ranger
0675c9f7d8
The v0.1.1 wink was rendered as a static SVG (left eye drawn as a closed curve). Once the 5% random gate picked the wink tone, the left eye stayed closed until the next page render — if the dashboard sat idle, Buddy was stuck mid-wink indefinitely. David's report: "the eye does not unblink." v0.1.2's lower probability (30% → 5%) reduced how often you'd see the stuck state, but didn't fix the underlying issue. This release makes the wink a real transient animation: - sprite.php no longer swaps the left eye for a closed path when tone is wink — both eyes are always open circles in the SVG - buddy.css adds @keyframes buddyWink that briefly closes the left eye (scaleY 0.1) for ~250ms every 2.5s, applied only when the parent has the .buddy-sprite--wink class - right eye keeps its normal 5s blink — the asymmetry is what makes it read as a wink rather than a synchronised blink - mouth/cheeks/label still differ for wink tone (those are valid static state changes); only the eye behaviour moved to animation Net effect: when the 5% chance fires, Buddy now actually winks (closes, opens, closes, opens) instead of freezing one-eye-shut.
🐾 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plugin grows, their stats will reflect how well you take care of your WordPress site itself: published posts feed them, outdated plugins make them sick, clearing spam makes them happy.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.