8x Skills

Portable agent skills for building, publishing, and remixing games on Paean Apps Square (*.clide.app / 8x.gg) — usable from Zero CLI, Claude Code, and Codex (or any agent that can read a SKILL.md and run a Node script).

Skill	What it does
paean-skills-update	Pull or sync this 8x-skills repo and reinstall/refresh the Paean skill files for Zero CLI, Claude Code, or Codex projects.
paean-zero-setup	Install Zero CLI and sign in to Paean so publish/remix scripts can read local credentials from Zero or a Paean token file.
paean-game-create	Create or substantially upgrade a commercially polished, mobile-first Paean web game. Defines the production standard for art, gameplay, attract-mode previews, responsive UI, pure-JS architecture, compact assets, and Playwright release validation.
paean-sdk	Design and integrate cloud save, ranking, paid access/IAP, rewarded ads/IAA, multiplayer rooms, AI, shared data, and sharing. One entry routes to focused capability design guides; includes an integration module and offline mock host.
paean-publish	Deploy a static frontend (top-level index.html) to *.clide.app either as hosting-only (--hosting-only, no Apps Square row) or as a public Square listing. Supports custom handles, scans for secrets, and blocks accidental static-only upload of detected Worker/D1/R2 projects.
paean-convert-to-ad	Convert a finished work into an HTML5 playable-ad bundle (Google Ads MEDIA_BUNDLE): find the seam that opens straight into core play, tune a showcase run, auto-play then hand over control, exit to the store, and self-check that the bundle is fully offline.
paean-convert-to-rednote	Convert a finished work into a RedNote (Xiaohongshu) mini-tool: a fully offline zip on a Chrome 61 baseline. Ships the build pipeline (module bundling, CSS lowering, a Chrome 61 API shim, licence inlining, forbidden-capability self-check) and the two artifact audits. Requires esbuild.
paean-record-demo	Record a 20–30 s arcade attract demo reel from a finished work: drives the game into a real session through its own seam, draws an optional title card, timed captions and a CTA end card over it, and exports MP4/WebM/GIF plus a poster frame. Playwright required; ffmpeg optional.
paean-remix	Remix one or more published games into a new one. Clones the primary source (full assets) into the user's workspace, reads secondary sources through the 8x.gg MCP server, and scaffolds a project with a multi-parent remix graph (e.g. h1 gameplay + h2 art + h3 theme) so every upstream creator is credited exactly once.

For capability design, say paean iap, paean iaa, paean net, paean rank, or paean ai, or combine them (for example, “use paean rank with an optional paean iaa revive”). These are natural-language intents routed by paean-sdk, not CLI commands or separately installed skills. Create and Remix select the same guides during their production brief. Shared SDK contracts remain in one place; detailed design and acceptance live in paean-sdk/reference/design-*.md and are loaded only when relevant.

The publish/remix skills ship as self-contained Node scripts — no npm install, no external dependencies beyond the Node runtime. Archives are packed and unpacked in-process, so the scripts run the same on macOS, Linux and Windows. The paean-game-create skill ships a game-production standard plus a static/Playwright validator. The paean-sdk skill ships browser reference files (no server, no build) you copy into your app. paean-record-demo needs Playwright for the capture and uses ffmpeg when it is on PATH; paean-convert-to-rednote needs esbuild.

Every original work and remix should adapt to both portrait and landscape instead of requiring players to rotate their device. Recompose the playfield and UI for the available screen, preserve state when orientation changes, and verify actual play in both orientations before release. Keep UI concise and compact so the playfield stays clear, with readable text and comfortable touch targets on small screens and layouts that adapt across resolutions. Default to bright, approachable casual colors and tactile surfaces unless the theme or explicit art direction calls for another style.

