ZABAL Games Context Skill

Source-of-truth context bundle for any vibe-coding agent helping someone build a ZABAL Games submission. Load this on session start; your agent will stop hallucinating about ZAO terminology + ship things that fit the actual ecosystem.

Maintained by: Zaal Panthaki (BetterCallZaal, FID 19640). Lives at .claude/skills/zabal-games-context/SKILL.md in the public ZAOOS repo. Mirror copy distributable for non-Claude-Code agents (see "Loading into other agents" below).

Last-validated: 2026-05-25. Re-validate every 2 weeks during the June/July/August event.

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Loading instructions (start here)

Claude Code

Already loaded if you cloned ZAOOS and the agent sees .claude/skills/. Confirm with /skill and look for zabal-games-context. Otherwise:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/zabal-games-context
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bettercallzaal/ZAOOS/main/.claude/skills/zabal-games-context/SKILL.md \
  > ~/.claude/skills/zabal-games-context/SKILL.md

Cursor / Windsurf / Cline / Continue / OpenCode

Paste the FULL contents of this file at the top of your project's .cursorrules / .windsurfrules / agent system prompt. The agent reads it as preamble.

ChatGPT / generic chat

Paste this file as the first message in a new conversation. Tell the agent: "Use this as your operating context for anything I ask about ZABAL Games, ZAO, or WaveWarZ."

One-line summary if you only have 50 tokens to spare

ZABAL Games is The ZAO's Farcaster-creator onboarding event. Build something real for the ZAO ecosystem (governance, music, agents, on-chain creator tools) using ZAO's actual stack (Next.js 15, Supabase, Farcaster Mini Apps, Base, Empire Builder V3). Live URL + open-source repo + 60s demo + cast on Farcaster /zabal channel = the bar.

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Part 1 - What ZABAL Games is

ZABAL Games is not a generic hackathon. It is a Farcaster-creator onboarding event for The ZAO - a structured way to bring hungry, Farcaster-active vibe-coders into ZAO by having them build something real, in public, with a ZAO mentor in their corner.

• Host: Zaal Panthaki / BetterCallZaal (Farcaster FID 19640)
• Framing: Season 1 of a recurring format (earlier names "v0" / "Claude Code Hackathon" are deprecated)
• Public landing: bettercallzaal.com/zabalgames.html
• Farcaster channel: /zabal
• Source-of-truth doc: ZAOOS research/events/701-zabal-games-canonical-state/

Thesis

The builds matter, but the people matter more. Bring talented builders in, give them deep ZAO context (this skill), let them ship something useful for the community with a ZAO mentor as embedded teammate, and have them earn governance during the event itself.

Stay after = great. Leave = they still walk away with a real artifact, a real relationship, and a real on-chain credential.

What success looks like

A cohort of new builders who understand ZAO from the inside, a stack of real artifacts shipped for the ecosystem, and a repeatable format that compounds the builder network each Season.

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Part 2 - The calendar (June / July / August)

Three months at month granularity. Exact dates lock once cohort + mentor availability are known.

Month	Phase	What runs
June	Prep	Recorded Far-Hack-style sessions. ZAO teachers cover governance, Respect, ZOLs, fractals. Vibe-coding instructors cover Claude Code, Cursor, MCP, agent harnesses. Tool walkthroughs: Empire Builder V3 (Jordan/yerbearzerker, confirmed June 1 6am EST), zlank.online, POIDH bounties, Juke. Watchable live or after. THIS SKILL ships at the start of June.
July	Open build-a-thon	Anyone with the chops ships a build aligned to ZABAL / ZAO / WaveWarZ. The build IS the application. Bar: live URL + open-source repo + 60s demo + cast on /zabal. Every July submission that hits the bar earns Respect in ZAO governance - regardless of Finals selection. Mentors watch rolling.
August	Finals	Mentor-champion pairs lock. Same Finals prompt for all. 24h build (mentor embedded as teammate) + 24h promote + 24h ZAO governance vote + live reveal stream. Finalists who want a token Ascend their Empire via Clanker with an airdrop.

