Explore Pinball Content on Kineticist

Purpose

Drive read- and write-side flows on Kineticist — the pinball industry's database, hype tracker, and editorial publication. This skill teaches agents to search the 1,700-machine catalog, browse the daily-updated Hype Index of upcoming-theme rumors, find venues to play, read news/editorial, build community lists, and create an account so the user can persist their own ratings, ownership, wishlist, and play log. Kineticist explicitly publishes an OpenAPI spec, an agent card, a /llms.txt, per-route Markdown projections, a CLI, and an MCP server — this is an agent-friendly host and the workflow leans on those surfaces before the browser.

When to Use

• A user wants to search or look up a specific pinball machine (specs, design team, editions, fun score, OPDB cross-reference).
• A user wants to know what themes the pinball community is currently most hyped for ("which theme will Stern/Spooky/Jersey Jack make next?").
• A user wants to find arcades, barcades, or museums that have a particular machine on location.
• A user wants the latest pinball news, weekly recap (This Week in Pinball), or a specific editorial piece.
• A user wants to create a Kineticist account so they can rate machines, track ownership/plays/wishlist, leave reviews, or build curated lists.
• An agent backend wants programmatic, cacheable access to the game catalog without scraping HTML.

Workflow

Kineticist is a Next.js site hosted on Vercel, returns 200 OK to bare HTTP requests, and has no anti-bot, captcha, or login wall on public pages — but it deliberately splits surfaces by purpose. Use the right surface for each sub-task, not the browser for everything.

Surface map (most efficient first):

1. Start every session with the agent-friendly discovery files (no auth)

GET https://www.kineticist.com/llms.txt                            # ~700-token site map
GET https://www.kineticist.com/.well-known/agent-card.json         # capability manifest + 18 skill IDs + supported routes
GET https://www.kineticist.com/openapi.json                        # full OpenAPI 3.1 spec for /api/v1
GET https://www.kineticist.com/sitemap.xml                         # index of per-route sub-sitemaps

The agent card declares two protocol bindings: https://www.kineticist.com/api/v1 (HTTP+JSON) and https://www.kineticist.com/api/mcp (JSON-RPC, MCP 2025-03-26). The card's contentNegotiation.markdown.perRoute.supportedRoutes lists exactly which page patterns have per-route Markdown projections.

2. Read a specific machine, venue, news article, hype theme, manufacturer, person, mod, or promoter

Append .md to the canonical URL (no auth required, no Accept-header negotiation needed):

GET https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/beetlejuice-2025.md          → 200 text/markdown
GET https://www.kineticist.com/hype/the-muppets-pinball.md                → 200 text/markdown
GET https://www.kineticist.com/locations/austin-pinball-collective.md     → 200 text/markdown
GET https://www.kineticist.com/news/goonies-treasure.md                   → 200 text/markdown
GET https://www.kineticist.com/manufacturers/stern-pinball-inc.md         → 200 text/markdown
GET https://www.kineticist.com/people/{slug}.md
GET https://www.kineticist.com/mods/{slug}.md
GET https://www.kineticist.com/promoters/{slug}.md

Each projection includes the H1 title, manufacturer/production/design-team/editions metadata (for games), or analysis/cultural-footprint paragraphs (for hype themes), or arcade description + carried-machines summary (for locations). Token cost: 1,000–3,000 per page vs ~14,000 for the JS-rendered HTML.

Index-level URLs do NOT have per-route projections. GET /hype.md, /games/pinball.md, /news.md, /locations.md all return the fallback site overview (the same content as /llms.txt), not a page-specific projection. To get the actual content of an index page, fetch the HTML and parse hrefs for slug discovery (see step 3) or pull the sub-sitemap.

3. Discover slugs in bulk

Two ways, pick by use case:

• Sub-sitemaps (authoritative, complete): GET https://www.kineticist.com/sitemap/{games|hype|locations|news|people|manufacturers}.xml. Standard <urlset><url><loc>…</loc></url></urlset> format.
• Index page HTML (top results, ranked): GET https://www.kineticist.com/hype and regex-extract href="(/hype/[a-z0-9-]+)". Same trick works for /games/pinball, /locations, /news, /manufacturers. Use this when you want the ranked or featured subset — e.g. the top-10 hype themes in their displayed order — not the full sitemap.

4. Programmatic game catalog queries — REST API (Bearer auth required)

Public game data lives at /api/v1/games*. All /api/v1/* endpoints require a Bearer token — there are no public/unauthenticated API endpoints, not even /api/v1/stats or /api/v1/games/random. Tokens are minted at https://www.kineticist.com/settings after sign-in (step 7); the format is ki_live_…. All tiers (free / builder / partner) are free during early access; the tier just sets the per-second / per-minute / per-day ceiling (free = 10/60/1,000).

