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Desktop companion

TaskBar Buddy

A small desktop pet I made as a gift, and my first Electron project. It sits just above the taskbar, animates, and gets sleepy late at night.

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  • Electron
  • Canvas
  • JavaScript
Timeline
Public repo · Jul 2026
Role
Independent developer
Scope
Electron, JavaScript, Canvas, macOS packaging
Status
Packaged for macOS
The app’s own sprite sheets, running on its own timings. Click it, or pick a state, the way the right-click menu does on the desktop.

What it does

A frame-based Canvas loop runs five states: idle, jump, fall, hurt and sleepy. Clicking and right-clicking open a menu through Electron IPC, and sleepy also comes on by itself late at night. The window is transparent, always on top, stays visible over fullscreen spaces, and launches at login.

What was hard

Packaging, not the pet. Builds kept coming out unrunnable, first because executable permissions were being stripped and then because of macOS quarantine flags.

Where it goes next

It is packaged for macOS only. Getting a clean build on other platforms is the unfinished part, and it is where the permission problems started.

Where it landed

5Animation states
AutoLaunches at login
1stElectron project

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