Give your Codex a desktop pet
The Codex App keeps a little pet on your desktop that tells you what it's up to through animation: heads-down and busy while it writes code, staring up at you while it waits for a reply, wilting on the spot when a task fails. This gallery collects 91 pets built to the official spritesheet spec — download and go, or learn to make your own from scratch.
Original Gallery (50)
How to install →Momo the Dumpling Cat
A round little cream-orange cat who loves to ball up and type.
Bitbit the Little Box Bot
A mint-green cube robot whose screen face shifts with the task.
Nova the Pudding Slime
A caramel-pudding slime come to life, wobbling wherever it goes.
Pipi the Penguin
A blue-and-black penguin who tilts its head and stares while it waits.
Shiba the Shiba Inu
A milk-tea-colored shiba whose tail is permanently curled into a ring.
Foxy the Little Fox
An orange-red fox whose white tail tip is its pride and joy.
Bunny the White Puff Rabbit
A long-eared white rabbit; the jump animation is its home turf.
Hammy the Hamster Ball
A golden hamster with permanently stuffed cheeks.
Froggy the Squat Frog
A matcha-green frog with eyes on top of its head.
Chick the Yellow Chick
A yolk-yellow chick with one stubborn tuft on its head.
Ducky the Little Duck
A white duck with an orange bill and a built-in waddle.
Owly the Owl
A gray-blue owl, the natural face of review mode.
Hedgey the Hedgehog Ball
A cream-brown hedgehog with a row of little spines.
Sealy the Little Seal
A gray-white seal for whom lying down is standing up.
Octo the Little Octopus
A coral-pink octopus with eight legs all doing their own thing.
Dino the Little Dinosaur
An avocado-green dino with a row of plates down its back.
Draco the Little Dragon
A misty-purple dragon whelp with two tiny horns.
Shroom the Mushroom Sprite
A red-capped, white-spotted mushroom with a face hiding underneath.
Cactus the Potted Cactus
A potted cactus come to life, with one small bloom on top.
Boo the Little Ghost
A translucent white blob ghost, working from mid-air.
Snowy the Little Snowman
Two snowballs stacked up, carrot nose included.
Cloudy the Little Cloud
A drowsy little cloud that floats by default.
Star the Little Star
A golden five-pointed star; sparkling is the day job.
Tomato the Tomato
A plump red tomato with a green cap.
Onigiri the Rice Ball
A triangular rice ball come to life, seaweed around the middle.
Toasty the Toast Slice
A perfectly toasted square of bread with crisp golden edges.
Beebee the Little Bee
A yellow-and-black striped bee with wings that never stop.
Ladybug the Spotted Beetle
A red ladybug with black spots, unapologetically round.
Jelly the Jellyfish Spirit
A translucent lilac jellyfish whose tentacles keep the beat.
Shelly the Little Turtle
A small turtle in a green shell — slow, but never absent.
Kuro the Black Cat
A black cat with golden eyes; darkness is its camouflage.
Capy the Capybara
An unshakably calm capybara with a permanent orange on its head.
Axo the Axolotl
A pink-and-white axolotl with three pairs of feathery gills.
Piggy the Pink Pig
A rosy little pig whose nostrils face front, no apologies.
Mousey the Gray Mouse
A gray mouse whose two big round ears double as radar.
Batty the Little Bat
A purple-black bat that works days and nights alike.
Whaley the Little Whale
A sky-blue whale with a tiny blowhole on its back.
Crabby the Little Crab
An orange-red crab with both claws always at the ready.
Snaily the Little Snail
A cream snail in a spiral shell, slow and entirely at peace with it.
Bearby the Brown Bear
A honey-colored bear cub whose belly is a permanent shade lighter.
Raccoony the Little Raccoon
A raccoon with a built-in bandit mask — the all-nighter look, from birth.
Deery the Little Deer
A light-brown fawn with a tiny pair of antlers.
Uni the Little Unicorn
A cloud-white unicorn with a gradient horn on its brow.
Sheepy the Little Sheep
A cloud-curled lamb with exceptional sleep quality.
Pumpkiny the Little Pumpkin
A plump orange pumpkin with a stubby stem on top.
Donutty the Doughnut
A strawberry-glazed doughnut buried in sprinkles.
Baozi the Steamed Bun
A plump white bun pinched into eighteen pleats on top.
Avoca the Avocado
A halved avocado come to life, pit doubling as a belly button.
Ufopet the Little Flying Saucer
A mini UFO with small eyes under a glass dome.
Daruma the Little Daruma
A small red daruma whose one principle is: don't stay down.
What you see is what you get: the loop running on this page is the "idle" row straight out of the spritesheet. Open any detail page to switch between all 9 states.
Inspired Series (41)
Where the ideas came from →Pixelboy the Bespectacled Kid
A pixel guy with black hair and round glasses — standard programmer issue.
Officecat the Office Cat
A gray-white office cat in square glasses; the keyboard is its territory.
Redpanda the Red Panda
A rust-red panda, the community's reigning crowd favorite.
Samo the Samoyed
A snow-white smiling angel with fluff levels that exceed spec even in pixels.