8x-skills/
├── zero/
│   ├── paean-skills-update/ SKILL.md
│   ├── paean-zero-setup/ SKILL.md
│   ├── paean-game-create/ SKILL.md + references/production-standard.md + scripts/validate-game.mjs
│   ├── paean-sdk/       SKILL.md + reference/{paean-platform,mock-bridge}.js + test-example.mjs
│   ├── paean-publish/   SKILL.md + scripts/{publish,zip}.mjs
│   ├── paean-remix/     SKILL.md + scripts/{remix,zip}.mjs
│   ├── paean-convert-to-ad/      SKILL.md + scripts/{build-ad,zip}.mjs + reference/ad-*.{js,css}
│   └── paean-convert-to-rednote/ SKILL.md + scripts/{build-minitool,minitool-pipeline,audit-minitool,zip}.mjs + reference/platform-local.js
├── claude-code/
│   ├── paean-skills-update/ SKILL.md
│   ├── paean-zero-setup/ SKILL.md
│   ├── paean-game-create/ SKILL.md + references/production-standard.md + scripts/validate-game.mjs
│   ├── paean-sdk/       SKILL.md + reference/{paean-platform,mock-bridge}.js + test-example.mjs
│   ├── paean-publish/   SKILL.md + scripts/{publish,zip}.mjs
│   ├── paean-remix/     SKILL.md + scripts/{remix,zip}.mjs
│   ├── paean-convert-to-ad/      SKILL.md + scripts/{build-ad,zip}.mjs + reference/ad-*.{js,css}
│   └── paean-convert-to-rednote/ SKILL.md + scripts/{build-minitool,minitool-pipeline,audit-minitool,zip}.mjs + reference/platform-local.js
└── codex/
    ├── paean-skills-update/ SKILL.md
    ├── paean-zero-setup/ SKILL.md
    ├── paean-game-create/ SKILL.md + references/production-standard.md + scripts/validate-game.mjs
    ├── paean-sdk/       SKILL.md + reference/{paean-platform,mock-bridge}.js + test-example.mjs
    ├── paean-publish/   SKILL.md + scripts/{publish,zip}.mjs
    ├── paean-remix/     SKILL.md + scripts/{remix,zip}.mjs
    ├── paean-convert-to-ad/      SKILL.md + scripts/{build-ad,zip}.mjs + reference/ad-*.{js,css}
    └── paean-convert-to-rednote/ SKILL.md + scripts/{build-minitool,minitool-pipeline,audit-minitool,zip}.mjs + reference/platform-local.js

All three variants ship the same scripts and reference files; only the SKILL.md packaging differs. The zero/ and claude-code/ variants use YAML frontmatter (name: + description:) for auto-loading — Zero CLI discovers skills from .zero/skills/ / ~/.zero/skills/, Claude Code from .claude/skills/ / ~/.claude/skills/. Codex has no skill loader and references the files explicitly.

claude-code/ is canonical: edit there, then run node scripts/sync-variants.mjs to regenerate codex/ and zero/ (--check fails when they drift). Tests: node --test tests/*.test.mjs.

Square apps ship three assets at the top level: favicon.svg, an 800×400 banner.jpg and a 512×512 icon.jpg. Paid apps (Steam-style: watch the demo free, buy once to play) are declared with paean-publish --price <credits> and gated in the app with PaeanSDK.access.require(); see paean-sdk and its offline mock host reference/paean-mock.js.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+ (for global fetch).
• A Paean JWT (the token the Paean web app / Zero CLI uses).

Nothing else: the scripts use only the Node standard library, and macOS, Linux and Windows are all supported. The zip / unzip commands are no longer needed — archives are built and read in-process by each skill's scripts/zip.mjs.

