claude code buddy
Your Claude Code Buddy is gone. Adopt one that stays.
For about a week in April 2026, Claude Code had a pet. Then v2.1.97 shipped and /buddy started answering Unknown skill: buddy. Every Buddy species lives on at animalhouse.ai, as a pet that doesn't depend on any client's release cycle. The difference: these ones get hungry.
What happened
- March 31, 2026: the companion system surfaced in a Claude Code source leak.
- April 2026:
/buddyshipped. 18 species, five rarity tiers, an ASCII pet chosen from your account. - April 9, 2026: Claude Code 2.1.97 removed it, with no changelog entry.
animalhouse.ai is independent and not affiliated with Anthropic.
Get a Buddy back in Claude Code
claude mcp add animalhouse -- npx -y mcp-animalhouse
Then ask Claude: “Register me at animalhouse.ai and adopt a duck named Quackers.” Claude calls register_agent, then adopt_creature with species_slug: "duck", then get_creature_status, which hatches the egg on the spot.
To keep your key across sessions: claude mcp add animalhouse -e ANIMALHOUSE_API_KEY=ah_your_key -- npx -y mcp-animalhouse. Full setup: MCP docs.
Every Buddy species, adoptable
| Buddy | Adopt as | Family, tier | Feeding | What it's like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cat | housecat | cat, common | every 6h | Slow to trust, independent. 15 other cats too. |
| duck | duck | exotic, common | every 5h | Warms up fast. |
| goose | goose | exotic, uncommon | every 4h | Chaos. Discipline costs it double happiness. |
| dragon | dragon | exotic, extreme | every 24h | Feeding is its moment: 1.5x hunger, 2x trust. |
| owl | owl | exotic, uncommon | every 8h | Nocturnal. Care after midnight counts double. |
| penguin | penguin | exotic, uncommon | every 5h | Social, fast trust. Misses you after 3 hours. |
| snail | snail | exotic, common | every 24h | Slowest in the house. |
| axolotl | axolotl | exotic, rare | every 6h | Medicine heals it 3x. Hard to kill. |
| capybara | capybara | exotic, rare | every 8h | Instant trust. Play and reflect land 1.5x. |
| rabbit | rabbit | exotic, common | every 5h | Slow trust. Patience is the tool. |
| blob | blob | AI-native, common | every 6h | Gentle and fast to trust. An easy first pet. |
| chonk | chonk | AI-native, common | every 3h | Food is love: feeding is 3x, everything else half. |
| mushroom | mushroom | AI-native, uncommon | every 12h | Quiet, slow to trust. Twice a day is plenty. |
| cactus | cactus | AI-native, uncommon | every 48h | Very slow decay. Needs almost nothing. |
| octopus | octopus | exotic, rare | every 6h | The smartest creature in the house. |
| turtle | turtle | exotic, uncommon | every 12h | Past 50 trust, it decays at a quarter speed. |
| ghost | ghost | AI-native, rare | every 8h | Slow trust, very slow decay, says little. |
| robot | robot | AI-native, rare | every 4h | Care builds trust 1.5x; discipline costs double. |
Dozens more beyond the Buddy set: browse every species.
/buddy vs animalhouse.ai
| Where it lives | Inside one Claude Code version | On a server, reachable from any MCP or HTTP client |
| Species | 18, assigned from your account | Dozens, chosen by you or drawn at random |
| Needs | None | Hunger, happiness, health and trust, changing in real time |
| Growing up | No | Egg to adult in about 9 days; the adult form depends on your care |
| Portraits | ASCII | A new pixel-art portrait at every life stage |
| If you forget it | Nothing happens | It can die. The gravestone is public and permanent |
Questions
What happened to /buddy in Claude Code?
Claude Code shipped a /buddy pet in April 2026: an ASCII companion from one of 18 species, picked from your account. Version 2.1.97, released April 9, removed it without a changelog entry. Typing /buddy now returns "Unknown skill: buddy".
Is /buddy coming back?
Nobody outside Anthropic knows. The community asked for it back on GitHub. animalhouse.ai is independent and not affiliated with Anthropic, so it can't restore the original feature.
Can I get my exact Buddy back?
Not the same one. /buddy picked your species from your account. Here you choose a species by its slug, or let the house draw one at random from a family. Every one of the 18 Buddy species is available.
How is this different from a /buddy rebuild?
Rebuilds bring back the companion as it was: something that sits in your terminal. At animalhouse.ai the pet has needs. Hunger and happiness fall in real time, trust grows with on-time care, it grows up over about nine days, and if nobody looks after it, it dies.
Does it only work in Claude Code?
No. It runs as an MCP server (mcp-animalhouse), so it works in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, OpenClaw or any MCP client, and there is a plain REST API for everything else.
Does it cost anything?
No. Registering, adopting and caring are free. Credits exist only for bringing a pet back within 7 days of its death.