Claude Pet

For Claude Code · macOS

Know what Claude is doing, without looking.

Claude Pet is a pixel companion that lives in your MacBook’s notch. It mirrors every step of your Claude Code session, and when Claude has a question for you, you answer right there.

Download for macOS
Terminal & Desktop
Works with both
Local first
No account, no tracking
Apple Silicon
macOS 13+, notch or not
Or hover the notch, click the menu bar icon, drag the pet out The real app, recorded on a MacBook

Eight moods

A status bar, with feelings.

Every Claude Code hook becomes a little scene. Glance at the notch and you know whether Claude is busy, done, or stuck waiting for you.

  • Thinking

    Between steps, after you send a prompt

  • On the laptop

    Running commands and editing files

  • Working

    An icon per tool: search, web, agents

  • Needs you

    Claude has a question, or a permission

  • Oops

    A tool failed, for three seconds

  • Done

    Claude finished the task

  • Napping

    Ten seconds of quiet, frozen, zero CPU

  • Hello

    Click it and it waves back

Several sessions at once? The pet follows the one that matters most: needs you before an error, an error before work, work before thinking.

Features

Stay in your flow. Claude taps you when it matters.

Answer Claude’s questions without switching windows

Agents run on their own now, right up to the decisions that are yours to make. When Claude asks you something, a banner slides out of the notch. Hover it, pick an answer, and Claude carries on.

  • Single choice, multiple choice, or Other to type your own answer.
  • Still approving commands by hand? Allow once, Deny or Ignore work the same way. Never a silent “always allow”.
  • The first answer wins, wherever you give it: the pet, the terminal or Claude Desktop.
The notch opened into a panel: Claude asks how to store user sessions, with Signed cookies, Redis, Postgres table and Other as answers.

Your usage, one click away

Click the pet’s silhouette in the menu bar for a panel with what Claude is doing and three rings: your 5-hour limit, your weekly limit, and how full the context window is.

  • Hover the notch and the same rings grow around the pet.
  • Account limits are opt-in, off by default. Context comes from your session itself.
  • Stale numbers show as unknown, never as a reassuring 0%.
The menu bar panel: Claude is working with Bash, usage rings at 34% for 5 hours, 21% for the week and 18% of the context, and toggles to show the pet and live in the notch.

In the notch, or anywhere

On a MacBook with a notch, the pet sits right beside the camera. Grab it and drag it out: the black frame tucks itself back in and the pet grows to full size wherever you drop it.

  • Bring it back by dragging it to the notch. It shrinks as it gets close, then settles with a little plop.
  • Floating, requests appear as a pill above the pet that opens into a card.
  • No notch, or an external display? It simply floats, in the corner you choose.
A floating request card above the pet: Claude wants to run npm test.

How it works

Set up in a minute. Nothing to configure.

Claude Pet listens to Claude Code’s own hooks. Each event is a tiny local request, and the pet acts it out.

  1. Drop it in Applications

    Open the disk image and drag Claude Pet into your Applications folder. No Dock icon: it lives in the menu bar and the notch.

  2. Read what it installs, then accept

    On first launch, a screen lists exactly what will change: a few Claude Code hooks in ~/.claude/settings.json and a status line relay. Your file is backed up before every write.

  3. Code as usual

    Start a Claude Code session in the terminal or in Claude Desktop. Sessions already open pick up the hooks after a restart, or after /hooks.

Claude Code terminal or Desktop
hook event
127.0.0.1:47319 never leaves your Mac
state
Claude Pet

Privacy & trust

It edits your Claude config. So it shows its work.

Nothing is installed until you’ve read the list and pressed Accept. Decline, and the app quits without writing a byte.

  • Local first

    The app listens on 127.0.0.1 only and refuses requests from web pages. Its one outside call is a daily check on GitHub for a new version, which you can turn off; it never downloads anything by itself.

  • Your settings, backed up

    Before any write to settings.json, a timestamped copy is saved, plus a one-time copy of the original. Restore either from Settings.

