PawBot - An AI Desktop Puppy That Eats Your Files 🐾

Developer Varshithvhegde built PawBot, a Chrome extension and browser demo featuring a pixel-art golden retriever puppy powered by Google Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite. The desktop pet roams the screen, chases and eats dropped files or emoji, and generates mood-aware barks based on user interactions. Built with vanilla JavaScript and Canvas, it uses a Shadow DOM overlay and esbuild bundling to work as a Chrome content script.

This is a submission for Weekend Challenge: Dog Days Edition Remember Neko the cat and those Tamagotchi desktop pets from the 90s? I rebuilt that magic for 2026 — except your pet is a golden retriever puppy powered by an LLM. PawBot is a Chrome extension + browser demo where a cute pixel puppy : Feed it a .pdf and it might say "Mmm, crunchy homework " Ignore it for 40 seconds and it curls up with sad puppy eyes. Full walkthrough on YouTube: Quick try locally: git clone https://github.com/Varshithvhegde/pawbot.git cd pawbot/web python3 -m http.server 8080 → http://localhost:8080 Or load the Chrome extension: clone the repo → ./scripts/sync-extension.sh → Load unpacked → select the extension/ folder. An AI desktop puppy that lives in your browser. A Tamagotchi/Neko-style pixel pet that roams your screen, chases your cursor, eats files & emoji you drop, and barks mood-aware responses powered by Google Gemini . Built for the DEV Weekend Challenge: Dog Days Edition https://dev.to/challenge . 🎬 Watch on YouTube · 📝 DEV submission · 🔗 | Feature | Description | |---|---| 🐕 Pixel puppy | Full sprite animations — idle, walk, run, eat, sleep, bark, wave | 🍖 Feed anything | Drop files, emoji, or paste text — pup chases food then eats it | 🏃 Chase mechanics | Food falls from above → pup runs to it → 4-frame eat animation | 💬 AI barks | Google Gemini generates short mood-based responses | 😴 Sleep mode | Ignore pup 40s → falls asleep with Zzz particles | ❤️ Pet & wave | Click to pet, double-click to wave paw | ⌨️ Hotkeys | F throw treat · B bark · Esc | Repo: github.com/Varshithvhegde/pawbot https://github.com/Varshithvhegde/pawbot Browser tab │ ├── Content script bundled IIFE via esbuild │ └── Shadow DOM canvas overlay immune to page CSS │ ├── Pet engine Canvas 2D state machine │ idle → walk → run → eat → sleep → bark → wave │ ├── Sprite loader 33 AI-generated pixel frames │ └── Bark engine → Google Gemini API mood + hunger + last meal → short bark text | Decision | Why | |---|---| Vanilla JS + Canvas | Zero build step for the web demo; screen-recording friendly | Shadow DOM overlay | Page CSS can't hide the pup learned this the hard way on AI Studio | esbuild bundle | Chrome content scripts can't use ES import — single bundled file fixes it | AI sprite sheet | Generated pixel art, auto-sliced with a Python script into 33 transparent PNGs | Chase-then-eat flow | Food drops → pup runs → 4-frame eat animation → crumb particles | Fallback barks | Works offline without an API key; Gemini enhances when configured | | State | Sprites | |---|---| | Idle | 4-frame breathing loop | | Walk / Run | Directional left & right sprites | | Eat | 4-frame chew cycle + flying food emoji | | Sleep | Curled up + floating Zzz particles | | Mood | Happy, sad, curious, excited overlays | | Bark | Shows while AI speech bubble is active | | Wave | Paw idle + 3-frame wave on pet/double-click | | Action | How | |---|---| | Feed | Drag & drop file or emoji | | Feed | Paste text/emoji | | Pet | Click the puppy | | Wave | Double-click | | Throw treat | Press F | | Bark | Press B | Live hunger & happiness HUD in the bottom-left corner. PawBot uses Google Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite — not as a chatbot, but as a personality engine for a desktop pet. Every bark sends real context to Gemini: | Event | Context sent to Gemini | Example bark | |---|---|---| Fed a .py file | "Just ate: main.py file " , mood: happy | "Python for breakfast? Bold choice." | | Ignored 40s+ | mood: lonely, ignoredMs: 45000 | "...hello? I saved you a spot." | | Poked | happiness: 85, mood: excited | "Hehe Belly rubs detected " | | Hungry | hunger: 82/100 | "Is that food? IS THAT FOOD?" | Free API key from Google AI Studio https://aistudio.google.com/apikey → paste in extension popup. Falls back to canned barks if no key is set. Thanks for reading If PawBot made you smile, leave a 🐾 in the comments. Built for International Dog Day 🐕 · DEV Weekend Challenge: Dog Days Edition https://dev.to/challenges/weekend-2026-08-13