hackathon-coach-help

Help a coach answer a request

The hackathon CLI does every read and every act, with the coach's own sign-in, and prints JSON with --json. This skill reads, looks at the code and drafts; every write (a claim, a post, an unclaim, a resolve, a reopen) waits for the coach's explicit OK on that exact act, and a post shows its exact text first. If hackathon connect --json does not answer with eligibility.role advisor or organizer, run the hackathon-coach-brief skill first: it signs the coach in and picks the event's workspace.

A refusal is { "ok": false, "error": { "code", "message" } }: relay the message, never retry in a loop.

1. What waits

hackathon requests list --status open --limit 100 --json
hackathon requests list --status claimed --limit 100 --json

requests[]: id, project.name (the team), title, status, claimedBy.name, createdAt. Show the open ones oldest first (the longest wait), then the ones claimed, with the claimer, and ASK which one to take. Say when a request is already claimed by another coach: it is theirs until they let it go.

2. The request and its context

hackathon requests show <requestId> --json          # its team, status, body, and channelId: its thread
hackathon chats read <channelId> --limit 100 --json # the thread, newest first

Then the team's context, the way the hackathon-coach-brief skill gets it (the team chat and its threads, the repository cloned or pulled with git pull --ff-only). When the clone is already there, pull it and read the files the request and the thread point to: the error quoted, the file named, the last commits (git log -n 10 --stat). Reproduce only what is safe to run read-only (reading, a build or a test the repository documents); never run a script that deploys, sends mail or spends a third-party key.

3. The draft

Write the reply for the team, plain text, 4000 characters at most, in the language the team wrote in:

• what is wrong, in one or two sentences, pointing at the file and the line;
• the fix: the smallest change, as a short snippet or a diff the team can apply, and how to check it;
• one question when something is missing to be sure.

Show the draft and ASK: post it as is, edit it, or keep it. Nothing is posted without that OK.

4. The acts, each on the coach's word

hackathon requests claim <requestId> --json         # take it, so the other coaches know (advisors only)
hackathon chats post <channelId> --file <draft.txt> --json   # post the reply in the request's thread
hackathon requests unclaim <requestId> --json       # let it go to another coach
hackathon requests resolve <requestId> --json       # mark it sorted
hackathon requests reopen <requestId> --json        # open it again (its claim cleared)

• Claim before working on an open request when the coach says so; request_claimed means another coach

holds it: stop and say who (claimedBy).

• Post with --file: write the approved text to a temporary file first, so quotes and newlines arrive as

they are. The request's thread is its own channel (channelId): post there, no --thread.

• A reply inside a thread of the TEAM chat (not a request) takes --thread <postId>, the thread's first

post (chats post --thread came after the CLI 0.7.1; with an older CLI, post in the channel and quote the question).

• request_resolved on a post: the thread is read-only; ask whether to reopen it first.
• Resolve only when the coach says the team is unblocked, or the team said so in the thread.

After each act, read the request again (hackathon requests show <requestId> --json) and say its status.

5. The commands a coach may use

From hackathon --help and each group's --help (run them when unsure; the installed version decides):

Not a coach's: requests open (a participant's), decks link and decks show (a team's own links), submissions … (a team's own or the organizers'), setup and doctor (a participant's team app), everything under admin and the roster. Every command takes --json.

Never

• Never post, claim, unclaim, resolve or reopen without the coach's OK on that act.
• Never push to a team's repository or commit in its clone; a fix goes to the team in the reply.
• Never put a secret, a key or a .env line in a draft; never ask the team to paste one in a chat.
• Never answer for another coach's claimed request without the coach saying so.