GET  /api/v1/games?q={text}&manufacturer={slug-or-name}&year_from=&year_to=
                  &in_production={true|false}&game_type={solid_state|ss|em}
                  &sort={-first_manufacture_year|average_fun_score|...}
                  &limit=&offset=&fields=name,slug,average_fun_score
GET  /api/v1/games/{idOrSlug}                        # Full GameDetail, editions included
GET  /api/v1/games/{idOrSlug}/credits                # Design team
GET  /api/v1/games/{idOrSlug}/tags                   # Tag taxonomy
GET  /api/v1/games/{idOrSlug}/trims                  # Editions (Pro/Premium/LE/CE) with pricing
GET  /api/v1/games/random                            # Random game (great for content gen)
GET  /api/v1/games/batch?ids=gm_xxx,gm_yyy           # Multi-fetch
GET  /api/v1/stats                                   # Database stats
GET  /api/v1/me/state?gameId={uuid}                  # The key-owner's per-game state
POST /api/v1/me/actions                              # Write actions for the key owner only

The q parameter is a fuzzy/natural-language search — "that stern game with dinosaurs" is documented as working. Sparse-field selection via ?fields=name,slug,average_fun_score keeps responses tight.

POST /api/v1/me/actions is a single envelope endpoint that takes { handler, gameId, … }. Handlers: logPlay, updatePlayLog, deletePlayLog, toggleOwnership, toggleWant, updateOwnershipDetails, updateFunScore, undoLastPlay, deleteFunScore. All actions write only to the API-key owner's library — there is no admin-mutate-other-users surface.

5. Hype Index — the "most hyped upcoming themes" flow

There is no /api/v1/hype endpoint — the agent card lists hype as a skill but it's served via the website. Pattern:

1. GET https://www.kineticist.com/hype (HTML). Top-of-page lists the current top themes with rank, name, hype score (0–100), and status (rumored, wanted, produced, produced old). Themes graduate out of the index when they ship as a real production game; the page has a "Show N graduated themes" toggle.
2. Regex-extract href="(/hype/[a-z0-9-]+)" to enumerate slugs in their displayed rank order.
3. For each theme of interest: GET /hype/{slug}.md returns 1–2K tokens of analysis covering franchise nostalgia signals, community mentions/votes, design possibilities, and (where applicable) rumor evidence from leaked code or industry teases.

6. Where to Play — locations flow

Same shape as hype: no API endpoint, use HTML + .md:

1. GET https://www.kineticist.com/locations (HTML) — featured/top locations.
2. GET https://www.kineticist.com/sitemap/locations.xml — full inventory (8,400+ venues).
3. GET /locations/{slug}.md — per-venue description with carried-machines summary. Location data is mirrored daily from Pinball Map (pinballmap.com) and may be augmented by user-submitted edits.

Note: location data lives behind the website only — there's no zip-code-radius API on Kineticist. For radius search, the upstream Pinball Map has its own public API (pinballmap.com/api/v1/locations.json?by_lat_lon=…), which Kineticist itself credits in the footer.

7. Account creation — browser-only (/signup)

Browser flow (read-only stops here unless the user explicitly authorizes account creation):

1. Open https://www.kineticist.com/signup.
2. Two paths offered: Continue with Google (OAuth) or email + password. Password requirement is "At least 10 characters" — there's a live Verifying… async indicator next to it.
3. Display name is optional. Email is required. Submit triggers a verification step.
4. After sign-in, navigate to https://www.kineticist.com/settings (auto-redirects /settings → /login?redirectTo=/settings when unauthed) to mint an API key. Documented quickstart is curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ki_live_YOUR_KEY" https://www.kineticist.com/api/v1/games/random.

Do not submit the signup form on behalf of a user without explicit authorization — account creation is a write action with real legal/identity implications. Stop at the form being filled and confirm with the user.

8. Lists — browser-only (/lists)

https://www.kineticist.com/lists is the community-curated-collection surface. Tabs: All / Games / Locations / Hype, with Recent / Most Liked / IFPA sort. The "Create a List" CTA requires an authenticated session — there's no POST /api/v1/lists endpoint in the OpenAPI spec. To create a list:

1. Sign in (step 7).
2. Navigate to /lists, click Create a List.
3. Pick list type (game / location / hype), add a name, description, and items.

Read access to lists is public via the website; programmatic list-create is not currently exposed.

