GitHub - AG9898/buddy: Windows desktop pet that reacts to your AI coding assistant — transparent Electron overlay, npm-installed, no GUI setup required.

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A floating desktop pet for Windows that reacts to your AI coding assistant in real time.

buddy renders a transparent, always-on-top pixel-art character directly on your Windows desktop. It listens to hook events from Claude Code and Codex CLI and animates the pet as your agent works — running when tools fire, jumping when you send a prompt, waiting for permissions, and waving when the session ends.

No login. No cloud. No installer GUI. Just npm install -g @ag9898/buddy and the buddy CLI. The npm package includes the built app and installs the Electron runtime dependency that buddy start uses, so a global install does not need a source checkout.

Requirements

Requirement	Notes
Windows 10 or 11	The Electron overlay is Windows-only
Node.js 18+	Required for `npm install -g @ag9898/buddy`
Claude Code or Codex CLI	At least one required for hook integration
WSL (optional)	Only needed for WSL-side hook events via `petdex-bridge`
Codex CLI (optional)	Only needed for `buddy hatch` pet generation

Installation

Windows (PowerShell / Command Prompt)

npm install -g @ag9898/buddy
buddy start

The pet window appears on your desktop. buddy start launches the app detached and returns your prompt immediately.

WSL

npm install -g @ag9898/buddy
buddy start          # uses WSL interop to launch the Windows Electron app
buddy hooks install  # wires Claude Code and Codex CLI hooks for WSL

WSL interop must be enabled. If buddy.exe is not reachable, buddy prints a clear actionable error.

WSL bridge

Install or build petdex-bridge inside WSL to route WSL shell hook events to the Windows pet:

cd petdex-bridge
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
target/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/petdex-bridge state running

The bridge reads BUDDY_PORT (default 7777) and sends authenticated JSON to http://127.0.0.1:${BUDDY_PORT}/state. It reads the update token from $HOME/.petdex-win/runtime/update-token; set BUDDY_TOKEN only as a temporary override. After starting buddy on Windows once, make WSL share that Windows-owned data directory:

ln -s /mnt/c/Users/<you>/.petdex-win ~/.petdex-win

If a symlink is not practical, copy the Windows runtime/update-token file into $HOME/.petdex-win/runtime/update-token, or set BUDDY_DATA_DIR=/mnt/c/Users/<you>/.petdex-win for WSL commands.

Quick Start

# 1 — install
npm install -g @ag9898/buddy

# 2 — launch the pet window
buddy start

# 3 — wire up Claude Code + Codex CLI hooks
buddy hooks install

# 4 — confirm everything is connected
buddy doctor

Within seconds of your next claude or codex command the pet will start reacting.

CLI Reference

buddy <command> [options]

Command	Description
`buddy start`	Launch the Electron pet window, return control to the terminal.
`buddy stop`	Quit the running pet app.
`buddy update`	Explicitly update the globally installed package to the latest npm release.
`buddy state <name>`	Manually push a state (`idle`, `running`, `waiting`, …).
`buddy hooks install`	Write Claude Code + Codex CLI hook entries.
`buddy hooks status`	Report hook coverage per assistant and event (read-only).
`buddy hooks uninstall`	Remove only the hook entries buddy owns.
`buddy doctor`	Health check: process, sidecar, token, and hook status.
`buddy hatch <prompt>`	Generate a personal pet via Codex CLI image generation.
`buddy pets list`	List all valid buddy-managed and Codex-compatible pets.
`buddy pets current`	Print the currently active pet and its path (`buddy pets show` is an alias).
`buddy pets use <id>`	Select and persist an active pet by ID.

Options

Flag	Command	Description
`--id <id>`	`hatch`	Name the generated buddy-managed pet (otherwise derived from the prompt).
`--output <dir>`	`hatch`	Explicit custom output directory for the generated pet.
`--package-preset <id>`	`hatch`	Maintainer-only: replace a bundled source-checkout preset.
`--verbose`	`hatch`	Show raw Codex subprocess output.
`--rc <path>`	`hooks install`	Deprecated compatibility flag; ignored.

Updating

Run buddy update when you choose to update the globally npm-installed package:

buddy update

buddy never checks for or installs updates in the background. If npm reports a permission error, rerun from an account that can update global npm packages.

