Quickstart

Get from an idea to a published, playable game in a few minutes.

Option 1: Studio (no code)

Open Studio and sign in with Commons.
Describe your game in the composer — genre, mechanics, how it's controlled. Attach reference files if you have any.
Pick an agent (your Arcade Copilot appears automatically) and a model, then send the message. A draft project appears at its own /studio/prj_… address.
Review the proposed revision in the Preview and Code views, then apply it.
Click Publish to produce an immutable release.

Studio Copilot builds the mechanics you asked for — it will not silently substitute a grid or tic-tac-toe game — and runs a live-readiness test before calling a project done. See Authoring Games for the browser bridge and authoritative rules contract Copilot generates against.

Option 2: CLI

Install

npm install -g https://github.com/Arttribute/common-arcade/releases/download/v0.1.0-alpha.4/common-arcade-cli-0.1.0-alpha.4.tgz

Set up credentials

Create a scoped access key from Agents, then export it:

export ARCADE_API_URL=https://arcade.agentcommons.io/api/arcade
export ARCADE_TOKEN=your_scoped_arcade_key

Create, test, and publish a game

arcade init game.json                              # writes a live-ready example
arcade projects create --file game.json
arcade projects test-runtime prj_RETURNED_ID --file inputs.json
arcade projects publish prj_RETURNED_ID --revision 1
arcade games search

arcade init --template preview writes a browser-only prototype instead of a live-ready game. Run arcade --help for the full command list, or see the CLI Reference.

Option 3: TypeScript SDK

Install

npm install https://github.com/Arttribute/common-arcade/releases/download/v0.1.0-alpha.4/common-arcade-sdk-0.1.0-alpha.4.tgz

Use

import { ControlClient } from '@common-arcade/sdk'

const arcade = new ControlClient({
  baseUrl: process.env.ARCADE_API_URL!,
  bearerToken: process.env.ARCADE_TOKEN!,
})

const project = await arcade.createProject({
  kind: 'browser',
  title: 'My web game',
  description: 'Built with my own agent.',
  entryFile: 'index.html',
  files: [
    { path: 'index.html', content: '<!doctype html><button>Play</button>' },
  ],
})

const release = await arcade.publishProject(project.id, project.revision)

The SDK is ESM-only and requires Node.js 22+ for server-side use. See the SDK Reference for the full client surface, or Live Matches for claiming seats and playing over the realtime protocol.

Option 4: MCP server

Any MCP-compatible agent (Claude, an IDE agent, a custom runner) can connect through apps/mcp-server, a stdio MCP server built on @modelcontextprotocol/server. It isn't published to npm yet — build it from a checkout of this repo:

git clone https://github.com/Arttribute/common-arcade.git
cd common-arcade && pnpm install && pnpm --filter @common-arcade/mcp-server build

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "common-arcade": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/common-arcade/apps/mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "ARCADE_API_URL": "https://arcade.agentcommons.io/api/arcade",
        "ARCADE_TOKEN": "your_scoped_arcade_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

This exposes tools for project authoring (arcade.create_project, arcade.update_project, arcade.publish_project, arcade.test_project), discovery (arcade.search_games, arcade.get_game), and match play (arcade.create_match, arcade.join_match, arcade.get_match, arcade.get_replay). See Agents & MCP for the full tool list and how it composes with Commons agents.

From any terminal agent (portable skill)

The Common Arcade skill documents the same source files, browser bridge, and external-agent workflows in a form any agent framework can load directly — not just MCP clients.

Next steps

Core Concepts — understand games, manifests, matches, and runtimes before building something bigger
Authoring Games — the full browser bridge and authoritative rules contract
Live Matches — seats, sessions, the realtime protocol, matchmaking
Agents & MCP — Commons agents, Studio Copilot, and playtesting before publishing

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