Meld
Play it at meld.insulatorgap.com.
Pinochle with your friends, in the browser, in real time. Type a name, deal a table, hand out a
six-letter code, pick your seats (or offer to swap), and play four-hand partnership pinochle to 150.
No account needed; guests can add an email later to keep history and friends. Short a player? The host
can seat computer players that bid, pass, meld and play from the same information a human sees.
New to the game? /practice walks you through a hand against three computers. Playing a trick a day
with far-flung friends? Deal a table at a leisurely pace and the "This hand so far" recap keeps everyone
caught up. Afterwards, step through every bid, pass, meld and trick of a finished game and share the
replay link with anyone. How the computers think is written up in
docs/COMPUTER_PLAYERS.md.
Built with Next.js on Vercel and Supabase (Postgres, Auth, Realtime). Both run on their free tiers.
Contributing: see CONTRIBUTING.md. Dev tools for reproducing any game state: docs/DEV_TOOLS.md.
Set up once
-
Supabase. Create a free project at supabase.com. In the SQL editor, paste and run
supabase/migrations/0001_init.sql. Under Authentication → Providers turn on Email (magic link)
and, optionally, Google. Under Authentication → URL configuration add
https://<your-vercel-domain>/auth/callback and http://localhost:3000/auth/callback as redirect URLs.
Full detail in supabase/README.md.
-
Vercel. Import this GitHub repo. Add these environment variables (Project → Settings → Environment Variables):
| Name | Where to find it |
|---|
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL | Supabase → Project settings → API → Project URL |
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY | Supabase → Project settings → API → anon public key |
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY | Supabase → Project settings → API → service_role key (keep secret) |
CRON_SECRET | any long random string; Vercel sends it to the daily keep-alive cron |
Deploy. The daily cron in vercel.json pings the database so the free Supabase project never pauses.
Run locally
cp .env.example .env.local # fill in the four values above
pnpm install
pnpm dev
/dev/game is a local-only preview of the game board driven by the rules engine with three automated seats.
Layout
| Path | What lives there |
|---|
src/engine/ | Pure, tested pinochle rules: dealing, bidding, trump, passing, meld scoring, trick play, scoring. |
src/server/ | Server-side table, seat, trade, friend and game logic. Only the server ever sees full hands. |
src/app/api/ | JSON route handlers the client calls. |
src/components/ | The cards, the table, the scorepad, the lobby. |
supabase/ | Schema, row-level security, setup notes. |
src/engine/ai/ | Computer players. They only ever receive a PlayerView, never the full game state. |
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md | How the pieces fit, and how a second card game slots in. |
docs/COMPUTER_PLAYERS.md | How the computer players bid, pass and play, and how they are kept honest. |
Rules (defaults, adjustable per table)
Four players, two partnerships, 48-card deck. Modern scoring is the default: minimum bid 25 in steps of 1, play to 150. Bidder names trump;
partner passes four cards to the bidder, who passes four back. Meld: run 15, royal marriage 4,
marriage 2, pinochle 4, double pinochle 30, aces around 10, kings 8, queens 6, jacks 4, dix 1.
Counters are aces, tens and kings at 1 each, plus 1 for the last trick. A side must take a trick to
keep its meld. Fail your bid and you go set for the bid amount. Classic ×10 scoring remains a
table option, with minimum bid 250 and target 1,500. Old-style 11 / 10 / 4 / 3 / 2 counting requires
classic scoring. Existing games keep their classic scale.
License
MIT. Copyright 2026 Andreas Wenzel.