August Finals 72h timeline

T-3 days  Onboarding call: rules, infra, wallet linkage, voting walkthrough
T+0       Prompt drops to all finalists simultaneously. Voter snapshot taken.
T+0..24h  BUILD WINDOW. Mentor embedded as teammate. Build in public.
T+24h     Ship deadline: live URL + open-source repo + 60s demo + ship cast
T+24..48h PROMOTE WINDOW. ZAO accounts amplify all builds.
T+48..72h ZAO GOVERNANCE VOTE. Respect-earning members, 1-person-1-vote.
T+72h     Live results-reveal stream. USDC + collectibles distributed.

Prize pool

$500 USDC tiered for the August Finals. Tiers (assuming 8 finalists): 1st $150 / 2nd $100 / 3rd $75 / 4th-8th $35 each. Every finalist paid.

Plus every finisher (July builds that hit the bar + every August finalist) gets a Hats Protocol role NFT on Base as participation collectible.

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Part 3 - Build prompt (what to build)

Two paths to pick from. NO fixed Option A-E tracks. Just:

Path A: Adopt a started/in-progress ZAO project

A curated list of in-flight ZAO projects looking for builders. You pick one, take ownership during the Games, ship it. Examples of project surfaces alive today:

• ZAOOS (github.com/bettercallzaal/ZAOOS) - main monorepo, 301 API routes, gated Farcaster client
• WaveWarZ Base (the EVM agentic build, intro 2026-05-19, Arthur from Neynar helping with smart contracts)
• ZAO Fractal (Eden-Fractal-style governance, Discord bot, 100+ events shipped, on-chain Respect on Base via Vlad's Respect Game codebase as candidate refactor target)
• ZAOcoworking tracker (the Supabase Kanban at thezao.xyz, 5 users, cross-source writers)
• ZABAL Bonfire (knowledge-graph layer, bonfires.ai)
• Apna Coding integration (Shriyash Soni's Ethereum stake-to-list opportunity board, ZABAL Games July submission rail)
• Singularity ZAO mission (Vlad's Solana fundraising launchpad, Vlad funds Solana gas to spin up a ZAO mission)

Path B: Build from scratch

Pitch a thing aligned to ZABAL/ZAO/WaveWarZ. The narrower the wedge the better. Examples:

• A Farcaster Mini App or Snap that uses ZAO Respect / Empire Builder leaderboards
• A music-tool that plays nice with WaveWarZ X Spaces battles (Mon-Fri 11am + 8:30pm EST, Sun 7pm EST big battles - 11 shows/week)
• An agent that uses the cowork tracker REST as its task surface
• A Bonfire knowledge-graph integration that surfaces ZAO context to a different agent
• A clean-room reimplementation of an existing tool (Empire Builder, Apna Coding) for a different chain

Empire Builder V3 is OPTIONAL not gating. Doc 701 Decision #6: a July build without an Empire still counts if it has live URL + repo + demo + cast. Use Empire when it earns its slot in your build.

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Part 4 - The stack (what ZAO actually uses)

When in doubt, match the production stack:

Layer	Pick	Why
Web framework	Next.js 15 + React 19 (App Router)	ZAOOS canonical. Skip Remix / SvelteKit unless you have a strong reason.
Styling	Tailwind v4	Project rule: no inline styles, no CSS modules
DB	Supabase (Postgres + Auth + Storage + RLS)	ZAOOS + ZAOcoworking both live here. Bind via anon-key + RLS scoping for any tool context that reads untrusted input (per doc 730 Decision #1, HN 848-pt security disclosure).
Identity	Farcaster (Neynar SDK for hub queries) + Privy or NextAuth wallet for non-FC	ZAO is Farcaster-native; FID is the cross-system identifier
Chain	Base for EVM / Solana for funding rails	WaveWarZ Base, Respect Game on Base, ZAO Music releases on Base; Singularity on Solana
Music	Sonata (MIT) is the canonical player reference	Per doc project_music_research
Cross-post	Custom relay (Farcaster + X + Bluesky)	NOT a third-party (Lens API has rate limit + cost issues per doc 706)
Agent harness	Hermes pattern (orchestrator + coder + critic)	github.com/bettercallzaal/hermes-orchestrator (MIT, v0.5.0 in flight). Reference architecture for any agentic submission.
Knowledge graph	Bonfires (Genesis tier, wallet-gated)	bonfires.ai - shared graph for cross-agent context

Anti-stack (don't waste cycles on these for ZABAL Games):

Don't use	Use instead
Redux / Zustand	React hooks + react-query
CSS modules / inline styles	Tailwind v4
Plain fetch in tests	Vitest vi.mock() + vi.hoisted()
MSW for API mocks	Same as above
Cypress	Playwright (already in ZAOOS deps)
JSON file as DB	Supabase from day 1
Custom auth tables	Iron-session + Farcaster SIWF

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Part 5 - Brand voice + glossary

These spellings are non-negotiable. Auto-correcting them will be perceived as not paying attention.

