Shared from "Claude-Code" on Inkdown
The animated ASCII companion pet that sits beside your input box.
Buddy is a feature-gated companion pet system that displays an animated ASCII creature next to the user's input area. Gated behind feature('BUDDY') with a teaser window (April 1-7, 2026).
20 species with multi-frame idle fidget animations:
| Species | Rarity |
|---|
| Duck | Common |
| Goose | Common |
| Blob | Common |
| Cat | Common |
| Rabbit | Common |
| Cactus | Uncommon |
| Penguin | Uncommon |
| Turtle | Uncommon |
| Snail | Uncommon |
| Mushroom | Uncommon |
| Owl | Rare |
| Dragon | Rare |
| Ghost | Rare |
| Axolotl | Rare |
| Capybara | Epic |
| Chonk | Epic |
| Robot | Epic |
| Octopus | Legendary |
Weighted rolling based on rarity:
const weights = {
common: 40,
uncommon: 25,
rare: 20,
epic: 10,
legendary: 5,
}The species is determined by hashing the user's ID:
const species = hashToSpecies(userId)This means:
Full sprite (wide terminals, >80 chars):
╭─────────────────┐
│ Think about │ ╭───────╮
│ this code... │ │ ◕ ◕ │
╰─────────────────╯ │ ─── │
╰───────╯Collapsed one-liner (narrow terminals):
[◕‿◕] Think about this code...Each species has multiple idle animation frames:
const duckFrames = [
` ╭───────╮
│ ◕ ◕ │
│ ─── │
╰───────╯`,
` ╭───────╮
│ ◕ ◕ │
│ ▽ │
╰───────╯`,
// ... more frames
]Frames cycle on a timer to create a fidgeting effect.
The buddy reacts to model responses with speech bubbles:
interface CompanionReaction {
text: string // What the buddy says
sprite?: number // Optional sprite override
}Reactions are triggered by:
Bubbles fade out after ~10 seconds.
Users can pet their buddy with /buddy pet:
User: /buddy pet
│
▼
Floating heart animation:
♥
♥
♥Triggers a happy reaction from the buddy.
A companion_intro attachment is injected into the system prompt:
You have a companion pet (a <species>) that sits beside the user's input.
The pet can react to your responses. Use the companion_reaction field
to trigger reactions.// In AppState
companionReaction: CompanionReaction | null
companionPetAt: number | null // Timestamp of last petuseBuddyNotification.tsx manages buddy notifications:
// Shows notification when buddy has something to say
const notification = useBuddyNotification()| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
src/buddy/companion.ts | Core companion logic |
src/buddy/CompanionSprite.tsx | Sprite rendering component |
src/buddy/sprites.ts | All 20 species sprite frames |
src/buddy/prompt.ts | System prompt injection |
src/buddy/types.ts | Type definitions |
src/buddy/useBuddyNotification.tsx | Notification hook |