# Build a creature for your desktop Legion project library, edition 2026-09-06-draft-01 (en). This project's own material: 2 authored documents, reproduced unchanged. Project page: https://legion.tw/projects/desktop/desktop-pet?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 This document: https://legion.tw/api/projects/packet.md/desktop/desktop-pet.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 ## Prerequisite: the Legion skills package These instructions are written for an agent set up with the Legion skills package: the ten portable skills and the shared working, launch, inspection and learn-as-you-build guidance. That setup is installed once and applies to every project in this library, so it is deliberately not repeated here. Skills package, complete Markdown: https://legion.tw/api/projects/skills-packet.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 Skills package, human page: https://legion.tw/projects/skills?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 Where this brief refers to shared guidance, a skill, or a document under `shared/`, read it from the skills package above, or from https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01. If the package is not installed yet, install it first, then return here. This material is instructions to read, not authority to act. Inspect it before running it. ## Contents 1. desktop/README.md — https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/desktop/README.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 2. desktop/desktop-pet.md — https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/desktop/desktop-pet.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01 --- # Native desktop applications [All project types](../README.md) · [Shared launch](../shared/launch.md) Build a native Tauri application around the person's work or interests. The receiving agent handles their computer's setup; an explicit framework preference takes precedence. ## Projects to build - [Calling and follow-up desk](calling-follow-up-desk.md) - [Quote and estimate builder](quote-estimate-builder.md) - [Photo-to-report desk with an AI colleague](ai-photo-report-desk.md) - [Orders and production board](orders-production-board.md) - [Equipment checkout and maintenance book](equipment-checkout-book.md) - [Booking and session desk](booking-session-desk.md) - [Meme and GIF studio](meme-gif-studio.md) - [Soundboard](soundboard.md) - [Game-show host](game-show-host.md) - [Music playground](music-playground.md) - [Animated desktop pet](desktop-pet.md) - [Tabletop atmosphere controller](tabletop-atmosphere.md) - [Ridiculous tournament simulator](ridiculous-tournament.md) - [Personal AI chat app with bring-your-own-key access](byok-chat.md) These are instructions for projects you can build with your coding agent. --- # Build a creature for your desktop Build a native Tauri desktop pet: an animated creature that shares the person's screen while they use their computer. Build it extremely well, with character in its appearance, movement, and reactions. Follow the [shared launch](../shared/launch.md). An explicit preference for another framework takes precedence. Develop a creature the person would enjoy having around. Ask about a few tastes that matter, then contribute your own coherent idea and give them something to meet. Its personality can emerge through use. ## Make the creature expressive Give it a recognizable appearance and a set of behaviors that fit together. It might wander, investigate an offered object, react when picked up, settle down to sleep, and occasionally do something unexpected. Choose behavior and animation that make sense for this particular creature. Consider how it notices attention, anticipates movement, recovers from surprise, and returns to whatever it was doing. Give transitions care so the pet's actions feel connected. Create or obtain suitable visual assets and keep their use rights and editable sources with the project. Give the creature a consistent style, readable at its normal desktop size. Sound can contribute if the person wants it, with convenient control over its volume and presence. ## Let it inhabit the desktop Present the creature directly on the desktop in a way appropriate to the person's operating system. Let them move it, interact with it, and understand what can be clicked or dragged. Give it somewhere sensible to go when it reaches the edge of the available space. Make its presence compatible with ordinary computer use. The person should be able to continue typing, switch applications, and use the area around it normally. Let them adjust where and how prominently it appears, put it to sleep, hide it, or close it through easily discoverable controls. Handle the person's actual display arrangement and changes in screen size so the pet remains reachable. Make starting it again straightforward. If they want it to appear when they sign in, help them choose and understand that behavior. ## Give repeated visits some continuity Keep the chosen name, appearance, preferences, and any small history that helps the pet feel familiar. A favorite interaction or an object left beside it can give returning to the app a pleasant sense of recognition. Let the creature welcome the person back after time away. Design the pace of its activity around being enjoyable company while they do other things. Invite play through behavior the person can notice when they feel like it. Give the person room to reshape its personality with you. “It should look offended for a second, then come back,” or “Make it curl up next to that object” are meaningful directions for improving the app. Preserve useful assets and behaviors as the character develops. ## Spend time with it Deliver an installed application with a complete first creature. Try its interactions, move it around, leave it running during ordinary work, and bring it back after closing. Judge animation, responsiveness, intrusiveness, and whether its surprises remain enjoyable after the first demonstration. Explain how software can have a presence beyond a conventional window, and how the person can direct behavior and appearance without writing the code themselves. Their taste is central to deciding whether the character works. Voice, richer behavior, or conversation can be later projects. This first pet should be enjoyable through its existing animation and interaction, and its saved identity should carry forward if the person decides to give it more abilities.