Play

You and one opponent build the same brief on the same clock, each with your own AI tool. The published rubric picks the winner.

Create a player profile Read the rules

Ways to play

Any time

Quick Battle

Join the queue and we pair you with a player near your rating for a 30 to 45 minute battle. The result counts toward your rating.

On the schedule

Events

Battle Night is the live show, with invited players and Glitch hosting. Sponsored tournaments and challenges use a company's real problem as the brief.

What you need

01
A GitHub account
You sign in with it, and your battle repos stay in your account.
02
An AI coding tool
Claude Code, Codex or any AI tool that runs in a terminal, on your own plan.
03
A laptop and a steady connection
A recent Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

How a battle works

Before
Open your workspace
A fresh cloud workspace with an editor, a terminal and a preview URL.
Before
Sign in to your AI tool
You sign in inside the workspace, off stream. Build Wars never sees or stores that login.
On the clock
Build
The brief (the task you build) opens for both players at once. At the buzzer both workspaces freeze, and what's in them is scored, committed or not.
After
Scoring
Hidden checks (automated tests players can't see) and a panel of three AI judges score both builds. Then your workspace is deleted.

Divisions

Open to everyone

Open

Quick Battles and Open challenges. Your rating is provisional for your first 10 ranked battles.

By invitation

Pro

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

Common questions

Does it cost anything?: No. Playing is free. You pay for your own AI tool plan, as you do now.
Can I use Cursor or another AI app?: Battles run in a cloud workspace with a terminal and a browser editor. Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI come installed, and you sign in with your own plan. Desktop apps like Cursor don't run inside it. Challenges are different: build wherever you like.
What if nobody is searching?: A search runs for 10 minutes. If nobody turns up, nothing counts against you. Practice is open any time: a past brief, on your own, unrated.
Who owns what I build?: You do. A sponsored event that asks for rights lists them before you enter.
Can I see the hidden checks?: After the battle. Your results page lists every check and why it passed or failed.
What if my workspace fails mid-battle?: In a Quick Battle, the battle is called off. Nothing counts, nobody gets a strike, and you can search again. On a Battle Night, staff pause both players, restore your workspace from the last commit, then restart both clocks together.
What if I think my score is wrong?: Appeal from your results page within 24 hours. A person on staff reviews it.

Create a player profile

Sign in with GitHub, pick your AI tool and check it works in a test workspace. It takes about five minutes. Then you can find an opponent.

Create a player profile Find an opponent