compete

CTF Compete

Manage a live CTF competition with a team of AI agents.

When to Use

Use during a live CTF when:

• You have multiple challenges to solve simultaneously
• You want auto-assignment based on challenge category and difficulty
• You need a centralized view of progress across all challenges
• Time pressure requires parallel work on independent challenges

Prerequisites

• Agent teams enabled: CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1
• Competition directory initialized: ctf init or challenges in known folders
• Challenge files organized by folder (one folder per challenge)

Instructions

Step 1: Scan and Triage All Challenges

First, map out the competition. For each challenge directory:

# List all challenge directories
ls -d */

# Triage each one
for dir in */; do
  echo "=== $dir ==="
  bash scripts/triage-competition.sh "$dir"
done

Or let the lead scan manually:

Scan the current directory. Each subdirectory is a CTF challenge.
For each one, run /ctf-kit:analyze to determine the category and difficulty.
Build a priority list.

Step 2: Build the Priority Queue

After triage, sort challenges by expected solve speed:

Priority factors (in order):

1. Point value / estimated difficulty — easy high-value challenges first
2. Category confidence — high-confidence triage = faster solve
3. Tool availability — skip challenges requiring tools we don't have
4. Dependencies — some challenges unlock hints for others

Create a task for each challenge in the shared task list.

Step 3: Spawn the Competition Team

Spawn 3 teammates. Each teammate is a generalist that uses the appropriate category skill for their assigned challenge.

Create an agent team for this CTF competition.

Teammate 1 — "solver-1":
  You are a CTF solver. Pick challenges from the task list and solve them.
  Use /ctf-kit:analyze to triage, then the appropriate category skill.
  When you solve a challenge, mark the task complete and broadcast the flag.
  Then claim the next unclaimed challenge.

Teammate 2 — "solver-2":
  [same as above]

Teammate 3 — "solver-3":
  [same as above]

The task list has all challenges sorted by priority. Each teammate should
claim the highest-priority unclaimed challenge. Do NOT work on a challenge
another teammate is already solving.

When a teammate gets stuck for more than 5 minutes, they should broadcast
for help. Another teammate who finishes their challenge can assist.

Step 4: Manage During Competition

The lead's job during competition:

1. Monitor progress — check which challenges are solved, in-progress, or stuck
2. Reprioritize — if a new hint is released, update task priorities
3. Reassign — if a teammate is stuck, give them a different challenge
4. Cross-pollinate — if one challenge's solution gives clues to another, broadcast
5. Track flags — maintain a list of solved challenges and submitted flags

Step 5: Handle Stuck Teammates

When a teammate is stuck:

Option A: Swap challenges between teammates (fresh eyes):

Tell solver-2 to stop working on "crypto-hard" and swap with solver-3's
"web-easy". Sometimes a different perspective helps.

Option B: Escalate to team-solve mode for one challenge:

Solver-1 just finished "misc-1". Have all 3 teammates collaborate on
"crypto-hard" using /ctf-kit:team-solve approach with crypto team roles.

Option C: Ask user for hints:

Solver-2 is stuck on "forensics-2". The memory dump analysis found nothing
suspicious. Do you have any hints from the competition platform?

Step 6: End Competition

When time is up or all challenges are solved:

Competition over. Summarize:
- Challenges solved (with flags)
- Challenges attempted but unsolved (with progress notes)
- Total points scored
Clean up the team.

Assignment Strategy

Auto-Assignment Rules

The lead assigns challenges based on:

Signal	Action
Triage confidence > 80%	Assign to next available teammate
Triage confidence 50-80%	Assign, but flag for possible reassignment
Triage confidence < 50%	Run /ctf-kit:team-solve instead of single assignment
Web/pwn category	Teammate gets plan-approval mode
Challenge has dependencies	Block task until dependency is resolved

Balancing Load

• Track each teammate's active time vs idle time
• Assign faster challenges to teammates who just finished (keep momentum)
• If one teammate is consistently faster, give them harder challenges
• Never assign more than 1 challenge at a time to a teammate

When to Switch from Compete to Team-Solve

If a high-value challenge is the last unsolved and all teammates are free:

All other challenges are solved. Let's focus all 3 teammates on "crypto-500"
using /ctf-kit:team-solve with crypto team roles.

This transitions from breadth (competition mode) to depth (team-solve mode) for the final push.

Progress Tracking

The lead maintains a scoreboard. After each solve:

=== Competition Progress ===
[SOLVED] misc-100    — solver-1 — flag{example1}     — 3 min
[SOLVED] web-200     — solver-2 — flag{example2}     — 8 min
[IN PROGRESS] crypto-300 — solver-3 — trying RSA attacks
[QUEUED] forensics-400
[QUEUED] pwn-500
=== Score: 300 / 1500 ===

Task List Structure

Each challenge becomes a task with metadata:

Task: Solve "crypto-300"
  Category: crypto
  Points: 300
  Priority: 2 (medium)
  Triage: RSA parameters found, confidence 85%
  Files: challenge/n.txt, challenge/e.txt, challenge/c.txt
  Assigned to: solver-3
  Status: in_progress
  Dependencies: none

Communication Patterns

Teammate broadcasts

• Flag found: "SOLVED crypto-300: flag{...}" → lead records it
• Stuck: "STUCK on forensics-400 after 5 min: volatility shows no processes" → lead reassigns or sends help
• Discovery: "NOTE: web-200 login page leaks version info, might help with pwn-500" → cross-challenge intel

Lead broadcasts

• New hint: "Competition hint released for crypto-300: think small primes"
• Priority change: "pwn-500 just got a hint, bump priority"
• Time warning: "30 minutes left, focus on queued challenges with highest point/time ratio"

Permissions for Competition Mode

All teammates start with Tier 1 (local analysis) auto-allowed. The lead applies Tier 2 (plan approval) when assigning web, pwn, or osint challenges:

Solver-2, take "web-200". I'm enabling plan approval for your session
since you'll be sending requests to the target. Show me your recon plan
before hitting the target.

Example Full Competition

User: /ctf-kit:compete

Lead:
1. Scans directory → finds 8 challenges
2. Triages each:
   - misc-100 (easy, encoding chain)
   - web-100 (easy, robots.txt)
   - crypto-200 (medium, XOR)
   - web-200 (medium, SQLi)
   - forensics-200 (medium, pcap)
   - crypto-300 (hard, RSA)
   - pwn-400 (hard, buffer overflow)
   - misc-500 (hard, multi-layer)
3. Creates priority queue: misc-100, web-100, crypto-200, web-200, forensics-200, ...
4. Spawns solver-1, solver-2, solver-3
5. Auto-assigns:
   - solver-1 → misc-100
   - solver-2 → web-100 (plan approval on)
   - solver-3 → crypto-200
6. solver-1 finishes misc-100 in 2 min → claims web-200
7. solver-3 finishes crypto-200 → claims forensics-200
8. solver-2 finishes web-100 → claims crypto-300
9. ...continues until time or all solved
10. Final scoreboard + team cleanup

Related Skills

• /ctf-kit:team-solve — Deep parallel solve for a single challenge
• /ctf-kit:analyze — Triage a single challenge
• /ctf-kit:status — Check challenge progress
• /ctf-kit:flag — Submit and track flags