WorkKit Buddy by WorkKit Download free

A WorkKit product · macOS, Windows & Linux · Free

A little desktop pet who keeps you company.

WorkKit Buddy is a free desktop pet. It wanders your screen, dances to whatever you're playing, hands you your notifications in person and cheers you on while you work. Native, light and private — and it can look like anyone you want.

Version 1.5 · free · no account · your data stays on your computer · all downloads

thinking…
♪ ooh, a tune!
Kit the fox, dancing

Characters

Twenty-three buddies — or your own picture.

Every character has its own animations, tracking eyes and personality lines. The WorkKit logo is the default; the rest are one click away. Drop any image on the buddy and it becomes your character — plain backgrounds are cut out automatically.

WorkKit logo characterWorkKitthe original
Kit the foxKitquick fox
DuckDuckrubber-duck debugging
Bot the robotBotstatus lights
Pengu the penguinPengubest dancer
BlobBlobpure squish
Spike the cactusSpikeblooms when happy
Hoot the owlHootnight owl
Mocha the coffee cupMochasteams while you work
CorgiCorgiwalk? walk?
Capy the capybaraCapynaps in a hot spring
Octo the octopusOctomultitasker
Buzz the beeBuzzbusy bee
Boo the ghostBoohaunts deadlines
Slo the slothSlono rush
CatCatthe classic
WorkKit briefcaseBriefcaseWorkKit, suited up
Bao the pandaBaosnacks, then naps
Rex the dinosaurRextiny arms, big rawr
Lotl the axolotlLotlalways smiling
Hops the frogHopsribbit
Button the mushroomButtongrew overnight
Pip the hedgehogPipsmall but spiky
Youdrag in any picture

What it does

Small on screen, surprisingly useful.

Two things make WorkKit Buddy different from every other desktop pet: it really listens to your music, and it hands you your notifications in person. The rest keeps it useful all day.

Signature feature

Dances to your music — for real

It listens to whatever your computer plays — Spotify, YouTube in any browser, a game — finds the beat and the tempo, and picks eight moves by the track's energy: sway, bob, shimmy, side-steps, moonwalk, jumps, headbang, spins. Disco glow, equalizer, and a burst on the drop. How the dancing works

Signature feature

Notifications, delivered in person

Reminders, meeting alerts and messages arrive with character: it walks over, drops an envelope or flies in a paper plane, knocks for urgent ones, then holds up a card with Open, Snooze and Dismiss. Quiet hours keep it calm in the evening.

A companion for Claude Code and Codex

Connect either one and the buddy shows what the agent is doing — thinking, editing, running tests, waiting for you, done — so you can look away without missing the moment it needs you. More on Claude Code

Focus and wellbeing

A focus timer with a progress ring on the pet, break reminders, stretch breaks after you've sat too long, stand-up and wrap-up nudges, meeting alerts, battery warnings. It naps when you're away and greets you back.

Make it yours

Twenty-three characters with their own lines, four sizes, and any picture you drag onto it. The personality is plain JSON, so a team can ship its own mascot in an afternoon.

Use cases

Who keeps one around.

Developers using Claude Code or Codex

Let the long runs happen in another window.

The buddy's badge tells you when the agent is thinking, editing or running tests, taps you on the shoulder when it's waiting for your OK, and celebrates when the run succeeds — no tab-switching to check.

Deep-work days

A gentle structure for the day.

Start a 25-minute focus session from the menu and watch the ring count down. Breaks arrive as a card you can snooze. After 50 minutes in the chair the buddy stretches with you — three short desk stretches, shown one at a time — and stand-up and wrap-up nudges bookend the day.

Teams and brand

Your mascot on every desk.

WorkKit Buddy was built around the WorkKit logo — a small, friendly presence for the brand all day long. Any team can do the same: drop in your own character and share one installer.

Music while you work

Put on a playlist. Watch it groove.

It listens on-device only for the beat and the energy of the track, picks matching moves, and shows the song title it finds in your player or browser tab. Nothing is recorded, nothing leaves your machine.

Privacy

Your data stays on your computer.

A pet that reacts to your coding agent, your music and your calendar can sound like it reads a lot. Here is exactly what it can see, what it does with it, and everything that ever leaves your machine. It's also on its own privacy page.

