dsh-pet-indesktop

Project Overview

dsh-pet is a transparent desktop pet that runs without the DSH runtime: frameless always-on-top, draggable, multi-character WebM animations (106 high-res clips), a system tray icon, and AI chat in the Chat variant. It runs on Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon), and Linux (x86_64), currently at v4.3.4, with an installer and portable zip on Windows.

Item	Value
Platform	Windows, macOS arm64, Linux x86_64 (plus an Android test build)
Tech	Python 3.10+, PySide6
Version	v4.3.4 (2026-10-19)
Assets	106 WebM animations

A pet living in the bottom-right corner — tray recall, auto-start, and chat on request.

Key Features

• Pet core: transparent frameless always-on-top window with dragging, cross-screen moves, and edge peeking
• Animation playback: 106 high-resolution WebM clips switching with interactions
• Character switching: multiple characters with animations organized per character
• AI chat (Chat build): the Chat variant loads the chat subsystem; the no-Chat build drops AI dependencies for a smaller package
• System tray: persistent icon, double-click to show/hide, right-click menu for settings and auto-start
• Global shortcuts: three actions can bind global hotkeys (unbound by default); Settings supports Ctrl+F search
• Auto-start: registry Run key on Windows, LaunchAgent on macOS, autostart entry on Linux
• Click-through: an optional pass-through mode keeps the pet from blocking desktop input

Quick Start

1. On Windows download setup.exe from Releases (installs to %LOCALAPPDATA% without admin), or grab the portable zip and extract
2. On macOS download the arm64 zip, then right-click the .app and choose Open, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine
3. On Linux extract and run the binary; Debian-family systems need libxcb-cursor0, fonts-noto-cjk, and friends first
4. If the pet disappears, check the tray — double-click the icon to toggle visibility

System Requirements

Item	Requirement
Windows	installer and portable zip; per-user install needs no admin
macOS	Apple Silicon (arm64); Intel users build from source
Linux	x86_64, X11 recommended; on Wayland try QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb
Source	Python 3.10+, pip install -r requirements.txt, then python -m pet

Notes

• Which build: pick Chat for AI conversation or no-Chat for a lighter pet; both share the same WebM assets
• Auto-start cleaned: security software may remove unsigned auto-start entries; the app self-checks and bubbles a reminder on next launch
• Known DPI issue: invisibility on Windows 11 with 150% scaling (issue #286) remains undiagnosed and unfixed
• GIF variant retired: the ~800 MB single-file GIF build is no longer published by default; build it yourself via docs/ONEDIR_PACKAGING.md if needed