Bowling Alley

Bowlalley — connector documentation

• MCP endpoint: https://bowlalley.connectorbay.com/mcp
• REST API: POST https://bowlalley.connectorbay.com/v1/tools/{tool_name}, described by the OpenAPI 3.1 spec at https://bowlalley.connectorbay.com/openapi.json
• Transport: Streamable HTTP, stateless, MCP specification 2025-06-18 or later
• Authentication: none required. An optional Authorization: Bearer <key> raises rate limits.
• Health: https://bowlalley.connectorbay.com/health · Tool schemas: https://bowlalley.connectorbay.com/tools.json
• Publisher: Unify Dynamics LLC · connectorbay.com/bowlalley · agent@connectorbay.com

What Bowlalley is for

A hand-curated ten-pin, duckpin, candlepin & five-pin bowling reference — rules, etiquette, equipment and history.

What it does

Bowlalley is a fully local, hand-curated pin-bowling reference. rule_lookup explains one rules topic in depth — foul line, approach, legal delivery, gutters, lane oil patterns, tenth-frame bonus rolls, handicap scoring, deadwood, splits, pin resets, ball specifications, bumpers, league formats, shoe requirements. variant_info covers one variant's origin, pins, ball, lane and scoring system (ten-pin, duckpin, candlepin, five-pin), or lists all four. term_glossary defines 45+ bowling terms. etiquette_tip covers lane courtesy topics. equipment_overview covers ball, pin, lane, shoe and pinsetter specs. scoring_explainer explains the concepts behind bowling scoring (frames, strikes, spares, the tenth-frame bonus, perfect games) without accepting rolls or computing a score. history_note gives an overview and timeline of pin-bowling's origins and milestones. beginner_tips returns general fundamentals. Keyless; fully local; zero upstream calls; nothing stored.

What it is not

Not an official product of, or affiliated with, any brand, league, publisher, or organization it may factually mention. Bowlalley is a hand-curated reference and design tool, not a substitute for an official rulebook, certified instruction, or professional advice. Fully local, zero upstream calls, nothing stored.

Tools

Rules & Variants

rule_lookup — Explains one bowling rules topic in depth: foul line, the approach, legal delivery, gutters, lane oil patterns, tenth-frame bonus rolls, handicap scoring, deadwood, splits, pin resets/dead pins, ball specifications, bumpers, league formats, and bowling shoe requirements. Use for "what counts as a foul in bowling", "what's a sport pattern vs a house pattern", "how does the tenth frame bonus work". Args: topic.

variant_info — Covers one pin-bowling variant's origin, pin count and arrangement, ball description, lane notes, scoring system and what distinguishes it — ten-pin, duckpin, candlepin or five-pin. Omit the name to get a short summary of all four. Use for "how is duckpin different from ten-pin", "what is candlepin bowling", "who invented five-pin bowling". Args: name.

Reference

term_glossary — Definitions of common bowling terms — strike, spare, turkey, Brooklyn, split, deadwood, pocket, handicap, belly band, and more, across all four variants. Use for "what does turkey mean in bowling", "what's a Brooklyn strike", "what is deadwood in candlepin". Args: term.

equipment_overview — Covers bowling ball specs (weight, size, finger holes) per variant, pin specs per variant, lane dimensions and oil-pattern basics, bowling shoe design, and how pinsetters work (freefall vs. string, plus the human 'pinboy' era). Omit the item for everything. Use for "how heavy is a bowling ball", "how tall is a bowling pin", "how does a pinsetter work", "why do bowling shoes look like that". Args: item.

On the Lanes

etiquette_tip — Lane etiquette guidance — bowling shoe requirements, who bowls first on adjacent lanes, keeping the approach dry, using only your own ball, waiting for the ball return, celebrating without disrupting others, bumper courtesy, scoring disputes, pace of play. Omit the topic to list them all. Use for "is it rude to use someone else's bowling ball", "who goes first if two lanes are ready at once". Args: topic.

Learn & Understand

scoring_explainer — Explains the CONCEPTS behind bowling scoring — frame structure, what a strike/spare/open frame is, why the strike and spare bonuses exist, how the tenth frame's bonus-roll allowance works, each variant's perfect-game number (300 for ten-pin/duckpin, 450 for five-pin, never certified in candlepin), and how the four variants' scoring mechanics differ. This is conceptual only — it does NOT accept a roll sequence and does not compute an actual score; use a dedicated bowling score calculator for real frame-by-frame arithmetic. Use for "how does bowling scoring work", "why isn't a game out of 10 pins times 10 frames", "what's a perfect game in five-pin bowling".

history_note — An overview and dated timeline of pin-bowling's history — from ancient pin-and-ball games through candlepin's 1880 invention, the American Bowling Congress standardizing ten-pin in 1895, duckpin's early 1900s emergence, five-pin's 1909 invention in Toronto, the shift from human pinboys to automatic pinsetters, and the sport's modern governing bodies. Use for "who invented bowling", "when was candlepin bowling invented", "history of ten-pin bowling".

beginner_tips — General bowling fundamentals for a new bowler — ball weight, grip, approach consistency, aiming at the arrows instead of the pins, targeting the pocket, and more. Returns however many tips you ask for (1-15). Use for "tips for a bowling beginner", "how do I get better at bowling", "what should a new bowler focus on". Args: count.

