pokemon-showdown/sim

Simulator

Pokémon Showdown's simulator API is implemented as a ReadWriteStream. You write player choices to it, and you read protocol messages from it.

const Sim = require('Pokemon-Showdown/sim');
stream = new Sim.BattleStream();

(async () => {
    let output;
    while ((output = await stream.read())) {
        console.log(output);
    }
})();

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

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

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

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 data stream, messages should be delimited by \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 or >p2 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)

If p1 and p2 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 either p1 or p2

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)

>p1 CHOICE
>p2 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 data 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 always delimits a They look 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. This splits the next four lines into spectator, p1, p2, and omniscient messages. The p1 and p2 logs will have exact HP values only for the corresponding player, while the spectator log will not have exact HP values for either player, and the omniscient logs will have exact HP values for both.

sideupdate
PLAYERID
MESSAGES

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

PLAYERID will be either p1 or p2.

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.