Caster's Tool

What is Caster's Tool?

A real-time companion app for FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge broadcasters and commentators. It surfaces team stats, alliance breakdowns, playoff brackets, play-by-play data, AI-generated storylines, live caster notes, and historical context — everything a caster needs at a glance!

What's New in v2.0

v2.0 is a ground-up architectural rebuild. The app moves from polling-only REST caches to an offline-first Supabase backbone with background workers, Realtime WebSocket push, and persistent caster collaboration tools.

• Supabase-backed persistence — 14 tables with delta-sync triggers, JSONB merge functions, and partial indexes
• Background workers — event_sync (120s) and match_poller (5s) for both FRC and FTC
• Realtime WebSocket — live push updates for event_teams and matches (no polling)
• Circuit breaker + deadlock retry — resilient to 5xx outages and concurrent write conflicts
• Email OTP login — magic-link auth via Supabase GoTrue with glassmorphic account popover
• TIMS Override Editor — context menu for robot names, tags, playstyle, and hardware notes
• Caster Notes — persistent per-event notes synced via Realtime
• Battle Station — live broadcast note timeline with macro deck and alliance-colored bubbles
• Global Notes Panel — floating glassmorphic panel with search and team auto-complete
• AI Storyline caching — persisted in Supabase with event-aware invalidation
• Row-Level Security — all tables locked down with RLS policies
• Full FTC mode — workers, season awards, team avatars, and proper styling

Features

How to Use

• Load an event: Pick from the season list, search by name, or enter an event code manually (e.g. TUIS).
• Navigate tabs: Switch between Rankings, Summary, Play by Play, Breakdown, Alliances, Playoffs, and History.
• Compare teams: Check boxes next to teams in Rankings, then click the floating compare bar (or press C).
• AI Storylines: On Play by Play, press S to generate a match storyline. Single-click any team number in PbP for a team-specific storyline. Also available via the Storyline button in Quick Lookup spotlight.
• Switch to FTC: Click the header icon (hexagon) to toggle between FRC and FTC modes. FTC events, teams, matches, and alliances load from the FIRST FTC Events API and FTCScout.
• Quick team lookup: Press Q to toggle the floating Quick Lookup panel, or select one team and press L.
• Double-click any team number: Anywhere in the app (Rankings, Play by Play, Summary, etc.), double-click a team number to instantly open the floating Team Lookup panel with that team's data.
• Regional Advancement Pool: On the Events tab, the pool shows all regional teams ranked by Championship qualification points. Use the search box and "Qualified only" filter to narrow the list.
• Advancement panel: On the Summary tab for completed events, see which teams directly qualified for the Championship, their point breakdowns, and qualifying awards.
• Collapse sections: Click any section header with a Show/Hide pill to collapse or expand it. Works on Summary cards, Events sections, and connections.
• Save events: Click the save icon on the event bar to cache data for instant reloading.
• Battle Station: Switch to the Battle Station tab for a live broadcast note timeline. Use the macro deck for quick inserts, pill navigation to filter by team.
• TIMS Editor: Right-click any team number to open the TIMS Override Editor (or press E). Edit robot names, tags, playstyle, and hardware notes.
• Global Notes: Press N to open the floating Global Notes panel. Add notes, search by team, and categorize with tabs.
• Toggle settings: Use the gear icon to switch themes, highlight international teams, or include offseason events in data.

Color Legend

Stats are color-coded across Rankings, Play by Play, and Alliances to help you quickly spot standout teams.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Data Sources

Caster's Tool pulls from multiple external APIs to provide comprehensive FRC and FTC data:

• The Blue Alliance (TBA): Event lists, team info, rankings, OPRs, match results, alliances, awards, and media.
• FIRST FRC Events API (v3.0 + v3.2): Score breakdowns, per-robot match performance, school names, team avatars, and authoritative regional advancement/qualification data via the v3.2 Regional Pool endpoints.
• Statbotics: EPA (Expected Points Added) ratings and match win predictions.
• GATool: Community-sourced team updates and sponsor data for Play by Play.
• FIRST FTC Events API: FTC event lists, teams, matches, alliances, and awards.
• FTCScout: FTC OPR data and team statistics.
• Anthropic Claude: AI-powered broadcast storyline generation (optional — requires API key).

Data is cached in-memory on the server and in the browser's IndexedDB for fast reloading. Event snapshots can be saved to disk for instant access.

Further Reading

• The Math Behind OPR: An introduction to how OPR is calculated.
• Introduction to EPA: How Statbotics' Expected Points Added model works.

Credits