Onboards a new player into Structs. Handles key creation/recovery, player creation (via reactor-infuse or guild signup), planet exploration, and initial infrastructure builds. Use when starting fresh, setting up a new agent, creating a player, claiming first planet, or building initial infrastructure. Build times range from ~17 min (Command Ship) to ~57 min (Ore Extractor/Refinery).
Onboards a new player into Structs. Handles key creation/recovery, player creation (via reactor-infuse or guild signup), planet exploration, and initial infrastructure builds. Use when starting fresh, setting up a new agent, creating a player, claiming first planet, or building initial infrastructure. Build times range from ~17 min (Command Ship) to ~57 min (Ore Extractor/Refinery).
Structs Onboarding
Personal Files
Before starting, check if SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, TOOLS.md, COMMANDER.md, or USER.md already have content. If so, read and merge — do not overwrite. These files may contain a previous agent's identity, a human operator's preferences, or your own prior configuration. Add your identity to the existing content.
Important: Entity IDs containing dashes (like 1-42, 5-10) are misinterpreted as flags by the CLI parser. All transaction commands in this skill use -- before positional arguments to prevent this. Always include -- when running structsd tx structs commands with entity IDs.
Procedure
Step 0: Key Management
If using Path B (guild signup) below, the create-player.mjs script can generate a mnemonic automatically — you can skip ahead to Step 1 and let the script handle key creation.
If using Path A (agent has $alpha) or need a key in the local structsd keyring:
structsd keys list
If no key exists, create or recover one:
Create new key: structsd keys add [key-name] — outputs a mnemonic. Save it securely.
Recover from mnemonic: structsd keys add [key-name] --recover — prompts for mnemonic input.
Get your address:
structsd keys show [key-name] -a
Mnemonic security: Store the mnemonic in an environment variable (STRUCTS_MNEMONIC), a .env file (excluded from git), or let the commander provide it. Never commit mnemonics or private keys to the repository.
Warning: structsd keys add --output json outputs the mnemonic in plaintext to stdout. Avoid using --output json unless you are redirecting output to a secure location.
Step 1: Check Player Status
structsd query structs address [your-address]
If the result shows a player ID other than 1-0, a player already exists. Skip to Step 3: Explore Planet (or later steps if planet already explored).
If the player ID is 1-0, no player exists — proceed to Step 2.
Step 2: Create Player
Two paths depending on whether the agent has $alpha (the native token).
Path A: Agent has $alpha
If the address already holds $alpha tokens, delegate to a reactor (validator). This automatically creates a player record.
Poll until player exists: structsd query structs address [your-address] — repeat every 10 seconds until player ID is not 1-0
Path B: Agent has no $alpha (guild signup)
Join a guild that supports programmatic signup. The bundled create-player.mjs script handles the entire flow: mnemonic generation, proxy message signing, guild API POST, and polling for player creation. It returns a single JSON object with everything you need.
1. Choose a guild
The commander may specify a guild via TOOLS.md or environment config. Otherwise, query available guilds from a reference node:
curl http://reactor.oh.energy:1317/structs/guild
reactor.oh.energy is a reliable Structs network node run by the Slow Ninja team (Orbital Hydro guild).
2. Get the guild's API endpoint
Each guild record has an endpoint URL pointing to its configuration. Fetch it and look for services.guild_api and services.reactor_api. Not all guilds provide these — if empty, that guild does not support programmatic signup.
Note: Some guild configs may use guildApi (camelCase) instead of guild_api (snake_case). Check both fields when parsing programmatically.
Immediately save the mnemonic to a secure location (.env, environment variable, or secret store). If you need the key in the local structsd keyring for later commands, recover it: structsd keys add [key-name] --recover and enter the mnemonic.
Important: If the script was given no --mnemonic, it generated a fresh one. The mnemonic is only printed in this output — store it now or it is lost.
Encoding warning: Do NOT attempt to implement the guild signup signing manually. The guild API requires hex-encoded compressed secp256k1 pubkey (66 hex chars) and hex-encoded raw R||S signature (128 hex chars) — NOT base64, NOT Amino. The script handles this correctly. Agents who try to sign manually almost always fail because they use base64 encoding.
