Desk Quest Log

A tiny pixel-art creature lives at the bottom of your screen, just above the Dock.

Every time you finish one piece of work, it fights a monster and gains XP. On the days when you feel like you got nothing done, you open it up and find your character has quietly defeated a dozen things.

That is the whole idea: a record of work that looks back at you.

Please read first — this app is in Japanese

The interface and all in-game text are in Japanese. There is no English version yet.

Menus, monster names, skill names and the dog's little remarks are Japanese only. The app still works without reading any of it — the character walks, fights and levels up visually — but you will miss most of the writing.

If enough people ask, an English version will be considered. Say so in the comments below.

What it does

• A character walks along the very bottom of your screen, above the Dock
• Right-click and choose "record one task" to summon a monster and fight it
• Rate how heavy the task was, from 1 to 4 stars. Heavier work summons stronger monsters and gives more XP
• Multi-day projects can be run as boss fights — chip away at the HP over several days
• Fights drop materials, and slowly fill in a monster encyclopedia and an achievement list
• Leveling up teaches your character combat moves and idle tricks. The tricks get performed on their own when nothing is happening
• Three avatars: a hero, a dachshund and a slime. They share the same level
• A shiba inu walks alongside you, and comes over to suggest a break when you have been working too long

There are hidden achievements, and a few moves whose names are still "???". Go find them.

Requirements

macOS 11 Big Sur or later. Apple Silicon and Intel both supported. About 180 MB. No installer — unzip it and open the .app.

macOS only for now. Windows is not supported, because it has not been tested on real Windows hardware and the core feature — walking exactly above the Dock — depends on the operating system.

Before you open it: the Gatekeeper warning

This app is not signed or notarized by Apple. On first launch macOS will refuse to open it and show something like "Apple could not verify this app is free of malware."

Nothing is broken. This is a very small company that has not paid for an Apple Developer account (99 USD/year). You need these steps once:

• Double-click the app. It will be blocked — this step is required
• Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security
• Scroll to the bottom and click "Open Anyway"
• Click "Open" in the dialog that appears again

From the second launch onward it opens normally. On macOS Sonoma and earlier you can also Control-click the app and choose "Open".

A readme with the same steps is included in the zip, but it is written in Japanese.

Network and data

• There is no networking code in this app. It never connects to anything
• No ads, no analytics, no telemetry, no account
• All data stays on your Mac, in ~/.desktop-buddy
• To uninstall: delete the app and that folder

Optional: for Claude Code users

If you use Anthropic's Claude Code, an included script can trigger the fights automatically whenever you finish a task, so you never have to record anything by hand. It judges how heavy the task was from how much work went into it, and picks the monster accordingly.

This app is not an official Anthropic product and is not affiliated with Anthropic. It was built independently by ao.create LLC. The integration is entirely optional — every feature works with manual recording alone.

How it was made

The pixel art, the writing and the code are all original to this project. AI (Claude) was used in making it. Nothing here was trained on or copied from any specific artist or work. No fonts are bundled — the app uses the ones already on macOS.

Built with Electron (MIT licence). Licence files are included in the zip.

Support

This is a hobby project from a very small company. No warranty, and no promise of individual support or fixes.

Bug reports and impressions are welcome in the comments. They will all be read, even if they are not answered.

It is free. If you like it, telling someone else about it is the best thing you can do for it.