pixpal

<h1 align="center"><img src="docs/pixpal-logo.svg" alt="pixpal" width="420"></h1> <p align="center"><em>A pixel-art friend above your prompt that shows what Claude is doing, and how it feels about it.</em></p> <p align="center"> <a href="LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-8fa3b8?style=flat-square" alt="License: MIT"></a> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Claude%20Code-2.1.299%2B-8fa3b8?style=flat-square" alt="Claude Code 2.1.299 or later"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/characters-5-8fa3b8?style=flat-square" alt="5 characters"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/languages-any-8fa3b8?style=flat-square" alt="Any language"> </p> <p align="center"> <a href="#demos"><strong>Demos</strong></a> · <a href="#install">Install</a> · <a href="#characters">Characters</a> · <a href="#what-it-shows">What it shows</a> · <a href="#settings">Settings</a> · <a href="#privacy">Privacy</a> · <a href="#contributing">Contributing</a> </p> <p align="center"><img src="docs/pixpal-row.svg" alt="Five Pixpal characters: a robot cheering, a cat waving, Claude nodding yes, an owl blushing and a ghost surprised, each with a speech bubble" width="100%"></p>

TL;DR

• Pixpal lives in the band above the prompt. While Claude works, it acts out the tool in use: it reads a book, searches with a lens, types, runs tests, sends a letter.
• When the answer arrives, it shows how Claude feels about it: happy, proud, sorry, unsure, surprised: one of 15 emotions, picked by keyword rules, or by Claude Haiku if you let it.
• Five characters (robot, cat, Claude, owl, ghost), a dark and a light look, and speech bubbles in any language.
• Each running subagent stands beside it as a mini robot.

Demos

Recorded in a real Claude Code session; the scripts are in docs/*.tape and you can replay them with VHS.

A real question

Claude looks something up, so Pixpal acts out the tools (a lens for the search, a book for reading). When the answer arrives it shows how it feels, and a thank-you makes it shy.

<p align="center"><img src="docs/emotions.gif" alt="Pixpal searches and reads while Claude answers, then reacts to the answer and to a thank-you" width="100%"></p>

Sleeping and waking up

After a minute of quiet, Pixpal falls asleep. Start typing and it peeks over the fence at your prompt.

<p align="center"><img src="docs/demo.gif" alt="Pixpal falls asleep, then wakes up when the user types Wake up, Neo" width="100%"></p>

Any language

/pixpal language spanish, then /pixpal emotions ai: the bubbles speak Spanish and the emotion is picked from the exchange.

<p align="center"><img src="docs/spanish.gif" alt="Pixpal in Spanish answers a question in Spanish and says Ay, gracias to a thank-you" width="100%"></p>

Another look, another character

/pixpal theme light and /pixpal skin claude.

<p align="center"><img src="docs/light.gif" alt="The light theme with the Claude character, answering a quick question" width="100%"></p>

Install

Requires Claude Code 2.1.299 or later.

/plugin marketplace add castus/pixpal
/plugin install pixpal@pixpal

Then run /pixpal init to pick a character, a look, a language and how emotions are picked.

To update, run this and then /reload in every open session:

claude plugin marketplace update pixpal && \
claude plugin update pixpal@pixpal

To uninstall:

claude plugin uninstall pixpal@pixpal

Characters

| | Character | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | 🤖 | robot | the original: antenna, face screen, wheels | | 🐱 | cat | ginger fur, whiskers, a tail | | 🟧 | claude | a square terracotta block on four short legs | | 🦉 | owl | big eye rings, a beak, ear tufts | | 👻 | ghost | see-through: the panel shows through its body |

All five share one skeleton, so every scene and every emotion works for each of them. Pick one with /pixpal skin <name>.

What it shows

Pixpal follows a turn in three phases.