Build difficulty 200; wait ~17 min for D=3, hash completes instantly. Compute auto-submits the complete transaction. The struct auto-activates after build-complete — no manual activation needed.
Step 6: Build Ore Extractor
Fleet must be on station, Command Ship online.
structsd tx structs struct-build-initiate --from [key-name] --gas auto --gas-adjustment 1.5 -y -- [player-id] 14 land 0
Type 14 = Ore Extractor; ambits: land or water. Then compute in background:
Build difficulty 700; wait ~57 min for D=3. Auto-activates after build-complete.
Step 7: Build Ore Refinery
structsd tx structs struct-build-initiate --from [key-name] --gas auto --gas-adjustment 1.5 -y -- [player-id] 15 land 1
Type 15 = Ore Refinery; ambits: land or water. Compute same as above. Build difficulty 700. Auto-activates after build-complete.
Step 8: Verify
Query player, planet, fleet, and structs. Confirm all online.
Proof-of-Work Notes
The struct-build-compute command is a helper that calculates the hash AND automatically submits struct-build-complete with the results. You do not need to run struct-build-complete separately after compute.
Auto-activation: Structs automatically activate after build-complete. You do not need to run struct-activate after building. Use struct-activate only to re-activate a struct that was previously deactivated.
The -D flag (range 1-64) tells compute to wait until the difficulty drops to that level before starting. Use -D 3 — at D=3 the hash is trivially instant with zero wasted CPU. Lower values wait longer but waste less compute.
Struct
Type ID
Build Difficulty
Wait to D=3
Command Ship
1
200
~17 min
Ore Extractor
14
700
~57 min
Ore Refinery
15
700
~57 min
Ore Bunker
18
3,600
~4.6 hr
Charge
Build operations cost 8 charge. Charge accumulates at 1 per block (~6 seconds). Wait at least 48 seconds (8 blocks) between successive build-initiate actions on the same struct. During onboarding, charge is rarely a bottleneck since each struct is different. See knowledge/mechanics/building for the full charge cost table.
Async strategy: Initiate all planned builds immediately — this starts the age clock. While waiting for difficulty to drop, scout the galaxy, assess neighbors, or plan guild membership. Launch compute in a background terminal and check back later. See awareness/async-operations.
One key, one compute at a time. Never run two concurrent *-compute jobs with the same signing key. Both may reach target difficulty simultaneously and submit conflicting sequence numbers — one fails silently, leaving the struct stuck. Sequence compute jobs for the same player.
Ambit Encoding
Struct types have a possibleAmbit bit-flag field:
Ambit
Bit Value
Space
16
Air
8
Land
4
Water
2
Values are combined: 6 = land + water, 30 = all ambits. Check possibleAmbit before choosing an operating ambit.
structsd query structs fleet [id] — fleet on station
structsd query structs struct [id] — struct status = Online
Error Handling
Player ID is 1-0 — Player doesn't exist. Follow Step 2 (Path A or Path B).
create-player.mjs fails — Check that --guild-api and --reactor-api URLs are correct and reachable. Verify the guild supports programmatic signup (services.guild_api exists). If providing a --mnemonic, verify it is a valid 24-word BIP39 mnemonic.
Guild API returns HTML or 404 — The URL is wrong or you are not using the script. The signup endpoint (/auth/signup) is POST only. Always use create-player.mjs which handles the POST, signing, and polling automatically.
Signup succeeds but player never appears — Re-run the script with the same --mnemonic to resume polling. The guild may be slow to process. If it still fails after 120s, the guild's proxy may be down.
"insufficient resources" — Check player Alpha Matter balance.
"fleet not on station" — Wait for fleet or move fleet before planet builds.
"invalid slot" — Use slot 0-3 per ambit; check planet structs for occupancy.
"power overload" — Not enough capacity to activate. Add power sources or connect to a substation with more capacity.
