Holocube Emotes

Turn a GeekMagic holocube into your AI's face. Generate holographic character sprites, upload them to the device, then swap expressions in real-time based on agent/session state.

First-Time Setup

0. Find the device

Auto-discover holocubes on your network:

python3 scripts/holocube.py --discover

Output: FOUND: 192.168.0.245 — HelloCubic-Lite V7.0.22

If discovery fails, find the IP on the device's screen or your router's client list.

1. Generate sprites

Create a full emote sprite kit (requires nano-banana-pro skill with GEMINI_API_KEY):

python3 scripts/generate_sprites.py --output-dir ./sprites

Custom character:

python3 scripts/generate_sprites.py --output-dir ./sprites \
  --character "A glowing holographic cat floating in pure black void. Neon purple wireframe style."

This generates 7 emotes (neutral, happy, thinking, surprised, concerned, laughing, sleeping) as both static JPG and animated GIF, sized for the 240x240 display.

2. Upload to device

python3 scripts/setup_device.py --sprites-dir ./sprites --clear --backup-dir ./backup

Flags:

• --clear removes existing images (recommended — device has ~3MB storage)
• --backup-dir saves existing files before clearing
• --ip auto-discovers if not provided, or specify manually

3. Configure TOOLS.md

Add the holocube IP and emote mappings to your workspace TOOLS.md for reference. See references/tools-example.md.

Daily Usage

Set emote directly

python3 scripts/holocube.py happy
python3 scripts/holocube.py thinking --static   # Use JPG instead of GIF

Set by agent state

python3 scripts/holocube.py working    # → thinking
python3 scripts/holocube.py complete   # → happy
python3 scripts/holocube.py error      # → concerned
python3 scripts/holocube.py opus       # → thinking (heavy model)
python3 scripts/holocube.py haiku      # → neutral (light model)

Auto-select by time of day

python3 scripts/holocube.py --auto

• 11pm–7am → sleeping
• 7am–9am → happy
• Rest of day → neutral

Check status

python3 scripts/holocube.py --status
python3 scripts/holocube.py --list

Heartbeat Integration

Add to HEARTBEAT.md to auto-manage the emote:

## Holocube Emote Check
- Run `python3 scripts/holocube.py --auto` to set time-appropriate emote

When to Set Emotes

Use these during normal agent operations:

Context	Command	Emote
Idle, waiting for input	neutral	🤖
Processing, running tools	thinking or working	🔧
Task completed	happy or complete	😊
Error occurred	error (→ surprised)	😮
Funny moment	laughing or funny	😂
Unexpected input	surprised or unexpected	😮
Night/inactive	sleeping or night	😴
Spawning sub-agent	spawning (→ thinking)	🔧
On-demand custom	custom	✨

Custom Slot

A reserved file adam-custom.gif on the device can be overwritten at any time for on-demand or one-off animations. Generate a GIF, upload as adam-custom.gif, then python3 holocube.py custom. Switch back to a standard emote when done.

Device Notes

• Model: GeekMagic HelloCubic-Lite (240x240px glass display)
• Format: GIF (animated) or JFIF JPEG. Use Pillow for JPEG (ffmpeg lacks JFIF headers).
• Storage: ~3MB total. 6 animated GIFs use ~1.5MB, leaving ~500KB for custom slot.
• Art style: Dark/black backgrounds make glass disappear. Use glowing, holographic, neon elements.
• ⚠️ NEVER send /set?reset=1 — that's factory reset, wipes WiFi config.

Requirements

• GeekMagic HelloCubic-Lite (or compatible) on local network
• Python 3 with Pillow (pip install Pillow)
• nano-banana-pro skill with GEMINI_API_KEY (for sprite generation only)
• uv (brew install uv) (for sprite generation only)