AI Fixtures: what you can ask the assistant
AI Fixtures lets competition administrators describe a fixture in plain English. This guide focuses on the requests the assistant understands, how to phrase them, and the difference between setting requirements and editing a draft. The examples use test team and venue names. Use names from your own competition.
AI Fixtures workflow. You can change requirements or edit the draft before saving.
How to write a request
Use normal sentences. You do not need special commands or a fixed format. The assistant accepts short names, common spelling mistakes and follow-up messages.
Write this | Why it helps |
“Bears can’t play round 5.” | Name the team and round. |
“Tigers prefer 11am, if possible.” | “Prefer” makes this a preference. |
“No matches may start before 6pm.” | Firm wording makes a rule the fixture must meet. |
“No games on 26 December or 2 January.” | Give actual dates for breaks. |
“Rangers and Pioneers must meet in round 1.” | Name both teams and the round. |
Must and Prefer
A Must is a rule the solver has to meet. A Prefer is a goal it tries to meet. Words such as “must”, “can’t”, “needs” and “no” usually set a Must. “Prefer”, “ideally” and “if possible” set a Prefer. Some rules have a fixed strength: a team being unavailable is always a Must, while spreading byes evenly is always a Prefer.
Dates, names and follow-up questions
- Dates use Australian order: 4/8 means 4 August. “Last round” and “final two rounds” stay relative if the round count changes.
- If a team or venue name matches more than one entry, the assistant asks which one. If it matches nothing, the request is declined.
- If a request is vague, the assistant asks for the missing detail. “Play late” needs a time; “after 5pm” answers that question.
- You can send several requests together, up to 12 per message. The assistant processes each one and shows what happened below the reply.
Admin: the blazers wanna play late if poss
Assistant: What time should the Blazers’ matches start from, or what is the latest start you would accept for them?
Admin: after 5pm
Assistant: Okay, Blazers will now start from 17:00, so I added one requirement to the fixture.
Before generation: set the fixture requirements
Before a fixture exists, the chat records rules and season settings. It does not move individual matches: there are no matches to edit yet. The solver uses the saved rules when you ask it to generate.
Season dates and format
Example prompt | Example prompt |
“Let’s do 12 rounds.” | Number of rounds. |
“Start on 14 November and play every fortnight.” | First-round date and 14 days between rounds. |
“No games on 26 December or 2 January.” | Dates excluded from the fixture. |
“Make it a double round robin.” | Each pair meets twice. |
“Matches are 45 minutes, not 60.” | Default time each match needs a venue. |
“All three venues can run two games at once.” | Capacity at each venue. |
“Home and away” can also mean that teams meet twice. It does not guarantee one match at each team’s home venue. Adding or removing teams and venues is done in Passport Competition settings.
Start times
Example prompt | What it means |
“No games before 6pm.” | All matches must start at or after 18:00. |
“Round 1 games must start after 4pm.” | Only round 1 gets that start-time rule. |
“Tigers prefer the 11am slot.” | A preference for one team’s start time. |
“Blazers can’t play before 5pm.” | A firm time restriction for one team. |
“All Saturday matches start at 10am.” | A start time for matches on a weekday. |
“Court 2 must be cleared by 5pm.” | Latest start is calculated from match length. |
“Court 1 is available from 9am to 2pm.” | A venue time window. |
The assistant also understands “morning”, “afternoon” and “evening”, exact times such as 16:00, and finish-by times. A finish-by time accounts for match length. “Start by 5pm” means the match may finish later. Named start slots such as “8, 10 and 12” become one time window, not three fixed slots.
Team and venue availability
Example prompt | What it means |
“Bears can’t play round 5.” | Bears are unavailable in that round. |
“Wallabies can’t play the last two rounds.” | Unavailable in the final two rounds, even if the season length changes. |
“Magpies can’t play in December.” | A date-range restriction. |
“Court 2 is closed in round 4.” | That venue cannot be used in round 4. |
“We’d rather not use Court 1 in round 4.” | A venue availability preference. |
Team unavailability is a Must even if it sounds like a preference. Where matches need two teams, a team sitting out can mean another team also needs a bye.
Matchups and rematches
Example prompt | What it means |
“Rangers v Pioneers in round 1.” | The named teams must meet in round 1. |
“Bears and Blazers can’t meet before round 6.” | Their first meeting can be in round 6 or later. |
“Bears and Blazers must not meet in round 8.” | The pairing is excluded from that round. |
“Eagles and Falcons should meet exactly twice.” | Sets their number of season meetings. |
“Tigers and Reptiles must not play each other this season.” | Their meeting count is zero. |
“Don’t repeat a matchup within four rounds.” | Minimum gap between repeat meetings. |
“If possible, keep that derby until after round 4.” | A preference, if the two teams are named or clear from context. |
You can also ask for two teams to have met before, by, or after a named round. A rematch gap can be given in weeks or rounds; the supported gap is 2–20 rounds. “Not too soon” uses the existing default, while “as far apart as possible” prompts a question asking for a number.
