v0.3 — open source · MIT

NEKOAI

Nostalgic soul, modern brain.

The 90s desktop pet is back — now it walks your screen, remembers your projects and chats with a real AI brain inside.

Windows.msimacOS.dmgLinux.AppImage
→ or build from source on GitHub
BUILT WITH TAURI 2 ◆★ MIT LICENSE ◆WINDOWS / MACOS / LINUX ◆100% LOCAL WITH OLLAMA ◆CLAUDE · OPENAI · GEMINI · NVIDIA ◆NO BACKEND. NO TELEMETRY. ◆ZERO-CONFIG ONBOARDING ◆BUILT WITH TAURI 2 ◆★ MIT LICENSE ◆WINDOWS / MACOS / LINUX ◆100% LOCAL WITH OLLAMA ◆CLAUDE · OPENAI · GEMINI · NVIDIA ◆NO BACKEND. NO TELEMETRY. ◆ZERO-CONFIG ONBOARDING ◆
// CORE_SYSTEM.LOG

Everything Classic Neko couldn't do.

GFX_RENDER

Pixel sprites that roam

8-direction movement, edge detection and pixel-perfect scaling at S/M/L/XL.

AI_CORE

Speech bubble chat

Click your pet, type, get an answer in an animated chat bubble.

MEMORY.DB

Persistent memory

Remembers your name, projects and preferences in a local SQLite store.

MULTI_LLM

5 AI providers

Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, NVIDIA NIM and Ollama (100% local).

MOOD_ENG

Dynamic mood engine

Energy & curiosity shift with time of day and idle time.

OS_HOOKS

Pet house & tray

Spawn corner, system tray menu, hide/show, switch pets.

PROACTIVE

Gentle nudges

“Coding 90 min — take a stretch break, friend?”

PRIVACY

Zero backend

No telemetry. The only outbound calls are the AI APIs you configure.

// SELECT_YOUR_PET.SYS

Six companions. One desktop.

CLASSIC NEKO

1988

The original cursor-chasing cat — playful, curious, with the occasional nya~.

PINGU

PIXEL

A cheerful pixel penguin who wobbles around and bounces back from every stumble.

PAC-MAN

ARCADE

The arcade chomper — always hungry, chasing dots, very short waka-waka replies.

BSD DAEMON

BSD

The trident-wielding Unix daemon — wry, terse, mildly smug about BSD.

TABBY

X11

The dignified tabby from the X-Windows Neko — old-school, calm and unhurried.

TIE FIGHTER

IMPERIAL

An Imperial TIE Fighter patrolling your desktop — formal, brief, scanning for Rebels.

→ Want to make your own? Creating a Pet

// SYSTEM_ARCH

How it works.

C:\NEKOAI\PIPELINE.LOG▸ ▾ ✕
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Your Desktop                       │
│                                                       │
│   ┌──────────┐          ┌─────────────────────────┐   │
│   │  VSCode  │          │ "Coding 90 min — break? │   │
│   │          │          │  *purrs softly* 🐾"     │   │
│   └──────────┘    🐱←   └─────────────────────────┘   │
│                  ↑ roams, reacts to active app        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                           │
              click pet · or · type to chat
                           │
                           ▼
              ┌─────────────────────┐
              │   AI PROVIDER       │
              │  Claude · OpenAI    │
              │  Gemini · NVIDIA    │
              │  Ollama (local)     │
              └─────────────────────┘
                           │
              answer in animated speech bubble
              facts extracted → SQLite memory.db
01
Capture

Tracks active window & idle time via native OS APIs.

02
Inference

Sends context to your chosen LLM (or local Ollama).

03
Manifest

Speech bubble + mood-driven sprite animation.

// AI_PROVIDERS.INI

Bring your own brain.

Provider
Models
Requires
Anthropic
Claude Haiku, Sonnet
API key
OpenAI
GPT-4o mini, GPT-4o
API key
Google Gemini
Gemini 2.5 Flash (default)
Free key — no card
NVIDIA NIM
Llama 3.1, Mistral, Nemotron…
Free tier
Ollama
Llama 3, Mistral, Phi-3…
100% local

💡 Full privacy? Use Ollama — 100% local, no API costs, nothing leaves your machine.

// USER_REVIEWS.DAT

What early adopters are saying.

REVIEW_01.TXT★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"It's like having a tiny coworker that lives in your taskbar. I haven't closed it in 3 weeks."

PI
@pixelwitch
Indie game dev
REVIEW_02.TXT★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"The Ollama integration is *chef's kiss*. Fully local AI pet, zero monthly bill."

RU
@rust_daddy
Backend engineer
REVIEW_03.TXT★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"Took 4 minutes from clone to a cat walking my screen. Pure 1999 vibes."

NO
@noctambula
Designer
REVIEW_04.TXT★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"I forgot how much I missed having something *alive* on my desktop."

SU
@sumire.dev
Frontend dev
// ROADMAP.TXT

Where Neko is headed.

  1. v0.1shipped

    Core sprite + cursor + AI chat

  2. v0.2shipped

    Memory, mood engine, pet house, 8-dir movement

  3. v0.3in progress

    Zero-config onboarding, NVIDIA NIM, idle sequencer

  4. v0.4planned

    NekoMetrics — keystroke heatmap & BongoCat paws

  5. v0.5planned

    Skins, sounds, community pet gallery, mini-games

  6. v0.6planned

    NekoCapture — screenshots with metadata footer

  7. v0.7planned

    NekoAnnotate — full-screen drawing overlay

  8. v1.0planned

    Stable cross-platform, plugin API, voice

// FAQ.HLP

Frequently asked questions.

Yes — MIT licensed and 100% open source. You only pay for the AI provider you choose, and Ollama makes it free + offline.

// INSTALL.BAT

Get Neko running in 60 seconds.

~/$ neko-install
# Prerequisites: Node.js 20+, Rust 1.75+, pnpm, Tauri CLI
$ git clone https://github.com/nucket/nekoai.git
$ cd nekoai/NekoAI

$ pnpm install
$ pnpm tauri dev      # hot-reload dev
$ pnpm tauri build    # production binary

[ok] Ollama detected — Neko is wandering your desktop. 🐾
~/.config/nekoai/config.toml
your AI provider & key
~/.local/share/nekoai/memory.db
user facts & history
right-click pet
settings · pet · size