docs/CONCEPTS.md

Concept Pitches — Small Hackathon Multiagent System

Constraints recap: ≤32B total params · Gradio app on a HF Space · demo video + social post. Inference: Modal GPU (vLLM, OpenAI-compatible) + llama.cpp on Modal (Llama Champion badge). Models: mix of newest small open-weight specialists (June 2026).

Bonus badges in reach with our stack: llama.cpp (Modal llama.cpp path), Open trace (publish agent traces to the Hub), Custom UI (custom Gradio frontend), Field Notes (blog).

---

Pitch A — "The Council" (Thousand Token Wood) ⭐ recommended

A whimsical decision oracle. You ask a life question ("should I repaint my bike shed teal?") and a council of tiny specialist agents debates it in real time, each with a distinct persona + model, then a chair synthesizes a verdict you can watch unfold.

• Why it wins: AI is load-bearing (the debate is the product), genuinely delightful, multiagent is the whole point — not plumbing. Easy to demo, easy to show a friend.
• Agents:
  • Router/Chair — MiniCPM5-1B (tiny, fast turn-taking + tool calls) → OpenBMB special prize
  • The Optimist / The Skeptic / The Pragmatist — Qwen3.5-27B with persona prompts
  • The Historian (retrieval) — small model + web/wiki tool
• Total budget: one 27B served via vLLM on Modal + 1B router ≈ under 32B.
• Delight levers: live streaming speech bubbles, a "gavel" verdict, shareable transcript card.

Pitch B — "Backyard Helpdesk" (Backyard AI)

A multiagent assistant tuned for ONE real person you know (e.g. a parent running an Etsy shop / a neighbor with a rental). A triage agent routes their plain-language request to specialists: a Writer (listings/replies), a Numbers agent (pricing/tax math via tool), a Scheduler.

• Why it wins: Hits Backyard rubric — specific, real person, honest small-model fit. Requires a real user, which is the gating judging criterion.
• Agents: Triage (MiniCPM5-1B) → Writer (Qwen3.5-27B) / Calc (small + Python tool) / Organizer. Tool use is the small-model leverage.
• Risk: needs a committed real user who'll actually use it during the window.

Pitch C — "Thousand Token Wood: The Game" (Thousand Token Wood)

A tiny text-adventure where the world is run by cooperating agents: a Narrator, a World-State keeper (enforces rules via tools, prevents hallucinated inventory), and a Mischief agent that injects surprises. You wander a procedurally-described wood.

• Why it wins: On-theme name, AI is the experience, strong originality. World-State agent solves the classic "LLM forgets the rules" problem — a real multiagent justification.
• Agents: Narrator (Qwen3.5-27B) + World-State (MiniCPM5-1B, strict JSON tool calls) + Mischief (Gemma 4, low-frequency). Optional MiniCPM-V for "look at this drawing" inputs.

---

Recommendation

Pitch A (The Council) for the cleanest delight-per-effort and the best multiagent justification, with Pitch B as the pivot if you have a willing real user (better cash-prize odds, since Backyard's bar is "they actually used it"). Both reuse the same orchestration code.

---

✅ Chosen direction: DAYDREAM

After exploring real-problem and funny fleets, we converged on a dreamlike, game-like fleet (Calvin-&-Hobbes energy): a companion + shifting environments + light mission, where dream-logic forgives small-model quirks. See README.