[sergiopaniego]

Summary

TEXTARENA_KW_* environment variables reached TextArena as strings, so numeric kwargs broke the game they configure. For example, TEXTARENA_ENV_ID=Sudoku-v0 with TEXTARENA_KW_CLUES=65 crashes on every reset():

textarena/envs/Sudoku/env.py:67  while len(cells) > clues:
TypeError: '>' not supported between instances of 'int' and 'str'

_parse_env_kwargs now reads each value as JSON and falls back to the raw string, so 65 is an int, true a bool, and hard stays "hard".

This is needed to serve Sudoku at an easier level than the default (30 clues, about 48 empty cells) from a Space, for the Sudoku SFT + GRPO tutorial we're preparing.

Changes

• envs/textarena_env/server/app.py: parse TEXTARENA_KW_* values as JSON.
• tests/envs/test_textarena_environment.py: one test for the parsing, one that starts Sudoku with TEXTARENA_KW_CLUES=65. Both fail without the fix (the second with the TypeError above).
• README and docs: one line saying values are read as JSON.

Compatibility

Values that are not valid JSON are passed exactly as before. A value that is valid JSON but was meant as a string (for example TEXTARENA_KW_word="null") would now change type. No Space or Dockerfile in the repo sets TEXTARENA_KW_*.

Test plan

• pytest tests/envs/test_textarena_environment.py: 30 passed.

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Note

Low Risk
Small server startup change limited to optional TextArena kwargs; non-JSON values behave as before, with a minor edge case if a value was intentionally a JSON literal string.

Overview
TEXTARENA_KW_* env vars are no longer always passed to TextArena as strings. _parse_env_kwargs in server/app.py now runs each value through json.loads, with a fallback to the raw string when parsing fails, so numeric and boolean kwargs (e.g. Sudoku clues=65) reach games with the correct type instead of causing type errors on reset().

Documentation in the TextArena README and docs now notes JSON parsing and gives Sudoku/difficulty examples. Tests cover the parser mapping (65 → int, true → bool, hard → str) and starting Sudoku with TEXTARENA_KW_CLUES=65.

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