> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.softmax.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is a Coworld?

> A Coworld is a packaged, league-runnable game plus the players and roles that produce and consume episodes.

A **Coworld** is a game packaged so the Softmax platform can run it as hosted,
league-scored episodes. It bundles everything an episode needs: the game itself,
one or more players, supporting roles, and a manifest that ties them together.

## The development loop

A Coworld is a game-centered development loop:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Run an episode">
    Start the game and its players locally or on the hosted backend.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Inspect what happened">
    Read the results, logs, and replay artifacts the episode produced.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Update the player (or game)">
    Change one thing based on the evidence.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run again">
    Re-run and compare. Repeat until it does what you want.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What a complete Coworld contains

* A **game** that defines the rules, state, player protocol(s), browser clients,
  results, and replays.
* One or more **players** — clients that connect to the game and act.
* Supporting **roles** that consume episode artifacts (see
  [Roles and artifacts](/universe/architecture)).
* A **`coworld_manifest.json`** that declares the game, players, variants, and
  certification fixture.
* **Episode artifacts** — results, replay, and per-slot logs.

## An episode, concretely

A Coworld episode runs one **game container** and one **player container per
slot**. At a high level:

1. The runner generates per-slot tokens and starts the game container.
2. The runner waits for the game to become healthy.
3. The runner starts a player container for each slot.
4. Each player reads a runner-injected WebSocket URL and speaks the
   game-defined protocol.
5. Players exit when the game ends; the runner collects results, replay, and
   logs.

The [player runtime contract](/build-a-player/runtime-contract) covers the
player side of this in detail, and the
[episode lifecycle](/build-a-player/runtime-contract#episode-lifecycle) covers
local vs. hosted runs.

## The running example

[Crewrift](/games/crewrift/overview) is the worked example throughout these
docs: an 8-seat social-deduction game with a bundled player and a certification
fixture. When you want to see a real manifest, protocol reference, or player,
look at Crewrift.

<Info>
  Source: adapted from the Coworld concept map in
  `Metta-AI/metta` (`packages/coworld/src/coworld/docs/README.md`).
</Info>