intermission

A Claude Code plugin that drops you into Doom deathmatch while Claude works, and hands you back when it's done.

When Claude has been working for two seconds, a pane opens beside the transcript and you drop into a free-for-all on a shared server with everyone else who is waiting on Claude. When Claude finishes there's a three-second countdown and you're handed back. If Claude needs you, say for a permission prompt, you're handed back at once and dropped in again after you answer.

It's Odamex with Freedoom's maps, with monsters left in so the server is never empty.

Install

1. Install the plugin:

   /plugin install intermission --marketplace jarrodwatts/intermission
   

2. Turn it on:

   /intermission
   

   The first time, it downloads the game, about 20 MB.

To turn it off again, run /intermission off.

Requirements

• macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel
• Ghostty or kitty, the terminals that can show the game's pixels
• Claude Code 2.1.287 or later

Controls

Click the game to play. The click also locks the mouse for turning; Esc or ⌘ releases it.

| | | | :- | :- | | Move | WASD or the arrow keys | | Turn | the mouse, once locked | | Fire | left click | | Run forward | hold right click | | Open doors | space | | Weapons | 1 to 7 |

If your terminal is too narrow for the pane to open by itself, a line above the prompt offers it instead: press 1.

What it connects to

The game connects over UDP to the intermission server at 157.245.140.115, under a random name such as QueuedMarine42. Nothing about your session, project or Claude's work is sent. Between rounds it stays connected as a silent spectator, and disconnects after five minutes away.

How it works

The mod runs Odamex without a window. Each frame goes into shared memory, which the terminal paints into the pane, and the pane passes keys and clicks back. Terminals report key presses but not releases, so a key counts as held until its auto-repeat stops. The changes to Odamex are in engine/odamex.patch, applied to the commit in engine/odamex-commit.

The server is stock Odamex; deploy.sh builds and runs it on a droplet.

Licenses

The mod is MIT, as in LICENSE. Odamex is GPL-2.0, and so are the changes to it in engine/. Freedoom is BSD-3-Clause.