It can see What it does with it Where it goes
Your coding agent's activity Claude Code, Codex — only if you click Connect Reads three things from each event: its name, the name of the tool being used, and — only to tell whether tests are running — the shell command. It turns those into one word for the pet: thinking, editing, testing, waiting, done. It never opens your prompts, the model's replies, or your conversation history. Stays on your computer — handed to the pet over a channel that exists only on your machine
The sound your computer is playing only while "Dance to music" is on Measures loudness and the beat, in memory, so the pet can dance in time. The audio is thrown away as it is measured. Stays on your computer — never recorded, never saved
The song title Asked from your music player, to show in the menu. Stays on your computer
Your calendar only if you turn on meeting alerts Start times and titles of upcoming meetings, to bring you a card a few minutes before. On Mac it reads the Calendar app; on Windows and Linux, the private calendar link you paste in. Stays on your computer
Whether you're at the keyboard Only how long since you last touched the mouse or keyboard, so it can nap when you're away and suggest a stretch when you've sat too long. Never which keys. Stays on your computer

What does leave your computer — all of it

  1. Once a day, a version check. A request to GitHub asking for the newest version number. It carries nothing about you. Switch it off: right-click the buddy ▸ Updates ▸ Check daily.
  2. Your calendar, only if you use meeting alerts on Windows or Linux. The buddy downloads your calendar from the private link you pasted, at most once a minute — the same request a calendar app makes. It sends nothing back. (On Mac the buddy makes no request at all: it reads what the Calendar app already has.)
  3. Your question, only if you use Ask. What you type in the Ask panel goes to Claude or Gemini — whichever you picked — using your own API key. Nothing is sent until you press Return. If you never use Ask, this never happens.

That's the complete list.

What it never does

  • Read your notifications — it only sends its own
  • Read your AI chat history
  • Look at your screen
  • Record audio
  • Ask you for an account
  • Send analytics, telemetry or crash reports

Don't take our word for it

The agent hooks live in files you can open and read: ~/.claude/settings.json and ~/.codex/hooks.json. Disconnect in the menu removes them. And a network monitor — Little Snitch or LuLu on Mac, the firewall on Windows, OpenSnitch on Linux — will show you GitHub once a day and nothing else, unless you use Ask or meeting alerts.

Native and light

Swift and AppKit on macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), WPF on Windows, .NET with Avalonia on Linux. One small process, no web view, no background services — quit it and it's gone.

Your keys stay yours

If you use Ask, your API key is kept in the macOS keychain, or on Windows and Linux in a file inside your own settings folder that only your account can read. It is only ever sent to the service it belongs to.

Free, with nothing to sell

No ads and no data business. If it makes your day nicer, there's a coffee jar further down — that's the whole plan.

Download · version 1.5

Free for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Installers are self-signed for now (we're not in the App Store or on the Microsoft Store yet), so Mac and Windows show a one-time security notice; Linux only needs the file marked executable. The steps below take about ten seconds.

macOS

macOS 14 Sonoma or newer · Apple silicon and Intel

Download for macOS .pkg

WorkKitBuddy-1.5.pkg · installs the app and a lock-screen screen saver

  1. Open the downloaded .pkg and click through the installer.
  2. If macOS says it "could not verify" the package: click Done, open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway. This happens once.
  3. The buddy appears on your desktop. When music plays it asks once to listen — click Allow.

Blocked by the security notice? The illustrated install guide shows exactly where to click.

Windows

Windows 10 or 11 · 64-bit · installs for your account only

Download for Windows Setup.exe

WorkKitBuddy-Setup.exe · no administrator rights needed

  1. Run the downloaded Setup.exe.
  2. If SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC": click More info, then Run anyway. This happens once.
  3. Click through; tick "Start when I sign in" if you want it every day. It dances as soon as music plays — no permission needed.
  • No installer? Portable zip — unzip anywhere and run WorkkitBuddy.exe.zip

Blocked by SmartScreen? The illustrated install guide shows exactly where to click.

Linux

Any distribution · x86-64 and ARM64 · X11, or Wayland with XWayland

Download for Linux AppImage

WorkKitBuddy-linux-x86_64.AppImage · one file, nothing else to install

  1. Mark the file executable and run it — in a terminal: 
    chmod +x WorkKitBuddy-linux-x86_64.AppImage
./WorkKitBuddy-linux-x86_64.AppImage
    Or right-click it › Properties › Permissions › "Allow executing file as program", then double-click.
  2. On Debian, Ubuntu, Mint or Pop!_OS the package is nicer — it adds a launcher to your apps menu: 
    sudo apt install ./workkitbuddy_1.5.0_amd64.deb
  3. The buddy appears; right-click it for everything. Music needs pulseaudio-utils (most desktops have it; PipeWire counts) — no permission prompt.

