idle-arcade

Terminal games that auto-launch when Claude Code is thinking.

  ╭──────────────────────────────────╮
  │                                  │
  │          I D L E                 │
  │        A R C A D E               │
  │                                  │
  ├──────────────────────────────────┤
  │  > Snake              Best: 42  │
  ├──────────────────────────────────┤
  │  Up/Down  Enter Play  Q Quit    │
  ╰──────────────────────────────────╯

What is this?

A retro arcade that pops up when Claude Code is thinking. Pick a game from the menu, play while you wait, and it vanishes when Claude needs your attention. Like the Chrome dinosaur game, but for your AI coding assistant.

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 20
• Ghostty terminal — games launch in a new Ghostty window

Other terminals won't see errors — the hooks silently no-op if Ghostty isn't detected.

Install

npm install -g idle-arcade

Then configure the Claude Code hooks:

idle-arcade setup

Next time Claude Code starts thinking, the arcade menu will appear.

Usage

# Open the arcade menu directly
idle-arcade arcade

# Play a specific game
idle-arcade play snake

# List available games
idle-arcade games

# View high scores
idle-arcade scores

How It Works

Claude Code hooks → idle-arcade daemon → Ghostty window → arcade menu

1. Claude Code hooks fire idle-arcade hook thinking when Claude starts working
2. A background daemon receives the event via a unix socket
3. After 1.5s of continuous thinking, a Ghostty window opens with the arcade menu
4. Pick a game and play — scores are tracked locally
5. When Claude finishes, the window dismisses automatically
6. Game over? Choose Play Again, Return to Menu, or Quit

The Arcade Experience

• Menu screen — browse available games with high scores displayed
• Game shell — wraps each game with score tracking and a game over modal
• Game over modal — shows your score, celebrates new high scores, offers Play Again / Return to Menu / Quit

Watch Options

idle-arcade watch --game snake       # Choose game
idle-arcade watch --threshold 3000   # Custom idle timeout (ms)
idle-arcade watch --demo             # Simulate thinking cycles

Manual Setup

If idle-arcade setup doesn't work, add to ~/.claude/settings.json manually:

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [{
      "matcher": "",
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "idle-arcade hook thinking",
        "timeout": 1000
      }]
    }],
    "Stop": [{
      "matcher": "",
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "idle-arcade hook done",
        "timeout": 1000
      }]
    }]
  }
}

Uninstall

# Remove hooks from Claude Code settings
idle-arcade uninstall

# Remove the package
npm uninstall -g idle-arcade

# Optional: remove local data
rm -rf ~/.config/idle-arcade

Games

• Snake — arrow keys/WASD/hjkl, P pause, Q quit

Upcoming

• More games (Tetris, Breakout, 2048)
• More terminal support (iTerm2, WezTerm, Kitty, Terminal.app)

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to add games.

License

MIT