storymode-cli

AI-animated pixel art companions for your terminal. Reacts to Claude Code in real time.

npx storymode-cli play

Quick Start

npx storymode-cli play

That's it. A companion opens in a tmux side pane and reacts to what Claude Code is doing — switching animations when it reads files, writes code, hits errors, etc.

Use browse to switch characters or visit storymode.fixmy.codes to see the full gallery.

npx storymode-cli browse

Options

npx storymode-cli play              # full size (default)
npx storymode-cli play --compact    # smaller pane
npx storymode-cli play --tiny       # tiny pane
npx storymode-cli play --no-ai      # disable AI personality
npx storymode-cli play --classic    # full-screen animation viewer

Keyboard: a add API key (enables AI personality), q quit.

AI Personality

On first launch, you'll be prompted for an ANTHROPIC_API_KEY. This enables the companion to generate unique, in-character speech using Claude Haiku. The key is saved locally to ~/.storymode/config.json.

Without it, you still get reactive animations and preset speech lines.

How It Works

Three layers, each faster than the last:

1. Instant (0ms) — maps Claude Code events to animations + random speech lines
2. State engine (0ms) — tracks character dimensions (energy, frustration, etc.) over time. Threshold crossings change animations (e.g. falls asleep when energy is low)
3. LLM personality (~3s) — batches recent events and asks Haiku for an in-character reaction

Character Personalities

Characters can have personality files that control their behavior. See docs/personality.md for the full guide.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• Truecolor terminal (iTerm2, Terminal.app, Windows Terminal, Claude Code)
• tmux (auto-installed if missing)

Zero runtime dependencies — built entirely on Node.js built-ins.

Gallery

Browse characters at storymode.fixmy.codes