Want the details? The Linux notes in the install guide cover music, the tray icon and Wayland, and there's a page all about Buddy on Linux.

Download not starting? Try this
  1. Use the GitHub release page. Open the v1.5 release, scroll to Assets and click the file. Every version is archived there.
  2. Chrome shows "Cancelled". Something in your Chrome is stopping its own download — usually a download-manager or antivirus extension. Try an Incognito window (extensions are off there), or turn the extension off in chrome://extensions. chrome://downloads shows the reason next to the item.
  3. Chrome says the file "may be dangerous". Chrome flags installers it hasn't seen often. Click the arrow or ⋮ on the download and choose Keep, then verify the file with the checksum below.
  4. Downloaded fine, but blocked when you open it? That's the one-time security notice, not a broken file — the install guide shows the two clicks that get past it.
  5. Still stuck? Firefox, Safari and Edge download the same links directly — or tell us what you see.

SHA-256 checksums of the release files (compare with shasum -a 256 <file> on Mac, certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256 on Windows or sha256sum <file> on Linux):

  • f80c4fa8e6e804a913fd13385c4f9e1416a0ee8bd302fbae97664a170b6ba72a WorkKitBuddy-1.5.pkg
  • 3e9c67131be8f86bc252a31b6bced9e58a8816fcba17f6fee2897d0b2b19c5e2 WorkKitBuddy-Setup.exe
  • 87714dd331186d004fd67e1299b52227bbf6e6fe109acb4c3ad0f0bbe80aa097 WorkKitBuddy-windows.zip
  • e20c6d4f7912c6a0c598d9168dbabe8a8ba7b3493939d5f7859a2dba5ebe8401 WorkKitBuddy-linux-x86_64.AppImage
  • 3af5d3f72fbd05a812f895f678ba261d04434f96f68bc72bbe1fc996f91d7f0e workkitbuddy_1.5.0_amd64.deb
  • b7f947fe3302c1ffc3cea09a9bb699c2343975e9a3613449820ce2e03cb33ffc workkitbuddy_1.5.0_arm64.deb
  • 6b9d6c16202369ea57fd52ca5fd11a518d2bda3b29d19f61888144844bfb0a0e WorkKitBuddy-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
  • 3a5773786520068c22b7f006d9a51b4d79aa46fe9debb56c58d964fa3e55c8f4 WorkKitBuddy-linux-aarch64.tar.gz

Install guide · the one-time security notice

Seeing a warning? Here's the ten-second fix.

WorkKit Buddy is signed with WorkKit's own certificate rather than Apple's or Microsoft's paid developer certificates, so the first time you open the installer your computer asks whether you trust it. Nothing is wrong with the file — you can compare it with the published checksums any time.

macOS

Sonoma · Sequoia · Tahoe
  1. Click Done — not "Move to Bin". The package stays in your Downloads folder.
  2. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security and scroll down to the Security heading.
  3. Next to "WorkKitBuddy-1.5.pkg" was blocked to protect your Mac, click Open Anyway and confirm with Touch ID or your password. The installer opens; click through it.
  4. The buddy appears on your desktop. The first time music plays, macOS asks whether it may listen to system audio — click Allow. That is the only permission it ever asks for.

Don't see Open Anyway? The button only appears after you've tried to open the package, and it stays for about an hour. Double-click the .pkg again, click Done, then look in Privacy & Security.

Prefer the Terminal? One line does the same

This removes the "downloaded from the internet" flag from the file. Paste it into Terminal, press Return, then double-click the package as usual.

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/WorkKitBuddy-1.5.pkg

Windows

Windows 10 · 11
  1. Run WorkKitBuddy-Setup.exe. If the blue "Windows protected your PC" screen appears, click the small More info link under the text.
  2. A Run anyway button appears at the bottom — click it. "Unknown publisher" is expected until we have a Microsoft-trusted certificate.
  3. Click through the installer. It installs for your account only, so there is no administrator prompt. Tick Start when I sign in if you want the buddy every day.
  4. Done — it dances as soon as music plays. Windows needs no audio permission.

Antivirus held the file? Some scanners quarantine installers they haven't seen before. Restore it, compare it with the checksum, and add an exception if you're asked.

Using the portable zip? The first run of WorkkitBuddy.exe can show the same SmartScreen screen. The same two clicks fix it.