Correct	Wrong	Notes
The ZAO	Zao, ZAO standalone, the Zao	"The ZAO" when used as the entity
ZABAL Games	Zabal games, ZabalGames, ZBL Games	All caps ZABAL, capital G in Games
WaveWarZ	Wave Wars, Wavewarz, WaveWars	Always WaveWarZ
BetterCallZaal	Bettercallzaal, Better Call Zaal	One word, camelCase
Farcaster	Warpcast	Always Farcaster (Warpcast is just a client)
Restream	restream, ReStream	Stream-to-multiple-platforms at restream.io. ZABAL Games workshops default streaming surface.
Cal.com	Calcom, cal.com (in proper-noun position)	Open-source Calendly alt. ZABAL Games slot booker at cal.com/bettercallzaal/zabal-games-workshop-slot.
Lu.ma	Luma, lu.ma	Event platform. Recently moved lu.ma -> luma.com. ZAO calendar at luma.com/zao.
Hurric4n3ike	Hurricane Ike, Hurric4nelke	Founder + lead dev of WaveWarZ. Digits 4 + 3 in name.
candytoybox / Samantha	candytoy / SamanthaCTB	Cofounder of WaveWarZ with Zaal. her/she.
Joseph Goats	Jose Goats, Jose	Rebranded from Jose to Joseph Goats
ZOLs	Zols, ZOL	ZAO contribution credits (governance token-adjacent unit)
FISHBOWLZ	Fishbowlz, FishBowlz	All caps
ZOE	Zoe, zoe	All caps. ZAO ecosystem concierge bot (@zaoclaw_bot on Telegram).
ZABAL	Zabal, zabal	All caps. Umbrella brand (BetterCallZaal's solo projects, pre-incubation).

Voice / tone

• Plain hyphens, NOT em dashes. Em dashes signal "AI wrote this" in 2026 - the ZAO audience clocks it.
• No emojis. Use plain text labels like [MUSIC], OVERDUE, DONE if you need visual markers.
• Build-in-public is a value. Document every step. The ZAO audience rewards transparency.
• "Farcaster" not "Warpcast" every time. Warpcast is just a client.
• Mobile-first. Most ZAO members read on phone. Desktop is enhancement.
• Direct, not hyped. "We shipped X" beats "We're thrilled to announce X." No "game-changing" / "revolutionary" / "unprecedented."

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Part 6 - ZAO governance primer (so you understand what voters care about)

Just enough to not be wrong:

• The ZAO is a decentralized impact network, NOT a music community (canonical pitch since 2026-04-28).
• 4 pillars: Artist Org / Autonomous Org / Operating System / Open Source.
• Respect = the merit unit. Earned via Fractal (Mondays 6pm EST, Discord-bot-driven, 100+ events shipped). Non-tradable, soul-bound (plus a planned liquid layer per Vlad's EOS-era pattern, doc 738).
• ZOLs = contribution credits. Different from Respect. Used for ZAO contribution accounting.
• Voting eligibility: Respect-earning members. 1-person-1-vote, NOT token-weighted. This is the philosophy - mention it in your submission if voting / governance is part of your build.
• Vlad's thesis (doc 738): "Token-weighted voting centralizes power; fractal contribution-based voting is the right long-term answer." ZAO Fractal is Eden Fractal lineage. Treat fractal governance as the answer, not as something to argue about.

