Claude Buddy: The Complete Guide to Your AI Terminal Pet (All 18 Species, Rarities & Hidden Mechanics)

Anthropic just dropped something unexpected in Claude Code — a fully-featured virtual pet system called Buddy . Think Tamagotchi, but it lives in your terminal and reacts to your coding sessions in real-time. This isn't a throwaway Easter egg. Behind the cute ASCII art lies a surprisingly deep system: 18 species, 5 rarity tiers, deterministic generation, anti-cheat architecture, and LLM-powered personalities. Here's everything you need to know. How to Get Your Buddy Requirements: Claude Code version 2.1.89+ Pro subscription Just type /buddy in your terminal. Your pet hatches with a unique animation — and it's permanently yours. All Commands /buddy → Hatch your pet (first time) or show it /buddy pet → Pet your companion (floating hearts for 2.5s) /buddy card → View full stat card with ASCII sprite /buddy mute → Silence speech bubbles /buddy unmute → Restore speech bubbles /buddy off → Hide buddy entirely Pro tip: Call your buddy by its name directly, and Claude will "step aside" to let