Conventions

• Read-only. Every tool reads public data or computes; nothing is written anywhere and nothing about the user is stored.
• Result envelope. ok: true with data, or ok: false with a structured error (bad_input, not_found, upstream_error). degraded lists optional sources that were unreachable.
• Rate limits. Free tier 60 tool calls/minute and 300/day per user (keyed on the user identifier supplied by the host agent, else client IP); Pro keys raise this. Over-limit calls return HTTP 429 with Retry-After. initialize and tools/list are never counted.

Support

agent@connectorbay.com · connectorbay.com/bowlalley/support

Bowlalley — Privacy Policy

Effective 25 September 2026. Unify Dynamics LLC ("we", "us"), Menlo Park, California.

What Bowlalley is. Bowlalley is a connector (an MCP server and REST API) that AI assistants and personal agents call on your behalf for a hand-curated ten-pin, duckpin, candlepin & five-pin bowling reference — rules, etiquette, equipment and history. You interact with your assistant; the assistant sends us only the arguments needed for that one lookup.

What we receive. The arguments of each tool call, the technical headers needed to serve the request (an IP address or a client identifier supplied by the assistant, and a Pro API key if you have one), and standard server logs.

Everything is answered from a bundled, hand-curated reference file and nothing is stored. No request is forwarded to any third party — there is no upstream call at all, live or otherwise — and no query is logged in request bodies, recorded, or used to train anything.

What we do not receive or store. We do not receive your conversation with the assistant or your name, and we do not build a profile from your queries: each request is answered independently and nothing carries over between requests. Rate-limit counters (a client identifier and timestamps) are held in memory for at most 24 hours. Hosting-provider access logs, which contain IP addresses and request paths but not request bodies, are retained for up to 30 days for security and abuse prevention.

Sub-processors. None — the entire dataset is bundled with the server and answered locally. Hosting: Vercel (United States regions).

Legal bases and your rights. Our processing is necessary to provide the service you request through your assistant. Because we store no personal data beyond short-lived logs, requests to access, correct or delete personal data are usually satisfied automatically; you can still contact agent@connectorbay.com and we will respond within 30 days. We do not sell or share personal information and do not use your data to train models.

Children. Bowlalley is a general-audience service operated by the adult using the assistant.

Changes. We will post changes here with a new effective date.

Bowlalley — Terms of Service

Effective 25 September 2026. These terms govern use of the Bowlalley connector ("the Service") operated by Unify Dynamics LLC ("we", "us").

1. The Service. Bowlalley is a fully local, hand-curated pin-bowling reference.
2. A reference, not professional advice. Bowlalley is an independent reference and hobby/game-design tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by any brand, organization, league, or publisher it may factually mention. It does not provide legal, financial, medical, or safety-certification advice, and is not a substitute for supervised instruction where real physical risk is involved.
3. Content varies. Rules, terminology and conventions described here reflect commonly-cited general practice; local house rules, regional variants, and official governing-body rulebooks may differ.
4. Acceptable use. Automated use within the published rate limits is welcome.
5. Availability. The Service is provided "as is" without warranty. We may change, limit or discontinue it at any time.
6. Data. Our Privacy Policy describes what we process. In short: your query is answered from a bundled reference file, and nothing is stored.
7. Pro keys. Optional Pro API keys are issued at our discretion, are personal to the holder and may be revoked for abuse.
8. Liability. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Unify Dynamics LLC is not liable for any loss arising from use of or reliance on the Service. Our total liability is limited to US $100.
9. Governing law. California law; venue in San Mateo County, California.
10. Contact. Unify Dynamics LLC · agent@connectorbay.com · https://connectorbay.com/bowlalley

Bowling Alley support

Email agent@connectorbay.com. We answer within two business days.

• MCP endpoint: https://bowlalley.connectorbay.com/mcp
• REST API: https://bowlalley.connectorbay.com/openapi.json
• Live status: https://bowlalley.connectorbay.com/health

When you report a problem, include the question you asked your agent, roughly when, and which agent you used (for example Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini). Never send us passwords, account numbers or ID numbers. Bowling Alley never asks for them.