5 G = $5 of API budget
fcrpg lore "We use pnpm. Never edit /legacy."

fcrpg request "Login crashes when the email field is empty"   # the Clerk writes the quest
fcrpg import github --label bug  # or bring in open GitHub issues as quests
fcrpg plan q1                 # War Room: read-only scouting report and plan (automatic in Story mode)
fcrpg battle q1

# Or write a quest by hand:
fcrpg spawn bug-42 --name "Login crashes on empty email" --kind goblin --level 3 \
  --criteria "fix: empty email shows a validation error" \
  --criteria "test: a regression test covers it" \
  --check "test=pnpm test -- login" --guard "pnpm test"

fcrpg suggest bug-42          # the recommended party, with reasons
fcrpg battle bug-42           # no --party: the Council picks the lead; swap anyone with --party
fcrpg keep <battle-id>        # Treasure Vault: bring the changes into your project
fcrpg undo <battle-id>        # …or throw them away (counts as a loss for the party)
fcrpg council                 # how each Council seat has decided, and how often it was right
fcrpg asks                    # heroes paused, asking your permission (or answer in the browser)
fcrpg seer <hero>             # seat a cheap, fast hero as the Council's Seer

Every battle runs in its own copy of your project (a git worktree), with a save point after each hero's turn. Nothing touches your folder until you choose Keep.

Controls

The browser game plays with the keyboard, like an old console RPG. The mouse works too.

| Key | What it does | |---|---| | Arrow keys ↑ ↓ ← → | Move the ▶ cursor in a menu, skipping greyed-out items. In Guild Town, jump to the nearest building in that direction. On the Quest Board, ← → change quest | | Tab / Shift+Tab | Guild Town only: next / previous building | | Enter or Z | Pick the menu item, enter the building, or open the quest | | Esc or X | Go back to Guild Town. From town, go back to the title screen. Does nothing on the title screen | | B | Go to battle, from any screen (the title screen too) | | V | Battle screen only: open the Treasure Vault | | S | Open the party screen (everyone's level, EXP, trust and what the next rank needs) from anywhere but the title screen | | P | Take a snapshot of the screen, from anywhere. Ignored while Ctrl, ⌘ or Alt is held, so Ctrl+P still prints |

While you type in a text box or drop-down, no shortcuts run and Esc just leaves the field. While a confirm box is open, only the arrows and Enter/Z work, but P still takes a snapshot.

The world in one table

| Game | Reality | |---|---| | Character | An agent: one model behind one CLI or API | | Job class | Role: ⚔️ Fighter (build) · 🔮 Mage (design) · ✚ Cleric (review/test) · 🗡️ Thief (debug) · 🎵 Bard (docs) | | Tier T0→T4 | Permissions: read → write → run commands → network/PRs → merge/recruit | | Enemy / HP | A task / its acceptance criteria | | XP | Work done, weighted by correctness, quality, cost and speed | | REL | Wilson lower bound of success rate. Drives promotion. Luck can't fake it | | Gold / MP | API dollars / subscription CLI quota that refills at the Inn | | The Chronicle | Shared context every CLI and API character reads and writes | | Save point | A commit after every hero's turn, in the battle's own copy of the project | | Quest type | Build · Fix · Improve · Explore · Maintain · Write: sets the party, budget and what counts as proof | | The Council | How every decision is made: rules → win records → a cheap fast model → a vote across AI companies → you |

Design plan: docs/DESIGN_PLAN.md · Decisions: docs/DECISIONS.md · Full rules: docs/WORLD.md · How it is built: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md · Lessons from other projects: docs/CROSS_REFERENCE.md · The 90s feel: docs/EXPERIENCE.md · UX plan: docs/UX_PLAN.md

Three rules that make this more than a skin

1. No self-grading. A character never judges its own battle. Tests, CI, another character, or a human do.
2. Permissions are enforced by adapters, through each CLI's own sandbox and tool-allowlist flags. A prompt saying "please don't" isn't a permission system.
3. Trust is per job. A great Fighter isn't automatically a trustworthy Cleric.

Status

v0.2, alpha. Playable core (rules, Chronicle, battle loop, judge, Gatekeeper, 7 adapters, terminal UI) plus the Guild Counter (the Clerk writes quests), the War Room (scout and plan), play styles, quest types, the Council's first two seats, fair cross-company judging, recommended parties, and battles in private copies with save points, Keep and Undo; one Gatekeeper enforced across Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI, a "no proof, no victory" stop hook, GitHub Issues import, and the launch scenes in the browser (fcrpg play). Wait mode (heroes may ask for one rank above their own, verified on a real Claude Code install); the Seer, lessons and house rules in the Chronicle, and suggestions that learn from your picks. Pincer (two approaches, the better one wins) and Siege (a quest split into parts fought at once, then joined) formations; the Council flags risky quests and watches for stuck battles. Hero cards you can share and recruit from. 84 tests. CLI flag mappings for Claude Code / Codex / Gemini CLI are marked VERIFY and need community testing.

Join the guild

This is built in the open and needs heroes.

• First pull request? Pick a 🟢 good first issue; each one says where to look and when it's done. CONTRIBUTING.md explains how to claim it.
• Where it's going: the milestones, from Act II (safe to play for real) to 1.0, The Airship. Every quest, sized 🟢 Slime to 🐲 Dragon, is in ROADMAP.md.
• Questions, ideas, your hero cards: Discussions. Post screenshots and cards with #fcrpg.
• Wanted most: Codex and Gemini CLI testers, artists for heroes, monsters and card art, and game designers to balance the numbers.

Hero cards

Every hero has a card: level, rank, trust, wins by kind of quest, the skills they learned and links to the real commits behind them, around a big artwork window. Share it as a picture, and anyone can recruit that hero into their own project from the same picture, as a veteran who must still earn full trust there. Set your own art for your hero, or contribute backgrounds and frames for everyone (art guide).

Design a hero or a monster

Every task in the game is a monster, and the best ones come from folklore whose legend matches a real coding problem: a Hydra is a bug that keeps coming back. Heroes, races, outfits and monsters are all open for design. Read the art guide, then open a 🧝 Hero design or 👾 Enemy design issue. Sketches and words are enough.

Status and safety

This is an alpha. Claude Code support has been tested on a real install (2.1.309). Codex and Gemini CLI support follows their documented hook systems but hasn't been tested on real installs yet; until it is, keep those heroes at low ranks. Heroes work in private git copies of your project, and nothing reaches your folder until you choose Keep, but start in a project you can afford to break. See SECURITY.md.

Credits

• Pixel font: DotGothic16 by the DotGothic16 Project Authors, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (bundled in src/web/fonts/ with its licence).
• Every sprite, portrait and backdrop is original, drawn by the code in assets/generators/.
• The game nods to the 16-bit RPGs that inspired it; it isn't affiliated with or endorsed by their makers.

Licence

MIT. See LICENSE.