Byes and workload
Example prompt | What it means |
“Spread the byes evenly.” | A preference to share byes fairly. |
“Give the Eagles a bye in round 3.” | Eagles must sit out that round. |
“No team gets two byes in a row.” | At most one consecutive bye. |
“Every team plays every round.” | No byes. |
“Only two matches in the final round.” | Limits matches played in the final round. |
“No team plays more than six weeks straight.” | Limits consecutive rounds with games. |
“No team plays twice on the same day.” | Limit per team, per date. |
“We only have umpires for seven games a day.” | At most seven matches on any date. |
The assistant may ask to add rest rounds if a new bye rule cannot fit the current format. “As few byes as possible” is already part of the solver’s normal behaviour.
Venues and home/away balance
Example prompt | What it means |
“Tigers must play every game at Court 1, home and away.” | A venue for all Tigers matches. |
“Keep teams at the same venue each week, if possible.” | A preference for fewer venue changes. |
“Court 2 needs a 15-minute changeover.” | Adds the changeover to the venue time per match. |
“Court 2 can run two games at once.” | Sets that venue’s match capacity. |
“Keep home and away balanced.” | Balance each team’s season totals. |
“Home and away must be exactly even.” | Makes that balance a Must. |
Every session starts with a preference to balance home and away counts. The assistant can strengthen or remove it. You set a team’s registered home venue in Passport, not in the chat.
Change a requirement or ask a question
Example prompt | What it means |
“Remove the Tigers 11am requirement.” | Removes the matching requirement. |
“Make that a Must, not a preference.” | Changes the requirement’s strength. |
“Undo that.” | Removes the last requirement you added, where applicable. |
“What requirements have I set?” | Points to the list beside the chat. |
“What date is round 7?” | Answers from the competition setup. |
“How many teams and venues are there?” | Answers from the competition data. |
“Generate the fixture.” | Starts the solver, subject to open questions. |
A request to clear all requirements keeps the default home/away preference unless you name it. If the assistant has an open question or one request has failed, it may ask you to confirm generation without that answer.
After generation: edit the draft
Once a draft exists, the chat can change individual matches and rounds. It can also update the requirements. These are different actions, and it matters which one you ask for.
Two kinds of chat changes on the review screen.
Change the current draft now
Example prompt | What changes |
“Move round 3 to Sunday 15 November.” | Moves all matches in round 3 to the new round date. |
“Swap the dates of rounds 2 and 5.” | Swaps dates, but each round keeps its own matchups. |
“Spread round 4 across Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November.” | Places that round’s matches across the two dates. |
“Put all of round 3 back on the same day.” | Moves that round back onto one date. |
“Move Tigers v Reptiles in round 1 to Sunday 1 November.” | Moves one match, keeping its round, time and venue. |
“Set every match in round 6 to 6:30pm.” | Changes the start times in that round. |
“Set the Tigers v Reptiles match in round 1 to Court 2.” | Changes the venue of one match. |
“Fill the unassigned matches with Centre Court.” | Sets the venue for matches with no venue. |
The review chat can also move every current match of a named team to one time or weekday, or spread named rounds across weekdays. These are changes to the current draft, not permanent scheduling rules. Even “Bears always play on Fridays” is a one-time board edit. A regenerate removes it.
Swap matches, move rounds and fix clashes
Example prompt | What changes |
“Swap Bears v Tigers in round 1 with Falcons v Eagles in round 2.” | Swaps the two matches’ complete slots: round, date, time and venue. |
“Move Tigers v Reptiles from round 1 into round 5.” | Moves the match into the other round. |
“Fix the clashes in round 5.” | Tries to repair team clashes using safe moves or swaps. |
“Undo that.” | Reverses the last chat edit, if the board has not changed since. |
A match move can cause a clash; the review checks flag it. Clash repair avoids breaking Must requirements or double-booking a venue. If several fixes are possible, the assistant asks you to choose a match or a new time or venue. A venue double-booking on its own is not fixed by “Fix the clashes”. Send “Undo” on its own.
