For players

Build against one opponent with your own AI tool

You and one opponent get the same brief and the same clock. You build in a fresh cloud workspace with the AI tool you already use, and the rubric picks the winner.

Create a player profile Rules

Kit check

What you need

01
A GitHub account
Your profile and your battle repos live there. You keep them.
02
Your own AI tool
Claude Code, Codex or another AI tool that runs in a terminal. You pay for your own plan and sign in to it yourself.
03
A laptop that stays online
A recent Chrome, Firefox or Safari. A mic is optional.

Bring your own AI tool

How your AI login works

Every battle gets a new workspace in the cloud. You sign in to your AI tool inside it, the same way you would on your own machine.

Setup
Open the workspace
An editor, a terminal and a preview URL, made for this battle only.
Before reveal
Sign in to your AI tool
In the workspace terminal, off stream. Build Wars never sees, proxies or stores that login.
00:00 to 45:00
Build on the clock
Commit to main. The server freezes the workspace at the buzzer.
After scoring
Workspace deleted
Login folders are wiped at the buzzer. The whole workspace goes after scoring.

Divisions

Open and Pro

Open division

Anyone with a profile

Play Quick Battles and enter Open challenges. Your rating stays provisional until you've played ten ranked battles.

Pro division

By invitation at launch

Bigger prizes and sponsor briefs. We invite from the Open leaderboard and from Battle Night results.

What you can enter

01
Quick Battle
Matched by rating. Ranked once the Open division opens.
1v1 / 30 to 45 min
02
Battle Night
The live show. Hosted by Glitch on buildwars.ai and YouTube.
4 battles / One evening
03
Sponsored Tournament
A bracket of 1v1 battles on a sponsor's briefs.
16 or 32 players / One or two nights
04
Sponsored Challenge
Build on your own time. The top 8 rebuild it live in the final.
Everyone vs the brief / 24 to 72 hours

Before you enter

Questions players ask

Does it cost anything?: No. Playing is free. You keep paying for your own AI tool, as you do now.
Who owns what I build?: You do. Sponsored events list any extra rights before you enter, and you can say no.
Can I see the hidden checks?: Not during the battle. Afterwards your results page lists every check, what it did and why it passed or failed.
What if my workspace dies mid-battle?: Staff pause both players while we bring it back from the last commit. The server clock resumes for both at once.
What if I think the score is wrong?: Appeal within 24 hours from your results page. A person on staff reviews it and writes down the decision.

Make your profile before the next Battle Night

Development battles only at launch. Design and Marketing come later.

Create a player profile See the schedule