9. Alternative agent interfaces (CLI + MCP)

Kineticist publishes two first-party agent interfaces that wrap the same /api/v1 surface — use them when the host runtime already supports MCP or shell tools:

• @kineticist/cli (12 commands): npx @kineticist/cli pinball random, pinball search <query>, pinball get <slug>, plus the eight me/actions write handlers. Reads KINETICIST_API_KEY from env.
• @kineticist/mcp-server (11 tools): standard MCP stdio server. Tool IDs: search_pinball_games, get_game_details, get_random_game, get_pinball_stats, get_game_credits, kineticist_log_play, kineticist_toggle_ownership, kineticist_toggle_want, kineticist_set_fun_score, kineticist_undo_last_play, kineticist_get_my_state (plus auxiliary delete/update tools surfaced via the agent card's full 18-skill list). Boots from npx @kineticist/mcp-server with KINETICIST_API_KEY in env. Connect via the agent card's https://www.kineticist.com/api/mcp JSON-RPC interface for the hosted variant.

Browser fallback

When the API is rate-limited, the .md projection is missing for an obscure route, or the user is on /lists / /signup, drive the browser at https://www.kineticist.com/{path}. The site uses Next.js with hydrated client components; browse open followed by browse get markdown body is generally enough — accessibility refs work because the page isn't behind a JS-render wall like Craigslist. No stealth or residential proxy needed (200 OK from bare cloud IPs in all five iterations of testing).

Site-Specific Gotchas

• No public/unauthenticated API endpoints. Even /api/v1/stats, /api/v1/games/random, and /api/v1/games (list) return 401 missing_api_key with the (charming) hint "Insert coin to continue." The "free tier" is free in price, not in auth — you still need a ki_live_… Bearer token from /settings. Don't waste turns trying to find a public endpoint.
• Index-page .md projections fall back to the site overview, not page content. GET /hype.md, /games/pinball.md, /news.md, /locations.md all return the same /llms.txt content. Per-route projections only exist for the eight detail patterns enumerated in the agent card: /news/[slug], /games/pinball/[slug], /hype/[slug], /locations/[slug], /manufacturers/[slug], /people/[slug], /mods/[slug], /promoters/[slug]. For index-page content (rankings, featured items in display order) you must fetch HTML and parse hrefs, or pull the sub-sitemap.
• Manufacturer slugs are not always the obvious form. The agent card's example references stern-pinball but the live slug is stern-pinball-inc. Always discover via the catalog/sitemap rather than constructing slugs from manufacturer names. Confirmed: /manufacturers/stern-pinball.md → 404, /manufacturers/stern-pinball-inc.md → 200.
• The bare kineticist.com host 308-redirects to www.kineticist.com (Vercel default). Always use the www. host on direct fetches to avoid the extra redirect.
• Game IDs are prefixed UUIDs (gm_ + UUID), not raw UUIDs. idOrSlug path params accept either the prefixed ID, the slug, or an OPDB ID — pick whichever your context has. Don't strip the gm_ prefix.
• q is a fuzzy/natural-language search, not a strict substring match. The OpenAPI param description literally suggests "that stern game with dinosaurs" works. Bias prompts toward natural phrasing rather than exact-token search.
• Sort defaults to -first_manufacture_year (newest first). To get top-rated, pass sort=-average_fun_score; to alphabetize, sort=name. Sparse fields=name,slug,average_fun_score keeps payloads small for ranking workloads.
• Hype Index has no API endpoint and no JSON shape, only the /hype HTML page and per-theme .md projections. The H1 of each theme on the index page carries the rank (#1), theme name, score (/100), and status badge (rumored / wanted / produced). When a theme ships as a real production game it graduates out of the active rankings — toggle "Show N graduated themes" to see the history.
• Location radius search is NOT a Kineticist endpoint. The data comes from Pinball Map (pinballmap.com) and Kineticist re-renders it. For "near me" zip-radius queries, hit pinballmap.com/api/v1/locations.json directly (separate public API). Kineticist's /locations/{slug}.md is for known venues you already have a slug for.
• /api/v1/me/* writes scope to the API-key owner only. There is no admin-mutate-other-users surface. POST /api/v1/me/actions is a single envelope endpoint with a handler enum; the required other fields (e.g. gameId, score, wantType) vary per handler.
• Account creation has minimum-10-character password with live async verification. Google OAuth is the lower-friction path when allowed by user policy.
• Rate limits are advertised in response headers — X-RateLimit-Tier, X-RateLimit-Remaining-Day, X-RateLimit-Remaining-Minute, X-RateLimit-Reset. Daily window resets at midnight UTC. Email colin@kineticist.com for a higher ceiling if the free 1,000/day isn't enough.
• Newsletter is on a subdomain. "This Week in Pinball" archive is at twip.kineticist.com, not /news/twip. The /news/rss.xml feed under the apex covers all editorial news (including TWiP entries).
• No anti-bot, captcha, or login wall on read paths. A residential proxy is NOT required. Five iterations of cloud-IP fetches returned 200 OK across /, /llms.txt, /openapi.json, /sitemap.xml, /hype, /games/pinball, /locations, /news, /lists, /signup, and all .md projections tested.

