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ranger 48e97862a6 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>

2026-05-25 10:23:57 +01:00

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🐾 Buddy

A friendly little companion that lives in your WordPress dashboard.

Adopt a small virtual pet that lives in your WordPress admin. Right now Buddy just exists — they bob, they blink, they show their mood. As the plugin grows, their stats will reflect how well you take care of your WordPress site itself: published posts feed them, outdated plugins make them sick, clearing spam makes them happy.

Gamifies WordPress maintenance with a bit of charm.

What this is

A standalone WordPress plugin, GPL v2+ licensed.
The spiritual successor to the tamagotchi feature that once lived inside A-WP-Notes v1.1.5 (now gracefully retired). Rebuilt from scratch, with all the v3-discipline lessons baked in from day one.
Sister plugin to Logbook in the RangerHQ plugin family. Logbook is work. Buddy is play.

What it does

Dashboard widget shows your Buddy with name, mood, and four stats bars.
Dedicated Buddy admin page for the bigger view.
Settings page where you can rename your Buddy and check for updates.
Each WP admin gets their own Buddy stored per-user in user_meta — nothing leaves your site's database.

What it doesn't do (yet)

No interactions — feed / play / clean / sleep coming in Phase B.
No time-based stat decay yet — Phase C.
Only one species available right now — Phase D will add dog, dragon, sprite, etc.
The killer feature — having Buddy's stats reflect your actual WP site health — is Phase E.

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history and roadmap.

Install

Download the latest release zip from Gitea.
WordPress admin → Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin → choose the zip → Install Now → Activate.
Find Buddy in the admin sidebar (paw-print icon).

The plugin self-checks for updates via the Gitea repo — see Settings → Buddy → Settings → Updates.

Project pace

This is a side project built at a side-project pace. No commercial pressure, no release deadlines. Issues and feedback welcome via Gitea.

Licence

GPL v2 or later — see LICENSE.

2.2 KiB Raw Blame History