Credentials

Install Zero CLI and log in to Paean (recommended):

npm install -g @paean-ai/zero-cli
zero provider clear
zero login
zero auth status --json

The publish/remix scripts read the Paean credentials saved by Zero in ~/.zero/credentials.json. If browser login is not possible, set your Paean JWT via the environment, or a credentials file:

export PAEAN_AUTH_TOKEN="<your-paean-jwt>"
# or: ~/.paean/credentials.json  →  {"token":"<your-paean-jwt>"}

On Windows (PowerShell), $env:PAEAN_AUTH_TOKEN = "<your-paean-jwt>" sets it for the current session; ~ in the credentials paths above means the user profile directory ($env:USERPROFILE).

The scripts also read ~/.zero/credentials.json if present. Never paste the token into the chat — keep it in the environment or the credentials file. Optional: PAEAN_API_BASE overrides the API endpoint (default https://api.paean.ai). ZERO_API_BASE / ZERO_CLI_BASE_URL are only honored when they point at a *.paean.ai host — in particular ZERO_CLI_BASE_URL is often set to the LLM gateway (an Anthropic-compatible provider URL), which is not a Paean API address and is ignored.

Install

Zero CLI

Zero discovers skills from a skills/ directory — project .zero/skills/ or global ~/.zero/skills/. Copy each Zero skill directory in:

mkdir -p ~/.zero/skills
cp -r 8x-skills/zero/paean-publish ~/.zero/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/zero/paean-remix   ~/.zero/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/zero/paean-zero-setup ~/.zero/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/zero/paean-game-create ~/.zero/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/zero/paean-sdk ~/.zero/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/zero/paean-skills-update ~/.zero/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/zero/paean-convert-to-ad ~/.zero/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/zero/paean-convert-to-rednote ~/.zero/skills/

On Windows (PowerShell):

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.zero\skills" | Out-Null
Get-ChildItem 8x-skills\zero -Directory | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item $_.FullName "$HOME\.zero\skills\$($_.Name)" -Recurse -Force }

Zero auto-offers a skill when a request matches its description; you can also invoke it explicitly ("use the paean-publish skill").

Claude Code

Copy a skill directory into your skills folder (project .claude/skills/ or global ~/.claude/skills/):

cp -r 8x-skills/claude-code/paean-publish ~/.claude/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/claude-code/paean-remix   ~/.claude/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/claude-code/paean-zero-setup ~/.claude/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/claude-code/paean-game-create ~/.claude/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/claude-code/paean-sdk ~/.claude/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/claude-code/paean-skills-update ~/.claude/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/claude-code/paean-convert-to-ad ~/.claude/skills/
cp -r 8x-skills/claude-code/paean-convert-to-rednote ~/.claude/skills/

On Windows (PowerShell):

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.claude\skills" | Out-Null
Get-ChildItem 8x-skills\claude-code -Directory | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item $_.FullName "$HOME\.claude\skills\$($_.Name)" -Recurse -Force }

Claude Code auto-discovers the SKILL.md and offers the skill when relevant. You can also invoke it explicitly ("use the paean-publish skill").

Codex

Codex has no frontmatter skill loader, so reference the skill explicitly. Either keep this repo in your project and add a pointer to your AGENTS.md:

## Skills
- To update Paean skills, follow `8x-skills/codex/paean-skills-update/SKILL.md`.
- To install Zero CLI or log in to Paean for publishing, follow `8x-skills/codex/paean-zero-setup/SKILL.md`.
- To create or substantially polish a Paean game, follow `8x-skills/codex/paean-game-create/SKILL.md`.
- To add cloud save or a global leaderboard, follow `8x-skills/codex/paean-sdk/SKILL.md`.
- To host on Clide or publish to Paean Apps Square, follow `8x-skills/codex/paean-publish/SKILL.md`.
- To remix Paean Apps Square games, follow `8x-skills/codex/paean-remix/SKILL.md`.
- To turn a finished work into a playable ad, follow `8x-skills/codex/paean-convert-to-ad/SKILL.md`.
- To port a finished work to a RedNote mini-tool, follow `8x-skills/codex/paean-convert-to-rednote/SKILL.md`.

…or point Codex at the file directly in your prompt.

