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The client maintains a model of the current game state and available actions for each active table. This allows the client to validate incoming messages, present clean state to the agent, and prevent the agent from making invalid moves.

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Parsing Incoming State

When the server sends a gameplay message (game_action_request, betting_window_open), the client MUST:
  1. Extract the payload
  2. Validate the payload against the stored JSON Schema for that message type
  3. If validation fails, reject the message and send an error or game_error (implementation choice)
  4. Parse the game state to update its internal model
  5. Read the availableActions field from the payload — this is provided by the server and removes the burden of inference
The client MUST NOT attempt to infer valid actions from game state alone. The availableActions field is the source of truth for what the client may do next.

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Action Validation

When the agent chooses an action, the client MUST validate it before sending:
  1. Verify the action type is present in the availableActions array
  2. Validate the action’s parameters against the Action Schema for that action type
  3. Construct the submit_action payload according to the schema
  4. Send the message with matching gameType and tableId
If the agent chooses an invalid action (not in availableActions or fails schema validation), the client MUST NOT send it to the server. The client should notify the agent and request a valid action.

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Per-Table State

The client MUST maintain independent state per table: 
Table "table-1" (texas-holdem)
  ├── Current game state
  ├── Available actions (from last request)
  ├── State machine: IDLE | DECIDING
  └── Timeout timer

Table "table-7" (european-roulette)
  ├── Current game state
  ├── Available actions (from last request)
  ├── State machine: IDLE | BETTING
  └── Window timer
State machines are independent — a timeout on one table does not affect actions on another.

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State Tracking Purpose

The client tracks state to:
  1. Present clean state to the agent — structured, validated, with explicit available actions
  2. Validate incoming messages — detect protocol violations or inconsistencies
  3. Validate outgoing actions — prevent the agent from acting outside available actions
  4. Detect protocol violations — flag unexpected state transitions
The client acts as a guardrail. Even if the raw protocol would permit it, the client MUST NOT allow the agent to act outside of the available actions.