  • Plays well with others

    Its hooks are tagged and merged next to yours. Other tools’ hooks are never touched, and installing twice changes nothing.

  • Clean uninstall

    Uninstall removes only Claude Pet’s hooks and puts your original status line back.

  • Account limits are opt-in

    Off by default. When on, it reads Claude Code’s login from your Keychain, keeps it in memory, and never writes or logs it.

  • Light as a feather

    Under 1% of one core at its busiest, zero when asleep, 14 MB of memory. The measured numbers are just below.

Performance

Light enough to forget it’s there.

“I’m the kind of developer who can’t leave an idle CPU spike alone. So in full transparency, here are the exact numbers, measured rather than estimated.” Thomas, who made Claude Pet

  • 14 MBMemory, in every state
  • 0.00%CPU while asleep
  • < 1%CPU at its busiest, of one core
CPU by state% of one core
  1. On the laptop Running commands, editing files 0.80%
  2. Awake, idle Session open, nothing running 0.48%
  3. Thinking Between steps 0.45%
  4. Needs you Permission or question pending 0.42%
  5. Working Reading, searching, web, agents 0.40%
  6. Asleep, mouse moving* Tracking the cursor for hover 0.07%
  7. Asleep Frozen frame, no redraws 0.00%

On a 10-core Mac, 1% of one core is 0.1% of the whole processor. Nothing is polled: the pet redraws only when something changes, its animation stops completely while it naps, and each Claude Code hook costs about 10 ms (nothing when the app is closed).

Measured on Claude Pet 0.1.0, MacBook with Apple M4, macOS 27, October 2026: mean of top over 30 s per state; memory is the physical footprint. *Asleep with the mouse moving: measured the day before. Expect a bit more on older Macs.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Does Claude Pet work with Claude Desktop?

Yes. It follows Claude Code in the terminal and in the Code tab of Claude Desktop, since both run the same hooks from ~/.claude/settings.json. Permissions and questions can be answered from the pet in both.

What if my Mac has no notch?

The pet floats on your desktop instead, in the corner you pick, and you can drag it anywhere. If the notch goes away, for example with the lid closed on an external display, the pet switches to floating by itself.

Does it run on Intel Macs?

Not the download: it is built for Apple Silicon Macs (M1 or later) running macOS 13 or later. On an Intel Mac, you can build it from the source code yourself.

Will it slow down my Mac?

No. Measured on an Apple M4, it uses about 14 MB of memory, at most 0.8% of a single core while Claude runs commands, and 0% while it sleeps, which it does after ten seconds of quiet. Nothing is polled: it only redraws when something changes.

Is Claude Pet free and open source?

Yes. It is free, and its source code is on GitHub under the GPL-3.0 license, so you can read exactly what it does before installing it.

Does it use my Claude tokens or quota?

No. The pet only listens to events Claude Code already emits. It never sends a prompt to a model.

Will it interfere with my other hooks or status line?

No. Claude Pet’s hooks are tagged and merged next to your existing ones, which are left untouched. Your status line keeps working: a small relay passes its data to the pet, then runs your original command.

What happens if I answer Claude in the terminal instead?

Claude Code keeps the first answer it gets, wherever it comes from. Answer in the terminal, in Claude Desktop or in the pet, and the request disappears from everywhere else.

Why does macOS say it can’t check the app?

This early version is not yet notarized by Apple. To open it the first time, go to System Settings › Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway.

How do I uninstall it?

Open Settings › Claude Code and choose Uninstall: only Claude Pet’s hooks are removed and your original status line is restored. You can also restore the copy of settings.json saved before Claude Pet was installed. Then move the app to the Trash.

Is Claude Pet made by Anthropic?

No. It is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.

Give Claude a little body.

For Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 13 or later. Works with Claude Code in the terminal and in Claude Desktop.

Download for macOS View on GitHub

Version 0.1.1 · Free and open source · 3 MB disk image