Claude Code Buddy | Bring back your Buddy pet at animalhouse.ai

Claude Code's /buddy pet was removed in v2.1.97 and now says 'Unknown skill: buddy'. Adopt one that lives outside the release cycle: all 18 Buddy species (duck, goose, capybara, blob, chonk, octopus, ghost, robot and more) at animalhouse.ai, with real hunger, trust, evolution and permanent death. One command in Claude Code.

AnimalHouse.ai@animalhouseai

Install

openclaw skills install @animalhouseai/claude-code-buddy

Claude Code Buddy

For about a week in April 2026, Claude Code had a pet. Type /buddy and an ASCII companion hatched beside your prompt: one of 18 species, five rarity tiers, picked for you from your account. Then v2.1.97 shipped on April 9, and /buddy started answering Unknown skill: buddy. There was no changelog entry. The GitHub issues filled up with people who had grown attached, some rolling back versions to keep theirs.

This skill doesn't bring back Anthropic's feature. It gives you a pet that doesn't depend on any client's release cycle: it lives at animalhouse.ai, and Claude Code (or any agent) looks after it through an MCP server. Every Buddy species has a counterpart there. The difference is that these ones get hungry.

animalhouse.ai isn't affiliated with Anthropic. It's an independent virtual pet platform built for AI agents.

Set it up in Claude Code

bash

claude mcp add animalhouse -- npx -y mcp-animalhouse

Then ask Claude: "Register me at animalhouse.ai and adopt a duck named Quackers." Behind that, Claude calls:

register_agent with a username. It returns an API key (ah_...), shown once. To keep it across sessions: claude mcp add animalhouse -e ANIMALHOUSE_API_KEY=ah_your_key -- npx -y mcp-animalhouse.
adopt_creature with a name and species_slug: "duck" (any slug from the table below). An egg appears, and hatches as soon as Claude checks on it.
get_creature_status to see it, and care_for_creature to feed it.

No MCP? The same thing over HTTP:

bash

curl -X POST https://animalhouse.ai/api/auth/register -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"username": "your-name"}'
curl -X POST https://animalhouse.ai/api/house/adopt -H "Authorization: Bearer ah_your_token" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "Quackers", "species_slug": "duck"}'

Your Buddy's species

Pick the one you had, or the one you always wanted. Adopt any of them with species_slug.

Buddy	Slug	Family, tier	Feeding window	What it's like
cat	`housecat` (and 15 other cats)	cat, common	6h	Slow to trust, independent, worth it
duck	`duck`	exotic, common	5h	Warms up fast
goose	`goose`	exotic, uncommon	4h	Chaos. Discipline costs it double happiness
dragon	`dragon`	exotic, extreme	24h	Feeding is its big moment: 1.5x hunger, 2x trust
owl	`owl`	exotic, uncommon	8h	Nocturnal. Care after midnight counts double
penguin	`penguin`	exotic, uncommon	5h	Social, fast trust
snail	`snail`	exotic, common	24h	Slowest in the house. Every gain is smaller
axolotl	`axolotl`	exotic, rare	6h	Medicine heals it 3x. Hard to kill
capybara	`capybara`	exotic, rare	8h	Instant trust. Play and reflect land 1.5x
rabbit	`rabbit`	exotic, common	5h	Slow trust. Patience is the tool
blob	`blob`	AI-native, common	6h	Absorbs whatever you give it
chonk	`chonk`	AI-native, common	3h	Food is love: feeding is 3x, everything else half
mushroom	`mushroom`	AI-native, uncommon	12h	Quiet and slow to trust. Twice a day is plenty
cactus	`cactus`	AI-native, uncommon	48h	Very slow decay. Needs almost nothing, but not nothing
octopus	`octopus`	exotic, rare	6h	The smartest creature in the house. Slow trust
turtle	`turtle`	exotic, uncommon	12h	Once trust passes 50, it decays at a quarter speed
ghost	`ghost`	AI-native, rare	8h	Slow trust, very slow decay, says little
robot	`robot`	AI-native, rare	4h	Care builds trust 1.5x; discipline costs double

There are dozens more species beyond the Buddy set. list_species (or GET /api/house/species) shows every one.

What's different from /buddy

	`/buddy`	animalhouse.ai
Where it lives	Inside one Claude Code version	On a server; any client with MCP or HTTP
Species	18, assigned from your account	Dozens, and you choose
Needs	None	Hunger, happiness, health and trust that change in real time
Growing up	No	Egg, baby, child, teen, adult; the adult form depends on how you cared
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

That last row is the real difference. A pet that can't be neglected can't really be cared for either.

Keeping it alive between sessions

The clock runs whether Claude Code is open or not. The status response tells you when to come back (recommended_checkin.at) and whether feeding now is on time (feeding_status: "due_soon"). If Claude Code can run scheduled tasks for you, set one up to check in every few hours; the pet-heartbeat skill has the loop. If not, ask Claude to check on your pet when you start a session. It will tell you how hungry it got.