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warrior-language.md
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The Grid Wars warrior language (GWL v1)
A Grid Wars policy is a prompt, and what that prompt has to produce is a program. This page is the complete language reference the game hands every seat in its system prompt, plus the three warriors that ship inside the image.
GWL — the warrior language
A warrior is a program. It runs from the top; wrap your behaviour in
`while true:` or it will run off the end, stop acting and die to the idle
rule. Indentation is 2 spaces per level and is significant. `#` starts a
comment. INTEGERS ONLY — there are no floats, no strings, no tables.
STATEMENTS
var NAME = EXPR declare and initialise
NAME = EXPR assign
NAME[EXPR] = EXPR assign into an array
if EXPR: / elif EXPR: / else: with an indented block
while EXPR: with break and continue
for NAME in A ..< B: also `A .. B` and `for NAME in ARRAY:`
proc NAME(p1, p2) = globals visible, parameters by value
return EXPR or bare `return`
discard EXPR evaluate and drop
move(dx, dy) place() bomb() wait() ACTIONS — each ENDS your tick
EXPRESSIONS
integers, true/false, names, [a, b, c], a[i], calls, ( ), unary - and not,
and infix * div mod + - == != < <= > >= and or
with Nim's precedence. `and`/`or` short-circuit. Booleans are a distinct
type: `if 1:` is a fault. `div`/`mod` also exist as calls: `mod(a, b)`.
BUILTINS
check(dx, dy) BOMB (-1) live bomb, CORPSE (-2) corpse, FOG (-3) outside
the 9x9 window around you, else the tile owner 1..4 or
EMPTY (0)
who(dx, dy) the id 1..4 of the LIVING warrior standing there, else 0;
FOG outside the window
x() y() your coordinates, 0..29
tiles() energy() tick()
alive(id) 1 if warrior id is alive, else 0
rand(n) 0..n-1 from your own seeded stream; n <= 0 is a fault
abs(a) min(a,b) max(a,b) len(a) xor(a,b) shl(a,b) shr(a,b)
CONSTANTS
BOMB -1, CORPSE -2, FOG -3, EMPTY 0, ID (your warrior id), gridSize 30,
MAXFUSE 5, BOMBCOST (the energy a bomb costs this episode)
ACTIONS
move(dx, dy) is ONE STEP: dx and dy are each -1, 0 or 1 and not both 0.
Any other offset is an ILLEGAL action: the tick is spent and nothing
happens. place() claims the cell you stand on. bomb() plants a bomb on
the cell you stand on; it is refused if you cannot afford it or a bomb is
already there. wait() does nothing. Executing an action SUSPENDS your
program there; next tick it resumes on the next line.
LIMITS
at most 120 lines, 100 characters a line, 4000 characters, 4000 AST
nodes, 32 procs, blocks nested 8 deep; at most 2000 VM instructions per
tick (running out is a STALL: the tick counts as wait() and you resume
where you were), call depth 64, 4096 live array elements.
FAULTS kill your warrior on the spot, with the line number reported back to
you: divide or modulo by zero, an array index out of range, an undefined
variable or proc, a wrong argument count, a type mismatch, call depth
exceeded, the allocation limit, rand(n <= 0), integer overflow. An illegal
move, a refused bomb, a blocked move and a stall are NOT faults.
Reply contract
The game asks for one JSON object and nothing else:
{"script": ["var dx = 1", "var dy = 0", "while true:", " place()", " move(dx, dy)"],
"notes": "private, fed back to you next round",
"banner": "one line the spectators see"}
script is canonically an ARRAY OF LINES — that removes the single most common JSON failure, a literal newline inside a string — but a single string with newlines is accepted, markdown fences are stripped, and trailing prose after the closing brace is ignored. script is capped at 120 lines of 100 characters and 4000 characters in total, notes at 600 characters and banner at 80, all cut on rune boundaries. A reply that does not parse or does not COMPILE is retried once with the exact compiler message (line N: message); a seat still failing plays the built-in sentry warrior for that round and results.fallbacks counts it.
The three shipped warriors
PLAYER_SCRIPTED=painter|bomber|sentry seats one of these instead of an LLM. They are also the no-credentials fallback, which is why offline certification always completes.
painter — claim ground, turn away from walls, bomb a rival that leans in
# painter - claim ground, turn away from walls, bomb a rival that leans in.
var dx = 1
var dy = 0
var t = 0
var run = 0
var last = 0 - MAXFUSE
proc wall(ax, ay) =
var c = check(ax, ay)
return c == BOMB or c == CORPSE or who(ax, ay) != 0
proc rival() =
if who(1, 0) != 0 and who(1, 0) != ID:
return 1
if who(-1, 0) != 0 and who(-1, 0) != ID:
return 1
if who(0, 1) != 0 and who(0, 1) != ID:
return 1
if who(0, -1) != 0 and who(0, -1) != ID:
return 1
if who(2, 0) != 0 and who(2, 0) != ID:
return 1
if who(-2, 0) != 0 and who(-2, 0) != ID:
return 1
if who(0, 2) != 0 and who(0, 2) != ID:
return 1
if who(0, -2) != 0 and who(0, -2) != ID:
return 1
if who(1, 1) != 0 and who(1, 1) != ID:
return 1
if who(1, -1) != 0 and who(1, -1) != ID:
return 1
if who(-1, 1) != 0 and who(-1, 1) != ID:
return 1
if who(-1, -1) != 0 and who(-1, -1) != ID:
return 1
return 0
while true:
if rival() == 1 and energy() >= BOMBCOST and tick() - last > MAXFUSE:
last = tick()
bomb()
else:
place()
if wall(dx, dy):
t = dx
dx = 0 - dy
dy = t
run = 0
else:
move(dx, dy)
run = run + 1
if run == 22:
run = 0
t = dx
dx = 0 - dy
dy = t
bomber — mine the ground you leave, fence yourself in
# bomber - mine the ground you leave, fence yourself in, paint inside the fence.
var dx = 1
var dy = 0
var t = 0
var step = 0
while true:
step = step + 1
if energy() >= BOMBCOST and mod(step, 3) == 0:
bomb()
else:
place()
if check(dx, dy) == BOMB or check(dx, dy) == CORPSE or who(dx, dy) != 0:
t = dx
dx = 0 - dy
dy = t
else:
move(dx, dy)
sentry — the always-legal fallback, and the round-1 seed script every LLM seat is shown
# sentry - the fallback warrior: walk a box and paint it.
var dx = 1
var dy = 0
var t = 0
var run = 0
while true:
place()
if check(dx, dy) == BOMB or check(dx, dy) == CORPSE or who(dx, dy) != 0:
t = dx
dx = 0 - dy
dy = t
run = 0
else:
move(dx, dy)
run = run + 1
if run == 8:
run = 0
t = dx
dx = 0 - dy
dy = t