Outsmart

Outsmart

Pits AI models against each other in a turn-based game of negotiation and strategy, and ranks them across games. It suits anyone curious how language models bargain, ally and compete.

Made by ed-donner on Hugging Face. These notes are Mindket's, written from its Space page and README; the app's own files and license are on Hugging Face.

About

What it is: Outsmart is an LLM arena in a Streamlit app. AI models play a game of strategy and negotiation against each other. They send private messages, trade coins and form alliances, and the page shows each move and a ranking of the models across games.

Who it suits: It suits people who want to watch language models negotiate, and those who want a lively way to compare how different models behave.

Industry | Who uses it | How they use it | Example
AI research | Researchers and students | Watch how models plan, bargain and ally | A student runs a game and reads the models' private messages.
Software | Developers | Run the arena locally with bigger models through one API key | A developer adds a key and lets stronger models fight.
Education | Teachers | Show how language models reason and negotiate | A teacher runs a game on screen and explains each turn.
Gaming | Curious players | Enjoy a strategy game played by AI | A player presses the button and watches the coins move.

If you want to play the game yourself, skip it, since the players are AI models.

Where to use it:

• A web browser, through the Space's page on Hugging Face
• A local copy on Windows, macOS or Linux, using Python and Streamlit

Use case | Who | What they get back
Watch a game | Anyone | Turn-by-turn moves from the competing models
Read the models' thoughts | Researchers | Their memory logs in an expandable panel
Compare models | Curious users | Rankings from all games in the sidebar

How to set it up:

• Python 3.11 and pip on Windows, macOS or Linux
• The packages listed in requirements.txt
• For larger models locally, one OpenRouter API key, since all models are called through it

1. Install the huggingface_hub package.
2. Download the Space into a local folder named outsmart.
3. Move into that folder.
4. Install streamlit at version 1.66.1.
5. Install the packages listed in requirements.txt.
6. Start the app.

pip install -U huggingface_hub
hf download ed-donner/outsmart --repo-type space --local-dir outsmart
cd outsmart
pip install streamlit==1.66.1
pip install -r requirements.txt
streamlit run app.py

The README also shows a route with the uv tool. Run uv sync in the repository root, then create a .env file in the same place with the key and arena setting below.

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=xxxx
ARENA=random

Start the app with uv, and run the tests with its second command.

uv run streamlit run app.py
uv run pytest

How to use it: Open the app and use the controls on the page to move the game along.

Tool | What it does
Run Turn | Makes each model take one move
Inner Thoughts | Expands to show the models' memory logs
Run Game | Plays all moves until the game is over
Left sidebar | Shows rankings of the models from all games

Example: You press Run Turn and watch each model send private messages, then give and take a coin. You open Inner Thoughts to read their memory logs. Pressing Run Game plays the rest to the end.

For newcomers and experts: If you are new, press Run Turn a few times and read what the models say. Each turn is a small round of plotting and coin trades.

If you know the field, the rules reward alliances. Two players who give to each other and take from the same third player each win an extra coin from it. A game stops once someone runs out of coins, or when ten turns have passed.

Models send private messages
Each gives one coin and takes one coin
Alliances earn a bonus coin
The game ends on bankruptcy or turn 10

Title: Game numbers
Starting coins: 12 coins
Turns before the game ends: 10 turns
Coins given per turn: 1 coin
Coins taken per turn: 1 coin
Alliance bonus: 1 coin

Good to know:

• The public version offers only lower cost models, and larger ones need a local run
• The most coins wins, once a player goes bankrupt or after 10 turns
• License: mit
• Cost to run: one OpenRouter API key for a local run, since all models are called through it
• Data it reaches: the models' messages, sent to OpenRouter
• Not for: playing as a human, since the players are AI models

On Hugging Face, 13 November 2026

• Likes: 62
• Built with: streamlit
• License: mit

Links

• Space: https://huggingface.co/spaces/ed-donner/outsmart
• Files: https://huggingface.co/spaces/ed-donner/outsmart/tree/main

Try it

Open the Space in your browser, or copy it to your own Hugging Face account from its page. Nothing in this kit runs by itself.