Now: guided workshops
Small student sessions introduce practical Terminal and AI workflows while testing Abelaro in a supported, controlled setting.
A local macOS workspace app
Pixel Pets for Terminals and Workspaces.
Abelaro is a native macOS menu bar app for configuring floating pet overlays. Each pet is linked to a workspace folder and command, opens or reuses a tmux session in Terminal.app, and shows basic session state. We are first testing the workflow in guided student workshops; a later release is planned for macOS power users who manage several local sessions.
See how tasks progress based on your pet
How Abelaro is launching
Workshops first. A focused app release later.
Later: power-user app
The future app release is for macOS users who want a visual way to return to their real workspace and tmux sessions.
What the app does
It turns configured workspaces into movable desktop overlays.
Manage from the menu bar
Use the PET menu to open Manage Pets and Settings, show or hide pets, reset positions, restore hidden pets, and quit the app.
Configure real workspace commands
A pet stores its workspace folder, shell command, sprite, tmux session name, size, and position in local JSON settings.
Interact with the overlay
Drag and resize pets, single-click to open the command session, double-click to open the folder Terminal, or right-click for pet actions.
Interaction model
A pet is a configured AppKit overlay linked to a tmux-backed Terminal session.
01
Open Manage Pets
Use the menu bar to add a pet, choose its sprite, pick a workspace folder, enter a command, and set its size.
02
Place the overlay
The app creates a transparent floating AppKit pet panel that you can drag, resize, hide, and restore.
03
Launch on click
Single-click opens or focuses the command-session Terminal; double-click opens the workspace folder Terminal.
04
Read the state
Pet animations, fallback colors, tab-count tags, and notifications reflect best-effort tmux output status.
Implemented features
The app is a local controller, not an LLM provider.
The feature set is built around AppKit overlays, local JSON config, sprite libraries, Terminal.app automation, and tmux session status polling.
PET menu bar item
Manage Pets, Settings, Show Pets, Hide Pets, Reset Pet Positions, hidden-pet restore, and Quit live in the macOS menu bar.
Manage Pets window
Add, edit, preview, resize, and delete configured pets from one central list.
Workspace binding
Each pet stores a name, sprite, workspace folder, command, generated tmux session name, size, and saved screen position.
Sprite scanning
Settings can scan WebP sprite folders, package pet.json files, standalone idle images, and Codex-style 8x9 atlases.
Terminal and tmux
A click creates or attaches to the pet tmux session in Terminal.app; existing sessions are reused without rerunning the command.
Status feedback
Pets use animations, fallback indicators, Terminal tab-count tags, and optional notifications for needs-action and done states.
Safety and limits
The app restores pets without starting their commands.
- Commands are user-configured shell commands and run only after explicit pet interaction.
- Startup loads settings, restores allowed overlays, and sanitizes off-screen frames without creating tmux sessions.
- Hiding, deleting, or quitting pets does not explicitly kill tmux sessions.
- Missing tmux, folder errors, save failures, and Terminal automation failures are surfaced with actionable feedback.
Page routes
Alternate pages focused on different parts of the app.
Register your interest
Tell us whether you want a workshop, the app, or both.
Student workshops are the first opportunity to try the approach. If you are a macOS power user, you can also register interest in a future app release.