Linux

no warning, just a permission bit
  1. AppImage: mark the file executable, then run it. In a terminal that is chmod +x WorkKitBuddy-linux-x86_64.AppImage; in a file manager it is right-click › Properties › Permissions › "Allow executing file as program".
  2. Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS: sudo apt install ./workkitbuddy_1.5.0_amd64.deb (or _arm64). You get a launcher in your apps menu and workkitbuddy on the command line.
  3. Anything else: unpack the tar.gz and run ./WorkkitBuddy. Right-click the buddy → Launch at login to start it with your session.

Music: the buddy listens through PulseAudio or PipeWire and needs parec from pulseaudio-utils, which most desktops already have. Song titles come from playerctl if it is installed. No permission prompt on Linux.

Tray icon: shows where the desktop has a tray. GNOME needs the AppIndicator extension; without it, everything is still in the buddy's right-click menu.

Wayland: the buddy runs through XWayland, which GNOME and KDE turn on by default. It needs a compositing desktop to be transparent — every mainstream desktop of the last decade.

Why the security notice? Apple and Microsoft only skip it for apps signed with their paid developer certificates. WorkKit Buddy is signed with our own certificate instead, so each computer asks you once. We'll switch to notarized builds as the product grows — and the notice goes away for everyone.

What's new

Every version, and what changed.

From 1.2 the app looks for new versions itself, once a day, and the pet brings you the news. Every release stays on the releases page.

1.5 Current 13 October 2026
  • Stretch breaks. Sit for 50 minutes without a real break and the buddy stops you for a minute or two: three desk stretches, one card at a time, with the buddy stretching alongside. Change the interval or switch it off under right-click ▸ Stretch breaks, or start one whenever you like with Stretch now. Stepping away from the keyboard resets the clock.
  • A plain-language privacy page. Exactly what the buddy can see, what it does with it, and everything that leaves your computer — read it here. The Mac agent hook now passes on even less: just the event and the tool name.
1.4 5 October 2026
  • Codex, the same way as Claude Code. Right-click ▸ Codex ▸ Connect and the buddy mirrors what Codex is doing. Its hooks go in ~/.codex/hooks.json, alongside any you already have. Codex asks you to trust a new hook, so run /hooks in Codex afterwards.
  • Linux: it really is an app now. From an AppImage the launcher used to point at a temporary folder that vanished, so the menu entry did nothing. It now points at the AppImage itself.
  • Linux: closing the terminal no longer kills it. Start it however you like and carry on. Quit from the menu still quits it.
1.3 5 October 2026
  • Six new buddies. Bao the panda, Rex the dinosaur, Lotl the axolotl, Hops the frog, Button the mushroom and Pip the hedgehog — twenty-three in all, each with its own lines.
  • Windows and Linux catch up with the Mac. Ask a question from a panel beside the pet, global shortcuts for summon, hide and ask, more than one buddy at once, a live look at processor and memory, meeting alerts from a published calendar, and on Windows a lock-screen screen saver.
  • It notices when the screen changes. Unplug a monitor, close a laptop lid or wake the machine up, and nobody is left stranded off-screen.
1.2 3 October 2026
  • It tells you when there's a new version. Once a day it asks GitHub what the newest release is; if there is one, the pet delivers a card with a link. Turn it off under Updates ▸ Check daily, or check on the spot with Updates ▸ Check now.
  • Same version everywhere. Mac, Windows and Linux now ship together as 1.2, so the menu you see matches the instructions you read.
  • Mac catches up. The Ask panel from the summer is in a release at last: press ⌃⌥A, or double-click the pet, and ask Claude or Gemini without leaving what you're doing. Your key lives in the keychain, and nothing is sent unless you ask something.
1.1.1 24 September 2026
  • Linux edition. AppImage, .deb and a portable folder, for x86-64 and ARM64.
  • Windows fix. Tapping Dismiss, Open or Snooze on a card no longer quits the app, and unexpected errors are written to the log instead of ending the session.
1.1 24 September 2026
  • First public release. Seventeen characters, notifications delivered in person, focus timer and break reminders, dancing to whatever you're playing, and reactions to Claude Code.
Mocha, the coffee-cup buddy

Free, and staying free

Like having it around? Buy the team a coffee.

WorkKit Buddy costs nothing, has no ads and never will. If it makes your day a little nicer, a coffee keeps the buddies coming — new characters, new dance moves, signed installers.

Buy us a coffee

Tips go to the WorkKit team and fund Buddy and the other free tools we put out. No account needed, one-off or monthly.

