NPC

Runs an autonomous AI task agent as a game character. Resolves a character name to its UUID, then launches the npc-run script which connects to the game server and executes the given task using a Pipecat + Gemini LLM pipeline.

Parameters

• character_name (required): The character's display name (e.g. JOETRADER). Passed as the argument to /npc.
• task (required): A natural language description of what the character should do (e.g. "Explore and find 5 new sectors").

If character_name is not provided as an argument, ask the user for it. Always ask the user for the task description.

Steps

1. Source environment variables

set -a && source .env.supabase && set +a

2. Resolve the character UUID

Look up the character by name using Supabase REST:

curl -s "${SUPABASE_URL}/rest/v1/characters?name=eq.<character_name>&select=character_id,name" \
  -H "apikey: ${SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY}"

This returns a JSON array. Extract the character_id from the first result. If no results are returned, report that the character was not found and stop.

3. Run the NPC task agent

Run the npc-run script with the resolved character ID and the task. Redirect all output to a log file (do NOT use tee):

uv run npc-run <character_id> "<task>" > logs/npc-<character_name>.log 2>&1 &
NPC_PID=$!
echo "NPC agent started with PID $NPC_PID, logging to logs/npc-<character_name>.log"

Run the process in the background so it doesn't block the conversation.

4. Report to the user

Show the user:

• Character name and resolved UUID
• The task being executed
• The PID and log file path
• How to check progress: tail -f logs/npc-<character_name>.log
• How to stop the agent: kill <PID>

Important notes

• Environment variables GOOGLE_API_KEY and SUPABASE_URL must be set (they come from .env.supabase).
• Edge functions must be running: npx supabase functions serve --workdir deployment --no-verify-jwt --env-file .env.supabase
• The NPC agent runs autonomously and calls finished() when the task is complete.
• All output MUST go to a log file. Do NOT use tee. Use tail, head, or grep to inspect the log.
• The character must already exist in the game and have joined (has a ship, is in a sector).
• For corporation ship control, the user can provide a --ship-id flag manually if needed.