TQ Engine

What TQ Engine is for

A real, playable Twenty Questions game — not a rules reference. Built on an original 150-item knowledge bank with a real information-gain question-selection algorithm, not a script or lookup table.

What it does

new_game(mode, category) starts a round in one of two modes:

• engine_guesses — the engine narrows a candidate list (from an original bank of 150 items across 4 categories: Animals, Everyday Objects, Food, Places, each tagged across 29 yes/no attributes) by calling next_question(state), which computes the yes/no question that splits the remaining candidates as evenly as possible — real information gain, computed live from the actual candidate set, not a fixed script. answer_question(state, response) feeds back "yes", "no", or "unsure". Once no further question can narrow things down, next_question instead returns a guess for confirm_guess(state, correct) to accept or reject. Honesty note: some items in the bank share identical attribute profiles (a chair and a table are both just "man-made, found indoors" under this attribute schema) — when that happens, rather than pretending the engine can always narrow to exactly one answer, it guesses through the tied group one candidate at a time.
• human_guesses — the engine secretly holds an item from its bank. ask_about(state, attribute_query) lets you ask about an attribute in your own words (or by its exact key from list_attributes) and the engine answers truthfully from that item's real attribute values. guess_item(state, item_name) checks your guess by name (matching aliases and partial names too).

render_game(state) gives a human-readable status summary — show this to the player, not the raw state. list_attributes lists every yes/no attribute and its exact question text. list_categories lists the 4 categories with item counts. game_rules explains both modes without a live game.

The item bank

An original, hand-curated bank of 150 items — 45 animals, 45 everyday objects, 35 food items, and 25 places — each tagged across 29 yes/no attributes (is it an animal, can it fly, is it edible, is it bigger than a person, and so on). Not scraped or copied from any third-party trivia or Akinator-style knowledge base.

Stateless architecture — and its one honest trade-off

TQ Engine keeps no server-side session. Every tool call receives the full current game state as a plain JSON object and returns the new state; the calling assistant holds and passes it between turns. In human_guesses mode, that means the returned state necessarily contains the actual secret item in plain form — there is no other place for a fully stateless server to keep it between calls. The assistant using this connector is trusted not to reveal state.secret_item / state.secret_item_id to the player before the round ends. This is a known, honestly-documented limitation shared by every stateless guessing-game API in this catalog — not a bug.

What it is not

Not a rules encyclopedia and not a random item-picker with no game logic — every response comes from a real, tested engine, including genuine information-gain question selection. Fully local, zero upstream calls, nothing stored.

TQ Engine — Privacy Policy

Effective 27 September 2026. Unify Dynamics LLC ("we", "us"), Menlo Park, California.

What TQ Engine is. TQ Engine is a connector (an MCP server and REST API) that AI assistants and personal agents call on your behalf to run a real, playable, fully local Twenty Questions game. You interact with your assistant; the assistant sends us only the arguments needed for that one move — a game state object and your question, answer, or guess.

What we receive. The game state and move arguments for 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 computed locally and nothing is stored server-side. There is no upstream call at all, live or otherwise, and no game state or query is logged in request bodies, recorded, or used to train anything. The entire round — including the secret item in "human_guesses" mode — exists only inside the state object that travels between you and your assistant; our server never retains a copy after answering the request.

What we do not receive or store. We do not receive your conversation with the assistant or your name, and each request is answered independently — 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 game engine and item bank are bundled with the server and run 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. TQ Engine is a general-audience service operated by the adult using the assistant.

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

TQ Engine — Terms of Service

Effective 27 September 2026. These terms govern use of the TQ Engine connector ("the Service") operated by Unify Dynamics LLC ("we", "us").

1. The Service. TQ Engine runs a real, playable Twenty Questions game over an original, hand-curated item and attribute bank, with genuine information-gain question-selection logic, accessed through an AI assistant or directly over MCP or HTTP.
2. Original content. The item bank, attribute questions, and game logic are original works of Unify Dynamics LLC and are not copied from any third-party trivia or "guess who/what" data set or product.
3. Stateless by design. The Service keeps no server-side game session. Each tool call must include the complete current game state; the calling assistant is responsible for holding and passing it faithfully. In "human_guesses" mode, the state necessarily contains the secret item in plain form, since a stateless server has no other place to keep it — see the Privacy Policy for the full explanation of this trade-off.
4. Known limitation. Some items in the bank share identical attribute profiles under this connector's 29-attribute schema and cannot be told apart by yes/no questions alone; the Service handles this by guessing through the tied group one at a time rather than claiming false certainty.
5. Acceptable use. Automated use within the published rate limits is welcome.
6. Availability. The Service is provided "as is" without warranty. We may change, limit or discontinue it at any time.
7. Data. Our Privacy Policy describes what we process. In short: your move is answered from the game state you send us, and nothing is stored.
8. Pro keys. Optional Pro API keys are issued at our discretion, are personal to the holder and may be revoked for abuse.
9. 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.
10. Governing law. California law; venue in San Mateo County, California.
11. Contact. Unify Dynamics LLC · agent@connectorbay.com · https://connectorbay.com/tqengine

TQ Engine support

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

• MCP endpoint: https://tqengine.connectorbay.com/mcp
• REST API: https://tqengine.connectorbay.com/openapi.json
• Live status: https://tqengine.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. TQ Engine never asks for them.