A small companion that stands on your dock, lives on your git commits, hunts failing test bugs across your desktop, launches rockets on push, and cheers your Claude Code sessions.
No install or signup required. Click to pat, drag to throw with ram-air parafoils, switch between 11 species, and fire real developer events!
11 unique species with distinct walk cycles, attack animations, sound effects, and commit-based evolution.
Bitling doesn't sit idle. It connects directly to your daily development tools and turns your workspace into an interactive stage.
ZERO-CONFIG REFLOG WATCHER
Bitling automatically scans your home directory and tails your repositories' .git/logs reflog. No tokens, no GitHub account required, and no polling.
SCREEN-WIDE FAILING TEST NAMES
When tests fail in Pytest or CI, beetles crawl out across your entire desktop. Each beetle wears the actual name of the failing test so you know what broke instantly!
LIVE SESSION TRANSCRIPT MONITOR
Bitling tails transcripts under ~/.claude/projects. While Claude Code researches, edits files, and executes commands, your pet stays in lockstep.
RAGDOLL THROW & FLOATER FLIGHT
Pick up your pet with your mouse: its legs dangle naturally. Throw it across your desktop, and it tumbles, opens a ram-air parafoil, and lands upright on its feet!
Click Bitling's Dock icon or run bitling panel to open the native control room. Zero telemetry, zero network tracking.
See every commit hash, push, merge, and Claude turn logged in real time with color-coded event ticks.
Check your companion's Energy, Hunger, and Happiness levels. Watch them grow into Overclocked and Ultra forms!
Configure repo watchers, toggle screen-wide bug swarms, set sound preferences, or enable one-step global git hooks.
Adding a species to Bitling is a pure drawing and a voice definition, not a complex fork. Needs, physics, and speech bubbles are shared.
// Register a new species in Bitling
defineSpecies({
id: 'newt',
name: 'Newt',
kind: 'ground', // or 'float'
blurb: 'A speedy salamander with elemental flame breath.',
accent: '#7ee7d7',
radius: [46, 44, 52, 60], // body radius per growth stage
reach: () => 3.4, // speech bubble clearance (measured)
half: (r) => r * 1.8, // window boundary width
draw: () => drawNewt(), // your canvas drawing function
trail: null, // 'thruster' or 'flamejet'
attack: {
style: 'beam',
charge: 0.3,
origin: (r) => [{ x: pet.x, y: pet.y }],
draw(r, k) { /* custom canvas laser / projectile */ }
},
voice: {
hello: ['Ready to code!', 'Newt is on watch.'],
zapped: ['Bug squashed!', 'Clean hit!'],
testPass: ['All green! Clean build.']
}
});How Bitling compares to OpenPets and traditional desktop pets.
| Feature | Bitling | OpenPets | Generic Desktop Pets |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-Browser Live Simulation | โ Full 60 FPS Canvas Engine | โ Spritesheet Preview | โ Video / Mockups only |
| Real-Time Git Reflog Tracking | โ Native zero-config watcher | โ Plugin required | โ None |
| Failing Test Bug Swarms | โ Screen-wide bugs with test names | โ None | โ None |
| Fixed-Test Sniper Lasers | โ Snipes only tests you fixed | โ None | โ None |
| Claude Code AI Session Hooks | โ Built-in transcript tailer | โ Plugin required | โ None |
| Ragdoll Drag & Parachute Physics | โ Real ram-air ram parafoil | โ Spritesheet frames | โ None |
| Boss Bug Battles | โ Armored bosses with health bars | โ None | โ None |
| Privacy & Zero Telemetry | โ 100% Local-first, zero telemetry | โ Local-first | Varies |
Everything you need to know about installing, running, and configuring Bitling.
Bitling is signed ad hoc rather than with an expensive Apple Developer ID. If macOS displays "Apple could not verify Bitling is free of malware", simply run this command once in your terminal:
Alternatively, go to System Settings โ Privacy & Security, scroll to "Bitling was blocked", and click Open Anyway. Using the one-line curl installer does this automatically!
No! Bitling is engineered in lightweight Swift and WebKit. When idle, CPU consumption is ~0.1%. When you hide the pet or let it sleep, background rendering halts completely to preserve your MacBook battery life.
Bitling reads the local .git/logs/HEAD reflog file on your own hard drive. It never communicates with GitHub, requires no personal access tokens, and works on repositories that have never been pushed to the cloud.
Bitling ships with a global CLI linked to /usr/local/bin/bitling. You can switch companions or fire events anytime:
bitling pet mario # Switch companion to Super Mario
bitling pet goku # Switch companion to Son Goku
bitling pet pikachu # Switch companion to Pikachu
bitling panel # Open the native control room
bitling say "lunch?" # Make your pet speak a speech bubble
Yes! Bitling is 100% open source under the MIT license. You can declare your own species using the defineSpecies API in web/bitling.html, measure its proportions with node Tools/check_bubble_gap.mjs, and submit a pull request on GitHub!