Pet States

The pet animates in response to your AI assistant's lifecycle events:

UserPromptSubmit  →  jumping
PreToolUse        →  running
PostToolUse       →  idle
PermissionRequest →  waiting
Stop              →  waving

Trigger a state manually at any time:

buddy state running
buddy state idle

Pet Management

buddy discovers pets from three locations:

Source	Path	Notes
buddy-managed	`%USERPROFILE%\.petdex-win\pets` on Windows, `$HOME/.petdex-win/pets` in WSL	Created by `buddy hatch`. Override with `BUDDY_SPRITES_DIR`; use a WSL symlink/copy or `BUDDY_DATA_DIR` so WSL sees the Windows-owned directory.
packaged	`<@ag9898/buddy package>\pets`	Built-in read-only pets shipped with buddy: `default` and `penguin`.
Codex-compatible	`%USERPROFILE%\.codex\pets`	Read-only asset folders — buddy never writes Codex state.

A valid pet folder contains a pet.json state machine and a spritesheet.webp (8 × 9 grid).

Included pets

The npm package ships with two ready-to-use pets:

default — the original bundled companion.
penguin — an animated penguin with idle, running, waiting, jumping, waving, failed, and review states.

Select either at any time:

buddy pets use penguin

Generating a pet

buddy hatch delegates image generation to Codex CLI — buddy never holds image-provider credentials:

buddy hatch "a small orange cat"
buddy hatch "a small orange cat" --id marmalade
buddy hatch "a small orange cat" --output C:\\art\\my-cat
buddy hatch "a small orange cat" --verbose

By default, a hatch creates a personal pet in %USERPROFILE%\\.petdex-win\\pets\\<derived-id>, so it is available to buddy pets without changing the npm package. Use --id to choose that folder name. --package-preset <id> is intentionally explicit and only for maintainers who are replacing a bundled pets/<id> asset in a source checkout. Codex CLI must be installed and signed in (codex login) before hatching. Use BUDDY_CODEX_COMMAND if Codex lives at a non-standard path.

Browsing and selecting pets

buddy pets list          # enumerate valid pets from all sources
buddy pets current       # print the active selection (alias: buddy pets show)
buddy pets use orange-cat

Hook Integration

buddy hooks install writes hook entries for Claude Code and Codex CLI in the current host environment:

Claude Code: ~/.claude/settings.json
Codex CLI: ~/.codex/hooks.json
Windows hooks call buddy state <name>
WSL hooks call petdex-bridge state <name>

After installing Codex hooks, open /hooks in Codex CLI if prompted and trust the new buddy command hooks.

buddy hooks status reports coverage per assistant and per event without changing anything. buddy hooks uninstall removes only the entries buddy wrote — unrelated hooks, events, and settings in those files are preserved, repeated runs are no-ops, and a file buddy cannot parse is reported instead of rewritten.

The event pipeline from there:

[ Claude Code / Codex CLI hook fires ]
          │
          ▼  (Windows)                       (WSL)
  buddy state <name>              petdex-bridge state <name>
          │                                  │
          └──────────────┬───────────────────┘
                         ▼
              POST 127.0.0.1:7777/state
                         │
                         ▼
              Electron HTTP sidecar
              (validates X-Petdex-Update-Token)
                         │
                         ▼
              Electron IPC → Svelte renderer
                         │
                         ▼
                pet animates ✓

All traffic is loopback-only. No event data leaves your machine.

Configuration

All variables are optional — buddy runs with safe built-in defaults, no .env required.

Variable	Default	Description
`BUDDY_PORT`	`7777`	Port for the local HTTP hook sidecar.
`BUDDY_DATA_DIR`	`%USERPROFILE%\.petdex-win`	Override the buddy-owned data root for state, token, and buddy-managed pets. In WSL, prefer symlinking `$HOME/.petdex-win` to the Windows directory.
`BUDDY_TOKEN`	(unset)	Temporary token override for `petdex-bridge`; normally read from `$HOME/.petdex-win/runtime/update-token`.
`BUDDY_SPRITES_DIR`	`<BUDDY_DATA_DIR>\pets`	Override only the buddy-managed pets directory.
`BUDDY_LOG_LEVEL`	`info`	Main process log level: `debug` `info` `warn` `error`.
`BUDDY_CODEX_COMMAND`	`codex`	Codex CLI command used by `buddy hatch`.
`BUDDY_VERBOSE`	(unset)	Set to `1` to enable verbose output in `buddy hatch`.

To override during development, create a .env at the project root:

BUDDY_PORT=7778
BUDDY_LOG_LEVEL=debug

Development

git clone <repo-url>
cd buddy
npm install

npm run dev          # Electron + Vite dev server with hot reload
npm test             # Vitest unit tests
npm run lint         # ESLint + svelte-check + tsc --noEmit
npm run build:app    # build Electron bundles and out/cli/index.js
npm pack --dry-run   # inspect the npm release tarball
npm run build:win:local  # local smoke build, skips code signing

Package contents

The public npm package is named @ag9898/buddy, but it installs the buddy command. npm pack runs npm run build:app through prepack and publishes only the built runtime output, bundled pets, icon/build metadata, README/LICENSE/CHANGELOG, and selected release docs. Agent skill folders, source-only planning files, tests, local caches, and workboard files are excluded by the package allowlist and .npmignore guardrail. Electron is installed as an optional production dependency of the package, which gives buddy start a runtime executable after npm install -g @ag9898/buddy without shipping source-only dev dependencies.

