What Air Jam Is
Air Jam lets you build multiplayer games where:
- the host runs on a laptop, desktop, or TV
- players join instantly by scanning a QR code
- smartphones become game controllers in the browser
- you ship without native mobile apps or app-store installs
It is designed for party games, couch multiplayer, installations, classroom games, playtesting, and AI-assisted game iteration.
What You Get
@air-jam/sdk for controller input, replicated state, runtime helpers, and host/controller contracts@air-jam/server for real-time multiplayer session handling@air-jam/mcp-server for agent and tooling integrationcreate-airjam for scaffolding new games from production templates@air-jam/cli for project development, inspection and authoring contracts@air-jam/devtools for shared authoring, inspection and evaluation tooling
airjam.io is the separately operated product: hosted games,
Arcade and Studio. Local framework development and self-hosted games do not need
an Air Jam account, product database or provider credentials.
Create A Game
npx create-airjam@latest my-game
cd my-game
pnpm install
pnpm run dev
Choose a template explicitly if you want a stronger starting point:
npx create-airjam@latest my-game --template pong
npx create-airjam@latest my-game --template air-capture
Then open the host locally, scan the QR code with your phone, and start playing.
Why Air Jam
- No controller app download
- Real-time multiplayer built for room-scale play
- Strong host/controller contracts instead of ad hoc browser glue
- React + TypeScript + Zod end to end
- First-party reference games you can actually learn from
- A path toward AI-native game creation, testing, and publishing workflows
Public Packages
The framework package family is:
@air-jam/sdk@air-jam/server@air-jam/cli@air-jam/mcp-server@air-jam/devtoolscreate-airjam
The separation checkout contains unpublished 0.9.3 candidates. Qualification of
these local packages is not a claim that the same versions are available on npm.
Repo Development
git clone https://github.com/vucinatim/air-jam.git
cd air-jam
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm run dev -- --game=pong
The normal command starts the public SDK watcher, standalone room server and
selected reference game. It does not start the managed product or a database.
See the local development guide
for ports, phone access and working alongside the private product.
Useful workflows:
pnpm run repo -- --help
pnpm run status
pnpm logs --view=signal
pnpm check:instant
pnpm check:changed
Use pnpm check:batch before pushing a substantial change. Pull-request CI
qualifies types, tests, builds, canonical contracts, installed foundation
packages and a bounded performance smoke test. The full release gate remains
pnpm check:release.
Fresh installed-package qualification is available as structured evidence:
pnpm --silent run repo -- pack verify-local --json
It builds one exact local package set, installs it into clean consumers, and
checks typed exports, agent helper execution and real standalone room traffic.
Monorepo Shape
games/ reference games and scaffold sources
packages/
sdk/ game framework and runtime contracts
server/ standalone realtime server
cli/ project CLI, AI pack and development contracts
mcp-server/ semantic agent tools
env/ internal environment validation helper
devtools/ shared authoring, inspection and evaluation tooling
create-airjam/ game scaffolding
content/docs/ creator documentation source
Studio, Arcade, hosted policy, accounts and databases do not live in this
workspace. The private product uses the same framework package exports.
Documentation
Contributing
Issues, discussions, documentation improvements, SDK improvements, reference games, and tooling work are all welcome.
Before opening a PR:
- run
pnpm check:changed; use pnpm check:batch for a substantial batch
- keep changes focused
- update docs when behavior or contracts change
License
MIT