Usage

From the project you want to publish:

# Preview, then publish to Apps Square under a good name
node <skill-dir>/scripts/publish.mjs --dry-run
node <skill-dir>/scripts/publish.mjs --yes --title "Neon Drift Racer" --category racing

# Preview, then deploy to Clide hosting without an Apps Square listing
node <skill-dir>/scripts/publish.mjs --dry-run --hosting-only --dir dist --handle neon-drift
node <skill-dir>/scripts/publish.mjs --yes --hosting-only --dir dist --handle neon-drift

Before publishing a newly created or remixed game, validate its self-contained project and browser runtime (Playwright must be installed in the working environment):

node <paean-game-create-skill-dir>/scripts/validate-game.mjs <game-dir> \
  --screenshots <temporary-screenshot-dir>

To remix existing games into a new one:

# h1 is the primary: cloned server-side (full assets) into the user's workspace.
# h2/h3 are read through the 8x.gg MCP server (text sources, no workspace).
# Then build the new game and publish it — every parent is credited exactly once.
node <skill-dir>/scripts/remix.mjs --yes h1=gameplay h2=art h3=theme --dir my-remix

The 8x.gg MCP server

https://api.paean.ai/8x/mcp is the discovery/study half of remixing: find_app / search_apps resolve any 8x.gg or clide.app URL, title or description to an app; get_app / get_remix_lineage / get_app_growth say whether it is worth remixing; list_app_files / read_app_file let the agent read source without cloning anything. The scripts are the delivery half (full assets, local scaffold, publish). paean-zero-setup registers the server per host (zero mcp add / claude mcp add / codex mcp add) using the same Paean token; inside the Paean Mac app it is registered automatically as 8xgg.

Run any script with --help for full usage. See each skill's SKILL.md for the complete workflow the agent should follow.

The remix graph (clide.json)

paean-remix writes a clide.json manifest that records lineage in two compatible shapes at once:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "title": "Neon Drift Racer",
  "category": "racing",
  "tags": ["neon", "racing"],
  "license": "MIT",
  "remix": {
    "parent": "h1",                                  // tree form: primary upstream
    "parents": [                                     // graph form: the remix DAG
      { "hashKey": "h1", "role": "gameplay", "weight": 1 },
      { "hashKey": "h2", "role": "art",      "weight": 1 },
      { "hashKey": "h3", "role": "theme",    "weight": 1 }
    ]
  }
}

remix.parent keeps tree-only consumers (and the backend remixOfHashKey primary-parent field) working, while remix.parents[] is the adjacency list of the multi-parent remix DAG — each direct upstream with the aspect it contributed and a suggested revenue weight. paean-publish forwards the direct parent hashKeys as remixOfHashKeys, so zero-api records SquareRemixEdge rows for the full graph.

Safety

• Both modes create a publicly reachable site. The scripts require explicit confirmation (or --yes); hosting-only never creates a workspace or Apps Square listing.
• Wrangler/Worker/D1/R2 projects are reported as runtime-incompatible and blocked before upload unless the user explicitly accepts a frontend-only deployment with --allow-static-only.
• Published games should include the standard paean.ai copyright comment in index.html and carry a project LICENSE; remixes should also record direct parents in clide.json.
• Games should ship a top-level favicon.svg and an 800x400 banner.jpg. The publish script warns when either is missing or the banner size is wrong, but does not block publishing.
• Credentials are read from the environment / a credentials file only — never hard-coded, and never written into the published output.
• A high-confidence secret scanner blocks publishing files that look like private keys or API tokens.
• Raw downloaded upstream sources (.remix-sources/) and the clide.json manifest are excluded from the published site by default.
• paean-publish --delete is mode-aware: Square projects are unlisted before their Clide files are removed, while hosting-only projects delete only their site. It can resolve a missing Square hash from the saved/explicit handle and refuses cleanup when the Square identity cannot be established safely.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.