What it does
The AI Event Builder sets up an event from a description in your own words: the code, dates, clubs and lawns, competitions, format and scoring, players, the block and knockout schedules, and the event page. It uses the same settings and buttons as the planner, so everything it does can be seen and changed by hand afterwards in the usual sections.
It is a separate feature from the AI Helper, which explains how to do things. The builder does them.
Starting a new event with AI
On + New event, choose 🛠️ Build it with AI. A short form asks the basics first: the code, the event name, the start and end dates, and singles, doubles or both. Start building → hands them to the AI, which then asks for the club and lawns and creates the event.
When it creates the event, the planner opens on the Players tab with the builder docked beside it, and the same conversation carries on. Players are added there as usual: picked from the player database, added as new players or imported from a list. With no field yet, the builder can add test players so the format and schedule can be tried out; they are removed before publishing. The builder works from the players entered, then asks how you want the event played. ← Set up step by step instead goes back to the usual questions.
Questions it asks
Before it builds anything, the builder asks about whatever the description leaves open and changes the event: the format and block sizes, block game length, how many go through to the knockout, a Plate, placing matches, knockout match length round by round, how ties in the block standings are settled, the days and hours, a show lawn for the final and semi-finals, and, with more than one competition, whether they play at the same time or in turn and on which lawns and days. The questions come as a card, up to four at a time. Each question shows its answers as buttons with the builder's suggestion already picked and marked suggested, and a box for a different answer. Change any you want and press Send answers; a question left blank is left to the builder, which says what it chose. Typing a message in the box at the bottom instead answers in your own words.
Suggestions about match length are worked out from the event's own lawns and hours. For example, with 8 in the knockout and 6 lawns from 9:00 to a 15:00 latest start, it can show that best of three from the semi-finals has the final starting at about 13:30, while best of three from the quarter-finals has it starting at about 14:55. The figures use the same lawn time per match as the Schedule section's slot estimate. They are estimates; generating the schedule places the real games.
Using it on an existing event
In an event, the 🛠️ Build with AI button sits at the bottom right, above the AI Helper. It opens a panel on the right on a computer, and as a sheet at the bottom on a phone. Minimise closes it to the button; the button shows changes waiting when there are changes to apply.
Example requests:
- Two blocks of six, top two from each into a knockout, best of three from the semi-finals.
- Doubles every morning from 9, singles from 1pm, and keep lawns 5 and 6 free on Sunday.
- The plate only plays on Saturday, on lawns 5 to 8.
- Add 16 test players so I can see the schedule.
The conversation is kept with the event, so it is the same on any device and when you come back another day. The builder also keeps its own notes on what you have asked for and decided.
Changing things yourself
The builder and the planner work on the same event, in either order:
- An event set up by hand can be handed to the builder at any point. Its first message starts from the event as it stands.
- Anything changed by hand in the planner between messages is noticed on the next message, and the builder works from the new state rather than putting its own version back.
Apply and Decline
The builder never changes the event while it is talking. When it has changes to make, it shows them as a card, one plain line per change, with Apply and Decline below. Its message above the card lists the settings taken from your answers separately from the ones it chose itself, with the reason for each of its own choices. When a schedule is part of the build, it asks about the first start, latest start, lunch and double-banking on a card first rather than choosing them itself.
- Apply makes the changes in the order listed. Each line then shows a ✓, or a ✗ with the reason. If one fails, the ones after it are not made.
- Decline makes none of them. Typing a reply instead of pressing either also makes none of them, and the builder adjusts to what you wrote. For example, typing no double banking brings back the same list with that one line changed, ready to apply.
Undo last change
Undo last change at the top of the panel puts the event back exactly as it was before the last set of changes you applied: competitions, blocks, players, games, the schedule, knockouts and settings. Anything changed by hand in the planner since then is undone too.
Undo is refused when a result has been entered or changed since those changes were applied, so a score is never lost.
Scheduling in words
The builder writes the same schedule settings as the Schedule and Knockout schedule sections, then generates the schedule with the same generator and Auto-fill:
- event-wide rules: days, first start, latest start, a finish time for the last day, lunch, matches per player per day, slot length, double-banking, rest and lawns
- days that differ: a later start, an early finish, no lunch, another club or fewer lawns
- lawns not available on some days
- one competition's own rules, and competitions playing in turn or interwoven
- on a multi-club event, which club a block plays at on a day
- knockout days, minutes per game, each day's start times, and per bracket a play window, lawns per round and rounds that may double-bank
After generating, it reports how many games fitted, what did not and why, and the planner's own clash check. Changing a rule does not move games already placed until the schedule is generated again.
Test event and publishing
Every event the builder creates is a Test event: private, not listed and safe to practise on. Test players it adds are real players picked at random, so they are removed before publishing.
The builder publishes the event only when you tell it to, for example publish it now, and the change still waits for Apply. Publishing turns off Test event, lists the event publicly and gives you the event page link. It is refused while test players are still entered.
Who can use it
The AI Event Builder is in testing and is switched on per account. On an event it is available to that event's owner and managers who have it switched on. Everything it does is checked by the same permissions as the planner, so it can only do what you could do by hand.