Change what the next fixture must do
A new requirement or season-setting change does not change the matches already on screen. The assistant stores it and marks it for regeneration. For example:
Example prompt | What happens next |
“Eagles can’t play in round 12.” | Adds a new Must rule. Regenerate to apply it. |
“Spread the byes evenly.” | Adds a preference. Regenerate to apply it. |
“Make the season 10 rounds and regenerate.” | Changes the round count, then builds a new draft. |
“Remove the rule about Tigers starting at 11am.” | Removes it from future solves. |
You can change a setup value and regenerate in one message. Do not combine a one-time board edit with “regenerate” in the same message: the edit would be lost and the service declines that part.
Regenerate, check and save
Regenerate
Type “regenerate” or “build it again” in the review chat. The solver builds a new fixture with the latest requirements and season setup. It does not preserve chat edits or hand edits to the draft. There is no board-level regenerate button, and you cannot undo a regenerate.
- If the current draft has edits, a confirmation explains what will be lost.
- The new fixture may differ even when the inputs have not changed.
- If the requirements cannot all be met, the current draft stays in place and the assistant identifies the conflict.
Review warnings and save
Check the review panel before saving. Most warnings can be accepted with confirmation, including team clashes, unavailable dates, venue capacity conflicts, unmet requirements and changes not yet applied through regeneration. Save is blocked for more basic problems, such as a fixture with no matches or a match missing a team.
Save from the review screen, or type “save” and confirm. If there are review items, the final confirmation happens at the top of the page. After saving, Passport confirms whether the fixture reached its fixture grid. If it says “Save not confirmed”, check the grid before retrying.
Requests the assistant does not support
Use these limits when writing a prompt. Some have a practical alternative.
Not support | What to do instead |
Rotate the best time slots fairly between teams. | Set team time windows or preferences. Review the resulting slots. |
Keep two teams apart because they share a coach, player or equipment. | Review those match times manually; shared people are not modelled. |
Minimise travel distance. | Name a required venue for all of a team’s matches, or edit specific matches. |
Set one team’s venue for only certain rounds during requirements gathering. | Set the venue of each affected match in review. |
Make the top four teams meet, or schedule all “derbies”. | Name the teams and pairings. |
Alternate home and away each week, or give one team extra home games. | Only season-level home/away balance is supported. |
Rotate venues or set a number of visits to each court. | Set a venue for all games of a team, or change individual matches in review. |
Set one combined limit on concurrent matches across all venues. | Set capacity for each venue. |
Run finals or a knockout bracket. | AI Fixtures covers regular season rounds. |
Add teams, venues or home venues in chat. | Use Passport Competition settings. |
Copy last season’s fixture or look up school holidays. | Provide the dates and requirements yourself. |
Make one team play twice in one round. | Use separate rounds, which may share a date. |
What the assistant does with your message
The language model reads the chat. Code checks the names, dates, numbers and requested changes before applying them. The separate scheduling solver generates the fixture. The model does not directly edit matches or decide whether a warning is valid.
Part of AI Fixtures | What handles it |
Reading chat requests and asking clarifying questions | Language model, with code checks. |
Generating or regenerating fixtures | Scheduling solver; no language model. |
Checking warnings and clashes | Code and solver checks. |
Suggestion chips | Fixed examples in code. |
“Fix with AI” | Fills in a chat message. Sending its unchanged text runs a code-based repair; edited text goes through the chat model. |
Read the result below each reply
Each request gets a receipt row. “Added”, “Changed”, “Removed” and “Already in place” tell you what happened. “Needs your answer” asks for more detail. “Declined” means that request is not supported or did not match the fixture; other valid requests can still apply. “Didn’t go through” means the attempt failed, and you can send it again.
Useful limits: 12 requests per message, 2,000 characters per message, and up to 500 saved requirements. The chat may fail or time out, without changing the other requests that already succeeded.
The model sees your message, team and venue names, fixture setup and relevant draft details. It is not given the administrator’s name or email as separate context, but it can see personal information you type into a message. Avoid adding personal information that is not needed for scheduling.
Example: a complete set of prompts
This is one way to work through a fixture. The examples are based on supported request types; they are not a transcript from one live session.
Before generation
“Make this a 14-round weekly season from 31 October. Matches take 60 minutes. No games on 26 December or 2 January. Bears can’t play round 5. Tigers prefer 11am if possible. No repeat matchup within four rounds.”
Check which rules were added and answer any follow-up questions. Then ask: “Generate the fixture.”
On the review screen
“Move round 3 to Sunday 15 November. Set every match in round 6 to 6:30pm.”
These are draft edits. Check the changes and warnings before saving.
If you need a different generated fixture
“Eagles can’t play in round 12. Regenerate.”
This adds the new rule and generates another draft. It also discards the earlier draft edits, so use it only when you are ready to replace the current draft.
