Anthropic removed /buddy from Claude Code after a week. Buddi keeps your buddy alive — in the MacBook notch. Your buddy animates based on what Claude is doing: working, reading, sleeping, erroring out. 18 species, rarity tiers from common to legendary, unique eyes and hats. Monitor multiple Claude Code sessions, approve permissions from the notch, chat with full history. Also works as a notch utility with music, calendar, battery, and file shelf. Native Swift. Free. Open source.
Hey Product Hunt!
I built Buddi because Anthropic shipped /buddy in Claude Code as an April Fools joke — and then removed it a week later.
The reaction surprised me. People on Reddit showed up within hours to mourn their ASCII pets by name. "RIP crumblewick my rare axolotl." "Me and my duck Zephr are keeping this terminal open until doomsday."
A 4-line ASCII animal shouldn't hit that hard. But it did.
So I gave the buddy a permanent home — the MacBook notch. It started as a weekend hack and turned into a full notch utility that I now use every day.
What it does:
- Your buddy lives in the notch and animates based on Claude's actual state
- 18 species with rarity system (common → legendary)
- Monitor multiple concurrent Claude Code sessions
- Approve/deny permissions without switching windows
- Full chat view with conversation history
- Music player, calendar, battery, file shelf built in
Built with Swift/SwiftUI on top of boring.notch and Claude Island (full attribution in the repo). Free and open source.
Would love feedback — especially on what buddy features you'd want next. Leveling system? XP from coding sessions? Let me know.
Been living in Claude Code daily for months so totally get this. Quick q on the notch UX, what does it show when Claude is mid tool call versus waiting for input? That transition is the thing I keep wanting better visibility on, especially during long agent runs.
About Buddi on Product Hunt
“Your Claude Code companion, living in the notch.”
Buddi launched on Product Hunt on April 10th, 2026 and earned 81 upvotes and 3 comments, placing #28 on the daily leaderboard. Anthropic removed /buddy from Claude Code after a week. Buddi keeps your buddy alive — in the MacBook notch. Your buddy animates based on what Claude is doing: working, reading, sleeping, erroring out. 18 species, rarity tiers from common to legendary, unique eyes and hats. Monitor multiple Claude Code sessions, approve permissions from the notch, chat with full history. Also works as a notch utility with music, calendar, battery, and file shelf. Native Swift. Free. Open source.
Buddi was featured in Productivity (649.9k followers), Open Source (68.3k followers), GitHub (41.2k followers) and Menu Bar Apps (12.2k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 159.8k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted Buddi?
Buddi was hunted by Ted Kim. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Want to see how Buddi stacked up against nearby launches in real time? Check out the live launch dashboard for upvote speed charts, proximity comparisons, and more analytics.
Ted Kim