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CLAUDE RUNS MY BIZ / 57
THE SETUP GUIDE

The Arena skill:
make Claude compete for the answer

When Claude hands you something kind of meh, you usually ask again, and again. The Arena skill does something else: it gives the same task to a crowd of Claude sub agents, each one working it a different way, and makes them attack each other's answers until one is left standing. This guide shows you how to install it, when to use it, and how to keep it from eating your usage.

Checked against the repo github.com/Jakeschincariol/arena-skill (MIT license, made by Jake Schincariol), October 2026. If a step here differs from the repo, the repo is right.

How one run works
You type /arena. Behind the scenes it runs a single elimination bracket.
STAGEWHAT HAPPENS
SpawnEvery sub agent gets the exact same task, word for word, plus its own strategy card: a way of reasoning (first principles, inversion, contrarian...), a workflow (outline first, three drafts and pick one...) and a strategy (simplest thing that works, edge cases first...). No two cards are the same.
AttackAnswers are paired off. Each side tears into the other's answer: what is wrong, what it missed, what breaks it.
DefendEach side answers every attack it took and rewrites its own answer to fix what it conceded.
JudgeA separate judge scores both rewritten answers on a written rubric: correctness, completeness, robustness, specificity and clarity. The loser is out.
RepeatThe field halves every round. With 100 agents that is 100, 50, 25, 13, 7, 4, 2, 1.
ResultYou get the one answer that survived, the attacks it beat on the way and how many rounds it took.
WHAT "100 VERSIONS OF CLAUDE" REALLY MEANS They are 100 sub agents of the same model you are already using, not 100 different AIs. What makes them different is the card each one is dealt. And it never touches your files: all the work goes into a folder called .arena, and only the winning answer comes back to you.
Step 1: install it
It runs in Claude Code, because it needs to launch sub agents. Free, no signup, no API key.

  1. The easy way: paste the link

    Open Claude Code and send this message as it is:

    https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/arena-skill Install this skill, then confirm /arena works.

  2. Or install it as a plugin

    Run these two lines inside Claude Code. Installed this way the command is called /arena-skill:arena.

    /plugin marketplace add Jakeschincariol/arena-skill /plugin install arena-skill@arena-skill

  3. Or copy the folder yourself

    In a terminal. This gives you the plain /arena command in every project:

    git clone https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/arena-skill.git cp -r arena-skill/skills/arena ~/.claude/skills/
WHAT YOU NEED Claude Code and Python 3.8 or newer on your computer (most Macs already have it). Nothing else to install, nothing to connect. Like any skill you add, it is code from someone else: skim the repo before you install it.
TURN ON ACCEPT EDITS BEFORE A BIG RUN Every sub agent saves its work as a file inside .arena. In the default permission mode that is one approval click per file, which is hundreds on a full run. Press Shift+Tab until you see accept edits, then start the arena.
Step 2: use it
Type /arena right after an answer you did not like, or give it a task. Replace everything in [BRACKETS].
1. BEAT THE LAST ANSWERCOPY
/arena --quick
2. A HEADLINE THAT SELLSCOPY
/arena --quick write the headline for [YOUR PAGE OR OFFER]. Our customer is [WHO THEY ARE] and the one thing they care about is [THEIR BIGGEST WANT]. Under 10 words, no hype words.
3. A PLAN WITH REAL LIMITSCOPY
/arena --agents 32 plan my [LAUNCH / PROMO / WEEK]. I have [HOURS PER DAY] hours a day, a budget of [AMOUNT], and it has to be done by [DATE]. Give me day by day steps.
4. THE EMAIL YOU KEEP REWRITINGCOPY
/arena --quick write the email to [WHO] about [WHAT]. I want them to [THE ONE ACTION]. Keep it under 150 words, in a friendly tone. Here is my draft: [PASTE IT]
The settings
ADD THISWHAT IT DOES
--quick16 competitors instead of 100. The everyday setting.
--agents 32Pick the number of competitors yourself.
--seed 7Same seed, same cards and same bracket. Not the same answers.
THE ONE RULE: WRITE A GOOD TASK The sub agents cannot see your chat. They only know what goes into the task file, so put every detail in: who it is for, length, tone, deadline, what must not change. A vague task gives you 100 flavours of vague.
What to do in the next hour
One install, one quick run, one answer you would actually ship.
MINUTESDO THISWHY
0 to 5Install it with the paste the link message and check that /arena answersProves it works before you spend anything
5 to 10Pick one thing Claude got wrong this week and write the task with every detailThe task decides the result
10 to 40Turn on accept edits and run it with --quick16 agents, about 91 sub agent calls
40 to 50Read the winner and the attacks it survivedYou see why it won, not just what it says
50 to 60Use it, or tell Claude what is still off and run it againYour call, always
THE SKILL IS FREE, THE USAGE IS YOURS A full 100 agent run is 595 sub agent calls in waves of 10, and it takes a while. That counts against your Claude plan like any other work. Use --quick (91 calls) for everyday things and save the full 100 for the answer that really matters. The skill prints the size of the run before it starts.
IT IS THE BEST IT FOUND, NOT A GUARANTEE The judges are Claude too, scoring on a rubric you can read and change in the repo. That is why it shows you the attacks the winner survived, and if you started from an answer you rejected, it tells you straight when the old one scored higher. Read it before you use it.
WANT MORE LIKE THIS? Every week we take a new AI tool, test it and turn it into something a business can use the same day. The rest of the guides are in Free Resources, inside the Easy Hive community classroom.