UP ROBOTICS FTC Helper · Learn more
FTC 2026-27 · BIOBUZZ™Free · Community-run · Open source

Ask the rules. Get the exact source.

Type a question about this season and get a short answer that links straight to the rule in the Competition Manual, the Team Update that changed it, or the moment in a video that shows it. Free for every team, no accounts, no ads. UP Robotics provides the hosting and development support; the code is open to everyone.

Open the chat What it knows
How tall can the robot be? What changed in Team Update 00? What counts as STRATEGIC? How do I build a mecanum drivetrain?

The chat is the home page. On a phone it opens as a window in the corner.

What it knows

Every answer points back to a source you can open

The helper only answers from these sources, and it tells you which one it used. If the sources don't cover your question, it says so.

Rules

Competition Manual and Team Updates

Every rule in the official BIOBUZZ™ manual, indexed by rule number, plus each Team Update the day it is published. When they disagree, the newest Team Update wins.

Official game hub →
Videos

Team and coach videos

Captions from five FTC channels, split into short windows, so a link opens the video at the moment that answers you. Videos are advice and examples, not rules, and older seasons are labeled.

FIRST® Tech Challenge on YouTube →
Design and code

Design guides and documentation

Game Manual 0 for mechanisms and strategy, FTC Docs for programming and the control system, and REV's documentation for hubs, motors, and sensors.

Game Manual 0 →FTC Docs →REV documentation →

Please read

Three things to know before you ask

  • AI answers can be wrong. Always open the linked source. At an event, the Head Referee and the printed rules decide, not this page.
  • Don't type personal information. No names, schools, phone numbers, or addresses. Conversations are not saved.
  • Not affiliated with or endorsed by FIRST®. FIRST®, FIRST® Tech Challenge, and BIOBUZZ™ are trademarks of FIRST® (www.firstinspires.org) which is not overseeing, involved with, or responsible for this activity, product, or service. This is a free, community-run tool. UP Robotics provides the hosting and development support.

Free, community-run, open source

Built by coaches for every team, refreshed every night

This helper is free for every FTC team and will stay that way: no accounts, no ads, no paid tier. It started in an FTC team room in Bethesda, MD, where coaches got tired of flipping through a 150-page manual at 9 pm. Every evening it re-reads the official game hub, picks up any new Team Update, and adds the latest videos from the channels students learn from.

UP Robotics, an after-school robotics program, provides the hosting and development support. All of the code is public on GitHub under the MIT license, so any team can see exactly how answers are produced, report a problem, or run their own copy: github.com/tarun101/uprobotics-ftc-helper

1
Ask in plain words, like you'd ask a mentor.
2
Read the short answer and the rule number.
3
Open the link and check the exact wording yourself.

Sources and licenses

Where the text comes from, and on what terms

The helper stores short pieces of these sources so it can find the right one and link you to it. Nothing is rewritten for publication; the linked page is always the authority. If you own one of these sources and want it removed, use the Report a problem link and it comes out within a day.

For coaches with their own tools

Search the same index from Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP client

The index behind this page is open to MCP-capable assistants at https://146c9951-a803-43ec-82a5-667148163702.search.ai.cloudflare.com/mcp (tool search, argument query). It returns the same source chunks with their links; it does not write answers, and it is limited to 60 requests a minute. Packaged Claude and ChatGPT skills are a future goal. Details are in the README.