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Part 7 - Bar for a good submission

A submission ships when ALL four are true:

1. Live URL - deployed, click-and-it-works
2. Open-source repo - public on GitHub, MIT or Apache 2 license
3. 60s demo - clip or live walk-through showing the actual feature working (not a slide deck)
4. Cast on /zabal Farcaster channel - with the URL + repo + demo

Stretch (not required, raises mentor attention):

• Tokenless Empire on Empire Builder V3 as the build's public home page
• Bonfire episodes documenting key decisions (so the build feeds the ZABAL graph)
• A second-tier deployment on a non-canonical chain (proves portability)
• Cross-source-writer integration with the cowork tracker via ~/bin/zao-tracker shape (legacy_source prefix per the contract at github.com/ZAODEVZ/ZAOcowork)

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Part 8 - Resources

Resource	URL
ZAOOS monorepo (the lab)	https://github.com/bettercallzaal/ZAOOS
ZABAL Games landing	https://bettercallzaal.com/zabalgames.html
Cowork tracker (live Kanban)	https://www.thezao.xyz
Cowork tracker repo	https://github.com/ZAODEVZ/ZAOcowork
ZAO Nexus directory	https://bettercallzaal.com/nexus.html
Hermes orchestrator (agent harness reference)	https://github.com/bettercallzaal/hermes-orchestrator
ZAO Fractal	Mondays 6pm ET on discord.thezao.com
WaveWarZ X Spaces	M-F 11am + 8:30pm ET, Sun 7pm ET big battles
Empire Builder V3 (Jordan's tool)	(workshop June 1 6am EST, link TBD)
zlank.online (ZAO snap builder)	https://zlank.online
POIDH bounties	https://poidh.xyz
Bonfires knowledge graph	https://bonfires.ai
Apna Coding (Shriyash's opportunity board, July submission rail)	https://apnacoding.com
Singularity (Vlad's funding rail)	https://www.singularity.diy
Respect Game (Vlad's Base implementation)	https://www.respectgame.app
ZAO Calendar	https://luma.com/zao

Key research docs (in ZAOOS research/)

Doc	Topic
701	ZABAL Games canonical state - the source-of-truth event doc
654	ZABAL Games + Empire Builder V3 (Jordan meeting, June/July/August pivot)
630	ZABAL Games Season 1 spec (long-form decisions log)
712 / 713	ZAO CRM design + meeting-tracker-Bonfire integration
728	Serena MCP integration
730	Claude Code best practices + MCP stack (read before any agent work)
734	Hermes orchestrator framework
735	Apple Containerization sandbox for autonomous agents
736	Shriyash Soni intro (Apna Coding)
737	Airtable agentic CRM v3
738	Vlad / Singularity / Respect Game intro
739	Claude Code efficiency + native MCPs

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Part 9 - Mentors (open recruitment - signups via the recruitment form)

The named 8-mentor roster from Doc 630 is REMOVED. Mentors are now openly recruited via the public form. Confirmed signups as of 2026-05-25:

Mentor	Role / company	Confirmed slot
Jordan Oram (yerbearzerker)	Empire Builder	June 1 6am EST (recorded session)
Arthur (Neynar)	EVM smart-contract dev	Virtual presence; WaveWarZ Base contracts review
kmac.eth	Farcaster Snaps + JFS	June workshop slot TBD
Shriyash Soni	Apna Coding (India)	June 30-min slot on Apna Coding + agentic workflows
CannonJones	ZAO Cards lead	2 June workshops (COC + CapCut/video editing)
Vlad (singularity.diy)	Singularity + Respect Game	Optional - depends on Singularity-ZABAL Games integration spec

Mentors are NOT pre-paired to participants. Mentors watch July submissions rolling and claim champions for August Finals (first-come-first-served per mentor).

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Part 10 - What this skill does NOT do

Out of scope so the agent doesn't try:

• Choose your idea for you. This skill gives context; the build is yours. If you're stuck, run /office-hours or /plan-ceo-review separately.
• Write your submission for you. Use this for context; let the build voice be yours.
• Replace the ZABAL Games landing page or PROMPT_CONTEXT.md. Those serve different surfaces (public discovery + structured prompt for the Finals deliverable). This skill is for vibe-coding sessions specifically.
• Bypass any of the bars in Part 7. Live URL + repo + demo + cast is the floor. No exceptions.

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Update cadence

This skill auto-stales after 14 days during the June/July/August event window (June 1 - August 31). After August Finals, validate every 30 days for Season 2 prep.

Source-of-truth for any disputed claim: ZAOOS research/events/701-zabal-games-canonical-state/README.md. Where this skill conflicts with doc 701, doc 701 wins (it is the live decision log; this skill is the distributable companion).

Submit corrections via PR to bettercallzaal/ZAOOS against .claude/skills/zabal-games-context/SKILL.md.