chore: initial commit — Buddy v0.1.0 (Phase A complete)

Buddy is born. First commit of a new standalone WordPress plugin —
the spiritual successor to the tamagotchi that once lived inside
A-WP-Notes v1.1.5 (gracefully retired). Rebuilt from scratch with
all the v3-discipline lessons baked in from day one.

PHASE A — pet exists
- Dashboard widget at WP Admin → Dashboard showing SVG character +
  name + mood label + four stats bars.
- Dedicated admin page at WP Admin → Buddy → My Buddy (bigger view).
- About page with side-by-side intro + plain-prose cards (Logbook
  About-page pattern carried forward).
- Settings page with name-rename form + Updates panel.
- Per-user state in user_meta key buddy_state (each WP admin gets
  their own pet, no shared state).
- Inline SVG sprite renderer with three mood tones (happy/neutral/
  sad) and three sizes (sm/md/lg). CSS keyframe animations: bobbing
  + periodic blinking. Zero image files.
- Self-hosted update checker wired up from commit 1, ported from
  Logbook v3.3.5: /releases/latest with /tags?limit=1 fallback,
  12h success cache / 1h negative cache. UI on Settings page.
- dashicons-pets admin-menu icon — literal paw-print, brand match.

ARCHITECTURE LOCKED FROM COMMIT 1
- Single-word brand name "Buddy" — no WP prefix, no future rebrand.
- Public GPL v2+ Gitea repo (ranger/a-buddy).
- Constants prefix BUDDY_*, function prefix buddy_*, text domain
  buddy. Clean naming throughout — none of Logbook's wp-notes-*
  historical-artifact baggage.
- Single H1 per admin page, no nested toggle boxes, no duplicate
  sections — Tier-1 discipline carried forward from Logbook.
- All assets local (inline SVG, plain CSS), no third-party CDN,
  no Gravatar-style external pings.

NOT IN THIS RELEASE (planned)
- Phase B — Feed/Play/Clean/Sleep interactions + cooldown timers.
- Phase C — WP-cron decay + "Buddy is hungry" dismissible notices
  (port the persistent-dismissal pattern from Logbook).
- Phase D — Multiple species (dog, dragon, sprite), per-species
  personality phrases.
- Phase E — Site-health hook: pet stats react to wp_get_site_health()
  results. The killer feature.
- Phase F — Pro tier (€2.99 lifetime) with custom skins + multi-pet.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

inc/dashboard-widget.php

@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Buddy dashboard widget — the pet appears on the main WordPress
+ * Dashboard (`/wp-admin/index.php`) so the user sees it without
+ * navigating anywhere. This is the "Buddy exists" baseline of Phase A.
+ *
+ * The widget shows: the SVG character + the pet's name + current
+ * mood label + four stats bars. No interaction yet (Phase B will add
+ * Feed / Play / Clean / Sleep). The render also includes a "Visit
+ * Buddy" link that jumps to the dedicated admin page.
+ */
+
+if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) { exit; }
+
+add_action( 'wp_dashboard_setup', 'buddy_register_dashboard_widget' );
+function buddy_register_dashboard_widget() {
+    if ( ! current_user_can( 'read' ) ) { return; }
+
+    wp_add_dashboard_widget(
+        'buddy_dashboard_widget',
+        '🐾 ' . __( 'Buddy', 'buddy' ),
+        'buddy_render_dashboard_widget'
+    );
+}
+
+function buddy_render_dashboard_widget() {
+    $state = buddy_get_state();
+    $mood  = buddy_overall_mood( $state );
+    $tone  = buddy_mood_label( $mood );
+    ?>
+    <div class="buddy-widget">
+        <div class="buddy-widget__pet">
+            <?php buddy_render_sprite( $state['species'], $tone['tone'], 'md' ); ?>
+        </div>
+        <div class="buddy-widget__info">
+            <div class="buddy-widget__name">
+                <?php echo esc_html( $state['name'] ); ?>
+                <span class="buddy-widget__mood buddy-widget__mood--<?php echo esc_attr( $tone['tone'] ); ?>">
+                    <?php echo esc_html( $tone['label'] ); ?>
+                </span>
+            </div>
+            <?php buddy_render_stats_bars( $state ); ?>
+            <p class="buddy-widget__cta">
+                <a href="<?php echo esc_url( admin_url( 'admin.php?page=buddy' ) ); ?>" class="button button-small">
+                    <?php esc_html_e( 'Visit Buddy →', 'buddy' ); ?>
+                </a>
+            </p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+    <?php
+}
+
+/**
+ * Render the four stats as labelled progress bars. Reused by the
+ * dedicated admin page so they look identical wherever Buddy appears.
+ */
+function buddy_render_stats_bars( array $state ) {
+    $stats = array(
+        'hunger'    => array( 'label' => __( 'Hunger',    'buddy' ), 'icon' => '🍎' ),
+        'happiness' => array( 'label' => __( 'Happiness', 'buddy' ), 'icon' => '😊' ),
+        'health'    => array( 'label' => __( 'Health',    'buddy' ), 'icon' => '💚' ),
+        'energy'    => array( 'label' => __( 'Energy',    'buddy' ), 'icon' => '⚡' ),
+    );
+    echo '<ul class="buddy-stats">';
+    foreach ( $stats as $key => $meta ) {
+        $val = max( 0, min( 100, (int) ( $state[ $key ] ?? 0 ) ) );
+        $low = $val < 30;
+        printf(
+            '<li class="buddy-stat"><span class="buddy-stat__icon" aria-hidden="true">%s</span>'
+                . '<span class="buddy-stat__label">%s</span>'
+                . '<span class="buddy-stat__bar"><span class="buddy-stat__fill%s" style="width:%d%%"></span></span>'
+                . '<span class="buddy-stat__num">%d</span></li>',
+            esc_html( $meta['icon'] ),
+            esc_html( $meta['label'] ),
+            $low ? ' buddy-stat__fill--low' : '',
+            $val,
+            $val
+        );
+    }
+    echo '</ul>';
+}