npc

The StarRaid NPC subsystem (Go). See ../docs/npc.md.

Two binaries:

• cmd/npc — the reference bot: a headless client that connects over the same wire protocol as a human, logs in, claims a role, pulls a contract, and acts. Players are encouraged to fork it to automate their own account.
• cmd/dispatcher — the dispatcher: registers with the game server, reports spare capacity, and spawns bot processes on request (fire-and-forget), then leaves them to talk to the server directly.

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26+
• A local checkout of the protocol repo (its generated Go bindings are committed, so no protoc is needed just to build)

Getting started

just install                                # wire the workspace to protocol + fetch deps
just run -server localhost:60000 -user dev -secret s3cr3t   # connect + handshake + login
just run-dispatcher                         # run the dispatcher instead

just install writes a local go.work that points at the protocol repo. By default it looks for a sibling checkout (../protocol); if yours lives elsewhere, set the path:

just protocol_path=/path/to/protocol install
# or persistently:
export STARRAID_PROTOCOL_PATH=/path/to/protocol

go.work is gitignored — it is per-developer local config, never committed. Run just to list every recipe (build, run, run-dispatcher, test, fmt, vet, clean).

The server controls a bot's lifetime by the connection — close it and the process exits.