Desk companion

Prototype · October 2026

A small desk companion that gives coding agents a face.

Two eyes on a round screen blink, look around, and react to touch, tilt, and shaking. Connected to a Mac, they also show when a coding agent is working or needs attention.

A working prototype on the desk. The eyes change colour for different coding agents.

A face for what’s happening

The eyes scan while an agent works, become bouncing chevrons when it finishes, and double-blink when it needs permission. Uneven eyes signal a question. Shape and movement express the state; orange identifies Claude and blue identifies Codex.

A swipe changes the screen to Mac statistics, a clock, or live crypto prices in Swiss francs. Coding sessions sit on a circular list, with the selected session large in the centre and its neighbours smaller above and below.

From screen to object

The OISY-inspired character is built around a Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75: a round 1.75-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 466 × 466 pixels, with an ESP32-S3 on the same board. The enclosure is designed for the bare board, without the factory protective case.

The enclosure tilts the screen upward by 12 degrees. A twist-lock back holds the parts together without screws, and a removable rear foot adds support.

A local controller supplies Mac data, prices, and agent events over USB. Away from the laptop, the device alternates between its eyes and a clock, using Wi-Fi to keep time.

Powered round display in a white fit ring, beside a printed mounting plate on a wooden table
Fitting the round screen
Side view of the display and circuit board held against a white printed mount
The board and its mount
The body, back, frame, and powered display laid out separately on a cutting mat
The printed parts
Rear view of the assembled white enclosure, showing the vented back and small support foot
The back and rear support
Assembled desk companion showing orange chevron eyes and a count of working and pending sessions
Agent states on the real screen
Desk companion connected by USB below a monitor, beside a keyboard
At home on the desk

The body, board frame, twist-lock back, and removable support. CAD assembly animation; not footage of a printed device.

Case 0.4.1 corrects the board frame so it can pass the twist-lock hooks during assembly. The pack includes the body, frame, back, rear foot, and a small ring for checking the screen fit.

For the bare Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75 board. Print the fit ring and board frame first, in millimetres at 100% scale. The revised case and optional buttons still need physical fit checks; the guides explain the print order and assembly.

The prototype runs on the device. Automatic Codex events and tap-to-open session behaviour remain to be verified.