Founder Spotlight: How Code Pet Makes AI Coding Feel More Human
Winner of Week 10 of The Capital. We spoke with Mihailo Radovic about Code Pet — an animated desktop companion that mirrors Claude Code's status in real time, making long AI coding sessions easier to follow and more enjoyable.
Code Pet is an animated desktop companion — dog, cat, or bird — that lives as a click-through transparent overlay and mirrors what Claude Code is doing in real time (working, planning, waiting for permission, or idle). Built by Mihailo Radovic, it won Week 10 of The Capital by making long AI coding sessions easier to follow without breaking flow.
*Featured Founder Series — AI Tools Capital*
Winner of Week 10 of The Capital
Most AI coding tools focus on generating code faster. Code Pet takes a different approach.
Instead of replacing your workflow, it adds a small animated companion that lives in the corner of your screen and quietly shows what Claude Code is doing in real time. Whether Claude is coding, planning, waiting for permission, or taking a break, your pet mirrors its behavior — making long AI coding sessions easier to follow and a little more enjoyable.
This week, the AI Tools Capital community voted Code Pet to the top of the leaderboard. We spoke with creator **Mihailo Radovic** about the inspiration behind the project, the challenges of building it, and why sometimes the best AI products aren't another model — they're the tools that make using AI better.
Meet Code Pet
Code Pet is an animated desktop companion that appears as a transparent overlay on your desktop. Users can choose between a **dog, cat, or bird**, each reacting to what Claude Code is doing behind the scenes.
The goal is simple: eliminate the constant habit of switching back to your terminal just to check whether your AI agent is still working.
For developers running long or parallel Claude Code sessions, that small improvement quickly becomes part of their daily workflow.
Inspired by a Real Workflow Problem
Like many great developer tools, Code Pet started with a personal frustration.
Mihailo found himself constantly pressing Alt+Tab to check whether Claude Code had finished a task — or worse, whether it had been sitting at a permission prompt for several minutes.
Instead of creating another notification system, he wanted something that could be understood instantly without interrupting his work.
After discovering Claude Code's hook system — which exposes events such as session start, prompt submission, permission requests, and completed tasks — the idea came together naturally.
There was another inspiration as well. Growing up, Mihailo enjoyed Microsoft's classic Office assistants like Clippy. He wanted to recreate that feeling of having a small character keeping you company, but in a way that stays helpful rather than distracting.
Featured Tool
Code Pet
A tiny animated desktop pet that reacts to Claude Code status in real time — a low-distraction companion for long AI coding sessions with zero telemetry.
Built for Developers Who Live in Claude Code
Code Pet is designed for developers who spend hours inside Claude Code.
It especially shines when multiple AI agents are running simultaneously. Each project gets its own pet, allowing developers to understand the status of several sessions at a glance without opening additional windows.
More Than Just a Cute Companion
Although Code Pet is fun to look at, its design is surprisingly practical. Unlike many desktop utilities, it was intentionally built to stay out of the way:
Alongside the visual companion, Code Pet also tracks your personal Claude Code workflow locally, logging skill usage and MCP tool activity so developers can better understand which tools they're actually using.
The Biggest Engineering Challenge
One of the hardest parts of building Code Pet wasn't animation — it was accuracy.
The pet's behavior is driven by a state machine that must always reflect Claude Code's real status. Real development workflows introduce countless edge cases:
Handling every one of these correctly required a deep understanding of Claude Code's hook system, but it also resulted in a much more reliable experience.
Shipping Something People Actually Use
When asked what achievement he's most proud of, Mihailo's answer wasn't downloads or revenue. It's simply that people genuinely use Code Pet every day.
Receiving positive feedback from developers has been the most rewarding milestone so far.
Keep Reading
What's Next?
Code Pet's roadmap is expanding beyond the original three companions. Upcoming plans include:
The vision is to make Code Pet not only a companion but also a valuable productivity tool for AI-assisted development.
Advice for AI Founders
Mihailo's advice is refreshingly simple:
> "Don't build another wrapper around a model. Build the small useful thing at the edge of the ecosystem that people actually want on their screen all day."
He also believes trust matters just as much as features. Code Pet installs with only two commands, has a tiny footprint, and sends no data anywhere — a philosophy that has resonated strongly with its users.
Try Code Pet
Developers interested in trying Code Pet can find it here:
Install directly inside Claude Code:
```
/plugin marketplace add mradovic95/code-pet
/plugin install code-pet
```
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Code Pet actually do?
It shows a small animated pet on your desktop that reflects Claude Code's current state — working, planning, awaiting permission, or idle — so you don't have to keep tabbing back to the terminal.
Does it send any of my data to the cloud?
No. Everything runs locally on your machine. There is no telemetry and no data collection.
Which agents does it work with?
Code Pet is built specifically for Claude Code, using its hook system for session start, prompt submission, permission requests, and completed tasks.
Does it slow down my computer?
It's a lightweight Electron overlay with a click-through interface, designed to stay out of the way of your actual work.
Is it free?
Yes. Install it in two commands directly inside Claude Code.
Sources & Further Reading
Congratulations to Code Pet
Congratulations again to Code Pet for winning Week 10 of The Capital.
It's a great example of how small, thoughtful ideas can significantly improve the AI developer experience — not by replacing existing tools, but by making them more enjoyable and easier to use.
We can't wait to see what Mihailo builds next.
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*Want your startup featured? Compete in The Capital each week for a chance to earn your own Founder Spotlight article.*
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