FAQ

Questions people ask.

Is it really free?

Yes. WorkKit Buddy is a free product from WorkKit for anyone on macOS, Windows or Linux. No account, no trial, no upsell inside the app.

What is WorkKit, and where does Buddy fit?

WorkKit is an engineering-intelligence platform for the teams who deliver experience, event, museum and interactive technology: quotations, proposals and bills of quantity built on verified knowledge. Buddy is its free companion for the desktop. The platform itself lives at app.workkit.in (sign in with GitHub; it is early and says so), and the Labs page shows exactly what is finished and what is not.

Does it record my audio or my screen?

No. To dance it measures the loudness and beats of what your computer is playing, live, in memory, and discards the audio immediately. It never records, saves or uploads anything. It doesn't look at your screen at all.

How does it know what song is playing?

On macOS it asks Spotify or Music what they're playing and reads music-site titles from your browser tabs (macOS will ask once per browser). On Windows it uses the system's media-session information — the same thing the volume flyout shows. The title is only shown to you in the menu.

Can I use my own character?

Yes. Right-click the buddy › Character › Use my own image…, or drag a picture onto it. Plain backgrounds are removed automatically and it gets the same animations as the built-in characters. Custom characters are stored in your user folder and survive updates.

It's in the way / I want it somewhere else.

Drag it anywhere; it stays where you drop it. Turn on Ghost mode to let clicks pass through it, use Hide (or the shortcut: ⌃⌥H on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+H on Windows and Linux) to make it vanish, and Quiet hours to stop the chatter in the evening.

How do I connect it to Claude Code or Codex?

Right-click › Claude Code › Connect, or Codex › Connect. Claude Code's hooks go in ~/.claude/settings.json; Codex's go in ~/.codex/hooks.json. Either way a backup is kept next to the file, your own hooks are left alone, and Disconnect removes only ours. The buddy then reacts when the agent is thinking, editing, testing, waiting for you or finished.

One extra step for Codex: it will not run a hook it has not been shown. After connecting, type /hooks inside Codex, review the WorkKit Buddy entry and trust it. Until you do, Codex lists it as needing review and skips it.

Can my scripts talk to it?

Yes — it registers a URL scheme. From a terminal or any tool that can open a link:

macOS:    open -g "workkitbuddy://notify?title=Deploy&text=Production%20is%20live&url=https://workkit.in"
Windows:  start "" "workkitbuddy://say?text=hello"
Found a bug, or have an idea for a character?

Open an issue on GitHub, or tell us through the WorkKit contact page if you'd rather not have an account. Include your OS version and, if something misbehaves, the log: ~/Library/Logs/WorkkitBuddy.log on Mac, %APPDATA%\WorkkitBuddy\WorkkitBuddy.log on Windows, ~/.config/WorkkitBuddy/WorkkitBuddy.log on Linux.

Does it update itself?

It tells you, it never changes anything behind your back. Once a day it asks GitHub what the newest release is; if yours is older, the pet brings a card with a link to this page and you install it the same way you did the first time. Nothing is downloaded or replaced on its own. Right-click the pet ▸ Updates to check straight away, or to turn the daily look-up off.

Can it answer questions?

Yes, on all three systems since 1.3. Press ⌃⌥A (Ctrl+Alt+A on Windows and Linux), or double-click the buddy, and a small panel opens beside it. Answers come from Claude or Gemini, whichever you pick in the menu, using your own API key — the buddy has no account of its own. The key is stored on your machine and is only ever sent to the service you chose; nothing leaves your computer until you type a question and press Return.

How do meeting alerts work off a calendar?

macOS reads your calendars directly. Windows and Linux have no equivalent an app like this can rely on, so they read a calendar you publish as an .ics link: in Google Calendar it is Settings ▸ your calendar ▸ "Secret address in iCal format"; in Outlook, Settings ▸ Calendar ▸ Shared calendars ▸ Publish. Paste it under Nudges ▸ Link a calendar, and the buddy brings you a card a few minutes before each meeting. The link is only ever fetched, never shared.

How do I uninstall it?

Mac: quit it from the menu, then delete WorkKit Buddy from Applications and WorkKit Buddy.saver from /Library/Screen Savers. Windows: Settings › Apps › WorkKit Buddy › Uninstall. Linux: sudo apt remove workkitbuddy, or delete the folder you unpacked. Your settings and custom characters are kept unless you delete them yourself.