Code with a Companion: Raise a Virtual Pet in Your VS Code Editor
Ever feel like your IDE is a bit too sterile? You spend hours in VS Code, but it’s just you, the code, and maybe a dark theme. What if you could have a little low-stakes, digital company while you work? That’s the charm of the VS Code Pets extension. It brings a playful, Tamagotchi-like experience right into your editor, turning your sidebar into a tiny digital pet sanctuary.
It’s not about productivity hacks or AI pair programming. It’s about adding a sliver of whimsy to your development environment. A bit of silly, animated fun that lives in the same space where you debug serious business logic.
What It Does
VS Code Pets lets you adopt a virtual pet that lives inside a panel in your VS Code sidebar. You can choose from a variety of animals—cats, dogs, clippy (yes, that Clippy), snakes, crabs, and even a rubber duck. Your pet just hangs out, performing idle animations. You can interact with it by clicking to pet it, throw a ball for it to chase, or give it a treat. You can also spawn multiple pets and watch them interact with each other.
It’s intentionally simple. The pet doesn’t have complex needs or stats to manage. It’s just there to be a cute, mildly distracting desktop buddy.
Why It’s Cool
The clever part isn't just the idea, but the execution and the community vibe. The pets are charming pixel-art sprites with smooth animations. The extension is open source and built with extensibility in mind. The developer, Anthony Shaw, has made it easy for others to contribute new pet species via sprite sheets, which has led to a fun and growing menagerie.
It also has some surprisingly deep features for a silly side project. You can change the background theme (inside the pet's panel, not your editor), from a simple room to a castle or even space. There’s a "throw ball" mode and a "laser pointer" for cats. You can enable "party mode" for some festive fun. It’s a project that doesn’t take itself seriously but is built with serious developer care.
For remote pair programming or live streams, it can be a great little icebreaker or a fun visual for your audience.
How to Try It
Getting your own coding companion is straightforward:
- Open VS Code.
- Go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X).
- Search for
vscode-pets. - Click Install.
Once installed, you’ll see a new activity bar icon (a paw print). Click it to open the pet panel. A default pet will appear. Right-click on the panel to open the command palette with options to change your pet, add more pets, change the theme, or trigger interactions.
You can also check out the source code, report issues, or even contribute a new pet sprite on the GitHub repository.
Final Thoughts
In a world of complex, AI-driven developer tools, VS Code Pets is a refreshingly simple and joyful diversion. It won’t make you code faster, but it might make the marathon debugging sessions a little more pleasant. It’s a testament to the fun side of open source—a project built because it could be, and shared because others might enjoy it too. Give it a install, adopt a snake or a crab, and enjoy having a bit of harmless, silent company in your editor.
@githubprojects
Repository: https://github.com/tonybaloney/vscode-pets