{"slug": "show-hn-agent-buddies-swappable-animated-characters-for-ai-agents", "title": "Show HN: Agent Buddies – Swappable animated characters for AI agents", "summary": "A developer released Agent Buddies, an open-source library of 10 original animated characters that display eight shared agent states, driven by a deterministic event stream with no API calls or animation framework. The tool ships a picker with searchable catalog, live previews, remembered favorites and optional developer allowlists, plus local caching, an offline Koko fallback, reduced-motion support and hidden-page pausing; a CLI command, `npx agent-buddies new \"a sleepy white cat\"`, is in preview with the npm release pending owner review. The project matters to developers building AI agents who want a swappable, user-chosen visual layer without adding network dependencies.", "body_md": "# Your agent has a job.\n\nLet your users pick\n\n*its buddy.*\n\nA growing cast of tiny companions that think, work, talk, and wait alongside your AI. One state set. Any buddy. Your users choose.\n\n## Putting the pieces together…\n\nCharacter expressions you can understand at a glance.\n\n```\nNo API calls. A deterministic event stream drives every buddy.\n```\n\n## Different faces.\n\nThe same little language.\n\nTen original buddies to start. Every one speaks the same eight agent states. More characters, more ways to feel at home.\n\n## The choice belongs\n\nto your users.\n\nDrop this picker into your app. Browse, preview, choose. We’ll remember the favorite on this device.\n\n[Make your own buddy ↗](https://github.com/izr8809/agent-buddies/blob/main/docs/STYLE.md)\n\n**Thinking**\n\nPutting the pieces together…\n\n## State in.\n\nCharacter out.\n\nNo animation framework. No API calls.\n\nBring your agent; we’ll bring the buddy.\n\n**01 / End-user choice**\n\nSearchable catalog, live previews, remembered favorites, and optional developer allowlists.\n\n**02 / A single, steady face**\n\nOne image per frame. Region edits preserve the character. Gentle motion, never overlapping eyes.\n\n**03 / Ready to make it yours**\n\nVerified packs, local caching, offline Koko fallback. Reduced motion and hidden-page pausing built in.\n\n## A sleepy cat?\n\nA very focused potato?\n\nOriginal characters welcome. Make a master, define a few regions, validate, and submit. Artists can start with an issue — no coding required.\n\n[Make your own buddy ↗](https://github.com/izr8809/agent-buddies/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)\n\n`npx agent-buddies new \"a sleepy white cat\"` CLI preview · npm release pending owner review", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-agent-buddies-swappable-animated-characters-for-ai-agents", "canonical_source": "https://izr8809.github.io/agent-buddies/", "published_at": "2026-11-11 12:05:38+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-11-11 12:21:45.423332+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-tools", "developer-tools", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Agent Buddies", "Koko", "npm", "GitHub"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-agent-buddies-swappable-animated-characters-for-ai-agents", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-agent-buddies-swappable-animated-characters-for-ai-agents.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-agent-buddies-swappable-animated-characters-for-ai-agents.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-agent-buddies-swappable-animated-characters-for-ai-agents.jsonld"}}