WSL bridge (optional)

Requires Rust with the x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu cross-compile target inside WSL:

cd petdex-bridge
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Project layout

src/
  cli/            npm bin entry and subcommands
  main/           Electron main: window, sidecar, tray, state persistence
  preload/        contextBridge — petApi exposed to the Svelte renderer
  renderer/       Svelte pet renderer and sprite animation state machine
  shared/         IPC channel constants (imported by main / preload / tests)
petdex-bridge/    Rust WSL bridge for shell hook events
pets/default/     Bundled default pet (pet.json + spritesheet.webp)
pets/penguin/     Bundled penguin pet (pet.json + spritesheet.webp)
docs/             Architecture, CLI contract, env vars, decisions, workboard

Architecture

buddy is four components talking locally — no network, no accounts, no cloud:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Windows desktop                     │
│                                                      │
│  ┌─────────────┐    IPC     ┌──────────────────┐    │
│  │  buddy CLI  │◄──────────►│  Electron main   │    │
│  │  (node bin) │            │  BrowserWindow   │    │
│  └─────────────┘            │  HTTP sidecar    │    │
│                             │  System tray     │    │
│                             └────────┬─────────┘    │
│                                      │ IPC           │
│                             ┌────────▼─────────┐    │
│                             │  Svelte renderer │    │
│                             │  sprite animate  │    │
│                             └──────────────────┘    │
└──────────────────────────────────▲──────────────────┘
                                   │ HTTP POST
                            ┌──────┴──────┐
                            │   WSL env   │
                            │ petdex-     │
                            │ bridge      │
                            │ (Rust CLI)  │
                            └─────────────┘

Component	Responsibility
buddy CLI	Detects Windows vs WSL, launches/stops the app, installs hooks, sends state.
Electron main	Transparent always-on-top `BrowserWindow`, HTTP sidecar, state persistence, tray.
Svelte renderer	CSS sprite animation, drag and resize interactions via `contextBridge`.
petdex-bridge	WSL Rust binary — called by shell hooks, POSTs to sidecar via localhost passthrough.

Full details: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md

Troubleshooting

Pet window doesn't appear

buddy doctor   # checks process, sidecar, token, and hook status in one pass

buddy doctor also verifies that the Electron runtime dependency is present. If that check fails, reinstall with npm install -g @ag9898/buddy.

Hooks aren't triggering animations Re-run buddy hooks install, restart your shell, and confirm your AI CLI fires hooks.

buddy start from WSL fails (interop error) WSL interop must be enabled. Verify cmd.exe is reachable from within your WSL session.

buddy hatch fails immediately

codex doctor   # verify Codex CLI is installed and authenticated

Set BUDDY_CODEX_COMMAND if Codex is at a non-standard path.

Pet is off-screen after a monitor change

buddy stop && buddy start   # startup clamps bounds into the current display work area

MIT License · Windows only · No telemetry · No accounts · Local-only

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 71 Commits
.agents/skills		.agents/skills
.claude/skills		.claude/skills
.codex/skills		.codex/skills
build		build
docs		docs
petdex-bridge		petdex-bridge
pets		pets
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmignore		.npmignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
electron-builder.yml		electron-builder.yml
electron.vite.config.ts		electron.vite.config.ts
handoff.md		handoff.md
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
tsconfig.node.json		tsconfig.node.json
vite.cli.config.ts		vite.cli.config.ts
vitest.config.mts		vitest.config.mts

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Requirements

Installation

Windows (PowerShell / Command Prompt)

WSL

WSL bridge

Quick Start

CLI Reference

Options

Updating

Pet States

Pet Management

Included pets

Generating a pet

Browsing and selecting pets

Hook Integration

Configuration

Development

Package contents

WSL bridge (optional)

Project layout

Architecture

Troubleshooting

About

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Contents

Requirements

Installation

Windows (PowerShell / Command Prompt)

WSL

WSL bridge

Quick Start

CLI Reference

Options

Updating

Pet States

Pet Management

Included pets

Generating a pet

Browsing and selecting pets

Hook Integration

Configuration

Development

Package contents

WSL bridge (optional)

Project layout

Architecture

Troubleshooting

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