Expected Output

The skill is a router across surfaces — output shape depends on which sub-task fired. Below are the five distinct outcomes a calling agent should be ready to receive.

Outcome 1 — Game search (REST, JSON)

{
  "outcome": "game_search",
  "method": "api",
  "endpoint": "GET /api/v1/games",
  "query": { "q": "godzilla", "manufacturer": "stern", "limit": 5, "sort": "-average_fun_score" },
  "object": "list",
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "gm_8f3c1d…",
      "name": "Godzilla (Premium)",
      "slug": "godzilla-premium",
      "first_manufacture_year": 2021,
      "in_production": true,
      "average_fun_score": 92.4,
      "ratings_count": 1184,
      "featured_image": "https://media.kineticist.com/…png",
      "manufacturer": { "id": "mfr_…", "name": "Stern Pinball Inc.", "slug": "stern-pinball-inc" },
      "editions_count": 3
    }
  ],
  "pagination": { "total": 4, "limit": 5, "offset": 0, "has_more": false },
  "rate_limit": { "tier": "free", "remaining_day": 997, "remaining_minute": 59 }
}

Outcome 2 — Detail page via .md projection (markdown, no auth)

{
  "outcome": "detail_md",
  "method": "url-param",
  "url": "https://www.kineticist.com/hype/the-muppets-pinball.md",
  "content_type": "text/markdown; charset=utf-8",
  "title": "The Muppets",
  "tokens_estimate": 1800,
  "markdown": "# The Muppets\n\nThe Muppets pinball machine is a theme that has generated significant interest…"
}

Outcome 3 — Hype Index ranked top-N (HTML scrape + per-slug enrichment)

{
  "outcome": "hype_top_n",
  "method": "hybrid",
  "fetched_at": "2026-05-19T00:14:32Z",
  "active_themes_total": 300,
  "graduated_themes_total": 36,
  "top": [
    { "rank": 1,  "name": "The Muppets",                              "slug": "the-muppets-pinball",                          "score": 89, "status": "rumored" },
    { "rank": 2,  "name": "Dungeon Crawler Carl",                     "slug": "dungeon-crawler-carl-pinball",                 "score": 79, "status": "rumored" },
    { "rank": 3,  "name": "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe",   "slug": "he-man-and-the-masters-of-the-universe-pinball","score": 67, "status": "wanted"  },
    { "rank": 4,  "name": "The Goonies",                              "slug": "the-goonies-pinball",                          "score": 78 },
    { "rank": 5,  "name": "Big Trouble in Little China",              "slug": "big-trouble-in-little-china-pinball",          "score": 92 },
    { "rank": 6,  "name": "Sonic the Hedgehog",                       "slug": "sonic-the-hedgehog-pinball",                   "score": 85 },
    { "rank": 7,  "name": "Fallout",                                  "slug": "fallout-pinball",                              "score": 86 },
    { "rank": 8,  "name": "G.I. Joe",                                 "slug": "gi-joe-pinball",                               "score": 80 },
    { "rank": 9,  "name": "Gremlins",                                 "slug": "gremlins-pinball",                             "score": 84 },
    { "rank": 10, "name": "Ghostbusters",                             "slug": "ghostbusters-pinball",                         "score": 83 }
  ]
}

Outcome 4 — Locations near a venue (HTML + .md enrichment, or upstream Pinball Map for radius)

{
  "outcome": "locations",
  "method": "url-param",
  "data_source": "kineticist (mirrored daily from pinballmap.com)",
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "austin-pinball-collective",
      "name": "Austin Pinball Collective",
      "url": "https://www.kineticist.com/locations/austin-pinball-collective",
      "summary_md": "A dedicated pinball arcade on Clayton Lane in Austin…"
    }
  ],
  "note": "For zip-code-radius queries, hit pinballmap.com/api/v1/locations.json?by_lat_lon=… — Kineticist does not expose radius search."
}

Outcome 5 — Account-creation / list-creation request (browser only, user-confirm required)

{
  "outcome": "user_action_required",
  "method": "browser",
  "action": "create_account",
  "url": "https://www.kineticist.com/signup",
  "form_state": {
    "email": "<user-supplied>",
    "password": "<user-supplied — minimum 10 characters>",
    "display_name": "<optional>"
  },
  "alternative": "Continue with Google (OAuth) at /signup",
  "post_signup": "Mint API key at /settings → use Bearer ki_live_… against /api/v1/* for programmatic access",
  "status": "form_filled_pending_user_confirmation"
}