Shrimpy the Keyboard Shrimp
A red shrimp in black-framed glasses, tapping a mini keyboard.
Pandapro the Suited Panda
A panda in a black suit clutching a laptop, with strong meme energy.
Censer the Bronze Burner
A miniature boshan censer that smokes, with a green bronze patina.
Ghostsong the Snowpuff Singer
A little snow-puff ghost who loves to sing, with a tuft on its head.
Mechaone the Little Mecha
A mini mech in white and blue with a single glowing visor eye.
Ranger the Roaming Hero
A yellow round-ball adventurer in an eyepatch and scarf.
Idolpix the Twin-Tail Singer
A pixel pop singer with pink twin tails and built-in stage presence.
Beanieboy the Beanie Kid
Cream beanie plus scarf — a pixel guy in full cozy mode.
Roninball the Samurai Dumpling
A round silver-haired samurai with a small topknot.
Cheerpom the Pom-Pom Cheerer
A little cheerleader with pom-poms and inexhaustible enthusiasm.
Owlclerk the Clerk Owl
A brown owl in round glasses, master of the filing system.
Corebot the Power-Core Robot
A rounded white robot with a glowing core in its chest.
Stonelion the Little Stone Lion
A gray-green mini guardian lion with a curly mane.
Monkeyhero the Golden Monkey
A golden-furred monkey with a dot of cinnabar on its brow.
Boba the Bubble Tea Spirit
A cup of bubble tea come to life, fat straw included.
Clipper the Paperclip
One excessively helpful silver paperclip.
Ninjapix the Little Ninja
A small ninja in a navy hood, streamers flying as it runs.
Astropix the Little Astronaut
A tiny astronaut in a white suit, visor catching the light.
Wizzy the Little Wizard
A small wizard in a star-spangled pointed hat, robe sweeping the floor.
Knighty the Little Knight
A small knight in silver helm with a red plume, standing at attention.
Piratecap the Little Captain
A tiny pirate captain in a wide-brimmed hat; eyepatch standard.
Sleuth the Little Detective
A small detective in a deerstalker who sees clues in everything.
Angelpuff the Angel Puff
A small white angel with a halo and gently flapping wings.
Devilpup the Little Devil
A purple devil pup with small red horns, wicked within reason.
Santapix the Little Santa
A mini Santa whose hat pom-pom bobs along.
Kangaboxer the Boxing Kangaroo
A small boxing kangaroo in red gloves, throwing punches at nothing.
DJcat the Headphone Cat
A cool cat in big headphones, keeping the beat internally.
Padpal the Gamepad Spirit
A gamepad come to life, its buttons doubling as freckles.
TVbot the Television Robot
A small robot with a retro TV head and antennae swinging about.
Cybercat the Cyber Cat
A cyberpunk cat in glowing goggles, livelier after dark.
Taichi the Taiji Dumpling
A half-black, half-white taiji dumpling that even breathes in circles.
Sumoball the Sumo Ball
A mini sumo wrestler with a topknot, planted like bedrock.
Yetiboy the Little Yeti
A fluffy blue-and-white yeti: looks fierce, is deeply shy.
Robodog the Robot Dog
A silver-gray robot dog whose tail is a single antenna.
Frogprince the Frog Prince
A green frog in a little gold crown, waiting for someone to review it.
Paka the Chill Capybara
A milk-tea-colored capybara in permanent lounge mode, muzzle taking up half its face.
Chefcat the Head Chef Cat
An orange tabby in a white toque; the output must be flawless.
This set draws on themes popular in the codex-pets.net community (office cats, red pandas, keyboard shrimp, mecha, incense burners…). Every design and every pixel is original to this site — no copyrighted characters involved. Pet creation is powered by PixPix, an AI image and video generation platform.
What Codex pets actually are
An official feature
Pets is built into the OpenAI Codex App: a pixel creature lives in a small always-on-top window, and its animation state syncs with what Codex is doing in real time.
It's just one image
Each pet is a single 1536×1872 spritesheet — a grid of 8 columns × 9 rows, one animation state per row — plus a pet.json metadata file.
Drop it in a folder, done
Put the pet folder in ~/.codex/pets/ (on Windows, %USERPROFILE%\.codex\pets\) and you can select it inside the Codex App.
You can build your own
OpenAI ships a hatch-pet skill that generates one with AI, or you can draw every frame in code the way we did. The spec is public and the whole method is in the tutorial.
Nine animation states
| Row | State | When it plays |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Idle idle | Breathing quietly, blinking now and then |
| 1 | Running right running-right | Codex sent it off to work on the right |
| 2 | Running left running-left | On its way back |
| 3 | Waving waving | A quick hello before the task kicks off |
| 4 | Jumping jumping | Task done — a happy little leap |
| 5 | Failed failed | Something broke; it wilts in place and breaks into a cold sweat |
| 6 | Waiting for you waiting | Codex has paused for input, and it's staring right at you |
| 7 | Working running | Codex is generating code — it's shaking with effort |
| 8 | Review review | Eyes narrowed, scanning your code left to right |