# Game of Cards

> Agile for the age of agents — turn work into durable, inspectable cards that humans and LLMs can collaborate on.

Game of Cards (GoC) is a repo-local methodology runtime built for swarms, not standups. Work lives in cards under `.game-of-cards/deck/`; agents pull, work, and close them autonomously; humans steer by curating the queue and resolving decision gates.

## Install (Claude Code)

The GoC plugin delivers all skills and hooks without requiring any checked-in files in the consuming repo. Install once per machine (run these slash commands inside Claude Code):

```
/plugin marketplace add zauberzeug/game-of-cards
/plugin install game-of-cards@game-of-cards
```

**Updating after a new release — run this first:**

```
/plugin marketplace update zauberzeug/game-of-cards
/plugin install game-of-cards@game-of-cards
```

Claude Code's `/plugin install` reuses a local marketplace clone and does not refresh it automatically. Skipping the `marketplace update` step installs from stale bytes even after an explicit reinstall. If `/plugin marketplace update` is not available, the equivalent round-trip is:

```
/plugin marketplace remove zauberzeug/game-of-cards
/plugin marketplace add zauberzeug/game-of-cards
/plugin install game-of-cards@game-of-cards
```

Once the plugin is installed, kick off any repo with:

```
/kickoff
```

or tell your agent: "use game of cards for this repo".

## Install (OpenClaw)

The GoC [OpenClaw](https://openclaw.ai) plugin bundles the goc engine inside its npm payload — the only host prerequisite is `python3` (3.10+). `goc` is exposed as a **registered OpenClaw tool** (not a shell-PATH binary), so the agent invokes it like any typed function.

Once the plugin is published, install via ClawHub:

```sh
openclaw skills install game-of-cards
```

The same artifact is published to npm as `game-of-cards`; consumers that prefer npm can add it via OpenClaw's plugin loading mechanism (see <https://docs.openclaw.ai/plugins>).

Until publish lands (tracked under `publish-openclaw-plugin`), build from source against this repo's plugin payload at <https://github.com/zauberzeug/game-of-cards/tree/main/openclaw-plugin>.

## Install (other agent runtimes / CI)

Install the `goc` CLI once per machine:

```bash
pipx install game-of-cards
# or: uv tool install game-of-cards
```

Initialize a repo (run from the project root):

```bash
goc install
```

This creates `.game-of-cards/deck/`, `.game-of-cards/config.yaml`, and merges GoC guidance into `AGENTS.md` / `CLAUDE.md`.

Full CLI reference: https://game-of-cards.com/goc/

## Key concepts

- **Cards** — markdown dirs under `.game-of-cards/deck/<title>/README.md` with YAML frontmatter (status, contribution, human_gate, definition_of_done).
- **Human gate** — `none` lets agents work autonomously; `decision` or `session` parks the card until a human resolves it.
- **Skills** — small markdown protocols the agent follows for each verb (`create-card`, `pull-card`, `finish-card`, …).
- **Andon cord** — when an agent hits a decision-class question it cannot resolve locally, it raises the gate and parks, rather than guessing.

## Daily commands

```bash
goc                        # open queue sorted by leverage
goc --board                # kanban board by status
goc new rename-the-button  # scaffold a new card
goc status <title> active  # claim a card
goc done <title>           # close after all DoD boxes are ticked
goc validate               # check frontmatter
```

## More

- CLI reference and install recipe: https://game-of-cards.com/goc/
- About the methodology: https://game-of-cards.com/about/
- GitHub: https://github.com/zauberzeug/game-of-cards