1. Between turns it rests. While you type, it peeks over a fence at your prompt. After a minute of quiet it goes to sleep.
2. While Claude works it shows the tool in use, one to one: Read is a book, Grep a lens, Edit a keyboard, a test run a checklist, git its own scene, a subagent a juggling act. Quick calls (under 0.6 s) do not flicker by.
3. When the answer arrives it plays one emotion twice, chosen from your message and Claude's answer (by keyword rules, or by Claude Haiku with /pixpal emotions ai), from Claude's side: if you say sorry, it is relieved; if you say "again??", it is sorry. After a turn of over a minute it lets out a tired phew first.
4. Agents in the background each running subagent stands beside it as a mini robot (up to four). More than that shows as a +N count next to the last one; when an agent finishes, its mini leaves.

A speech bubble names each emotion ("Yay!", "Sort of", "No worries") and each kind of work ("Reading…", "Testing…"), typed out letter by letter.

Settings

| Command | What it does | | --- | --- | | /pixpal init | set everything up | | /pixpal skin [robot\|cat\|claude\|owl\|ghost] | who Pixpal is | | /pixpal theme [auto\|dark\|light] | the look; auto follows your system's light or dark mode | | /pixpal language <name> \| auto | the bubbles' language: any language, e.g. french, japanese; auto follows your prompt in Polish, English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese or Korean | | /pixpal bubbles [on\|off] | speech bubbles on or off | | /pixpal show | /pixpal hide | Pixpal above the prompt or not; hidden, it leaves the band to other mods | | /pixpal emotions [ai\|keywords] | who picks the emotion: keyword rules (default, sends nothing) or Claude Haiku (see Privacy) | | /pixpal report | a block with versions and settings to paste into a bug report (never your messages) | | /pixpal help | all of the above, with the current values |

Give a setting without a value (/pixpal language) to pick it from a list: ↑↓ move, Enter picks, Esc closes. In the language list, the last row takes any language you type.

Each conversation keeps its own choices, so a resumed session comes back with the same character. A new session starts from your latest choices.

Privacy

Pixpal runs inside Claude Code and makes no network calls of its own. By default nothing you write leaves your machine because of it: keyword rules pick the emotions.

Two features use Claude Code's own model access, only when you turn them on. They go through the same client, account and provider as your conversation (Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock or Google Vertex, under the same terms):

• Emotions, with /pixpal emotions ai: after each answer, the first 500 characters of your message and the opening and closing of Claude's answer (300 + 200 characters when it is long) go to Claude Haiku, which names one emotion. About 900 tokens per answer. If Haiku is blocked or does not answer, the keyword rules take over. Aborted or empty turns never call the model.
• Languages, with /pixpal language <name>: the first time you choose a language without built-in lines, the built-in English bubble lines (not your conversation) are translated once by Claude Haiku and kept on your machine. auto and the twelve built-in languages send nothing.

On macOS, theme auto runs defaults read -g AppleInterfaceStyle once a minute to read your system's appearance.

Limitations

• A short terminal cuts Pixpal. Pixpal draws in the band above the prompt, and Claude Code decides how many rows the band gets. In fullscreen, the band shares the bottom slot with the tasks list and the panes of other mods, and that slot takes at most half of the terminal's height. When there are fewer rows than the picture needs, Pixpal drops the least important rows first (wheels, antenna, arms) and keeps the eyes and the mouth for as long as it can. Make the window taller or close other panes to see all of it.
• Other mods in the band. Mods that draw above the prompt share one band, in the order Claude Code loads them. Pixpal draws the mods that come after it to its right. A mod that comes before Pixpal and does not pass the band on hides Pixpal; use /pixpal hide to give the band to the other mods.
• Pixpal hides during a survey. When Claude Code asks how it is doing (the 1–3 rating), the survey takes the band. Pixpal steps aside and comes back when the survey closes.
• No band in the VS Code extension. Claude Code draws the band only in the terminal and the desktop app, so Pixpal does not show in the VS Code extension.

Contributing

Pull requests are very welcome. If something breaks or feels off, please open an issue. CONTRIBUTING.md explains how to run the tests and how to add a character, an emotion or a language; see also the changelog and the security policy.

MOOD_GUIDE.md is the design of what Pixpal shows and when.

License

MIT.

_{Pixpal is a fan-made project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic.}