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SIMULATOR.md

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Battle simulator

Pokémon Showdown's simulator API is implemented as an ObjectReadWriteStream (as in STREAMS.md). You write player choices (strings) to it, and you read protocol messages (also strings) from it.

npm install pokemon-showdown

const Sim = require('pokemon-showdown');
stream = new Sim.BattleStream();

(async () => {
    for await (const output of stream) {
        console.log(output);
    }
})();

stream.write(`>start {"formatid":"gen7randombattle"}`);
stream.write(`>player p1 {"name":"Alice"}`);
stream.write(`>player p2 {"name":"Bob"}`);

The stream can also be accessed from other programming languages using standard IO.

In this case, you would clone the repository, and then run, for instance:

echo '>start {"formatid":"gen7randombattle"}
>player p1 {"name":"Alice"}
>player p2 {"name":"Bob"}
' | ./pokemon-showdown simulate-battle

For the equivalent in your language, read your language's documentation on how to interact with a subprocess's standard IO.

Doing this with standard IO requires a separate subprocess for each battle. Remember to add \n after each message you write to standard IO.

Writing to the simulator

In a standard battle, what you write to the simulator looks something like this:

>start {"formatid":"gen7ou"}
>player p1 {"name":"Alice","team":"insert packed team here"}
>player p2 {"name":"Bob","team":"insert packed team here"}
>p1 team 123456
>p2 team 123456
>p1 move 1
>p2 switch 3
>p1 move 3
>p2 move 2

(In a text [standard IO] stream, messages should end with \n; in an object stream, \n will be implicitly added after every message.)

Notice that every line starts with >. Lines not starting with > are comments, so that input logs can be mixed with output logs and/or normal text easily.

Note that the text after >p1, >p2, >p3, or >p4 can be untrusted input directly from the player, and should be treated accordingly.

Possible message types include:

>start OPTIONS

Starts a battle:

OPTIONS is a JSON object containing the following properties (optional, except formatid):

  • formatid - a string representing the format ID

  • seed - an array of four numbers representing a seed for the random number generator (defaults to a random seed)

  • p1 - PLAYEROPTIONS for player 1 (defaults to no player; player options must then be passed with >player p1)

  • p2 - PLAYEROPTIONS for player 2 (defaults to no player; player options must then be passed with >player p2)

  • p3 - PLAYEROPTIONS for player 3 (defaults to no player; player options must then be passed with >player p3)

  • p4 - PLAYEROPTIONS for player 4 (defaults to no player; player options must then be passed with >player p4)

If p1 and p2 (and p3 and p4 for 4 player battles) are specified, the battle will begin immediately. Otherwise, they must be specified with >player before the battle will begin.

See documentation of >player (below) for PLAYEROPTIONS.

>player PLAYERID PLAYEROPTIONS

Sets player information:

PLAYERID is p1, p2, p3, or p4

PLAYEROPTIONS is a JSON object containing the following properties (all optional):

  • name is a string for the player name (defaults to "Player 1" or "Player 2")

  • avatar is a string for the player avatar (defaults to "")

  • team is a team (either in JSON or a string in packed format)

team will not be validated! Use the team validator first. In random formats, team can be left out or set to null to have the team generator generate a random team for you.

>p1 CHOICE
>p2 CHOICE
>p3 CHOICE
>p4 CHOICE

Makes a choice for a player. Possible choices are documented in SIM-PROTOCOL.md.

Reading from the simulator

The simulator will send back messages. In a text (standard IO) stream, they're delimited by \n\n. In an object stream, they will just be sent as separate strings.

Messages start with a message type followed by \n. A message will never have two \n in a row, so that \n\n unambiguously separates messages.

A message looks like:

update
MESSAGES

An update which should be sent to all players and spectators.

The messages the simulator sends back are documented in SIM-PROTOCOL.md. You can also look at a replay log for examples.

One message type that only appears here is |split|PLAYERID:

|split|PLAYERID
SECRET
PUBLIC

  • PLAYERID - one of p1, p2, p3, or p4.

  • SECRET - messages for the specific player or an omniscient observer (details which may contain information about exact details of the player's set, like exact HP)

  • PUBLIC - message with public details suitable for display to opponents / teammates / spectators. Note that this may be empty.

    sideupdate PLAYERID MESSAGES

Send messages to only one player. |split will never appear here.

PLAYERID will be p1, p2, p3, or p4.

Note that choice requests (updates telling the player what choices they have for using moves or switching pokemon) are sent this way.

Choice requests are documented in "Choice requests" in SIM-PROTOCOL.md.

end
LOGDATA

Sent at the end of a battle. LOGDATA is a JSON object that has various information you might find useful but are too lazy to extract from the update messages, such as turn count and winner name.