Source note: Local copy of a Summer Into AI 2026 submission originally published on Substack. Screenshots, video, and audio found in the post body are mirrored locally when publicly accessible; profile and avatar images are intentionally not copied. Read the canonical post.
Week 2 of Summer into AI 2026 hosted by @advisoryhour — theme: Red, White & Boom.
New York City, 1778. You are Agent 355 — handler for America's most successful spy ring. Each round, a cipher dispatch arrives from the field: Abraham Woodhull (C——r) in Setauket, Robert Townsend (C——r Jr.) in Manhattan, Austin Roe on horseback between them. Claude generates the dispatch in authentic Culper tradecraft: numbered locations, coded names, invisible-ink shorthand. You must read the cipher, choose your response from three options, and relay the intelligence to General Washington (Agent 711) before it goes stale.
Worth noting alongside this: RevereBike RevereBike puts you on Revere's horse racing against the clock to warn the colonists; The Culper Ring puts you in the shadows decoding ciphers — same war, opposite ends of the intelligence chain
How the AI works
Two Claude endpoints drive the loop. The dispatch endpoint generates each cipher message using the generate_dispatch tool: Claude produces a dispatch in period Culper tradecraft, its plain-English translation (shown only after you decide), three plausible response options, the correct option ID, and a historical context note.
The evaluate endpoint assesses your decision using the evaluate_decision tool: it returns success/failure, an outcome narrative, intelligence gained for Washington's campaign, whether your spy's cover status is still active, compromised, or captured, and a historical debrief on what the coded phrases actually meant.
The codebook is always visible as you play: 711=Washington, C——r=Woodhull, C——r Jr.=Townsend, John Bolton=Tallmadge, 10=NYC, 20=Setauket, 30=Oyster Bay. Reading the cipher correctly — not just picking randomly — is what wins.
How to play
Read each cipher dispatch using the permanent codebook sidebar — the correct answer is in the text
Choose from three response options: relay, wait, or act on the intelligence
See the plain-English translation revealed after your decision
Win 3 of 4 dispatches while keeping the network active to complete your mission
Where to play
Demo: demo-15-the-culper-ring.vercel.app
Code & README: demo-15-the-culper-ring
Summer into AI 2026 · Theme 2: Red, White & Boom
Original source
Canonical Substack URL: https://jakestrait5.substack.com/p/summer-into-ai-2026-the-culper-ring.