Model Buddies • Concept 2026

Clawd picks your Claude model and acts it out

Two frames from the concept video. Left, the picker floating on ivory with Pick tags on Sonnet and High. Right, the whole Claude Code window turned into a purple pixel starfield after Ultracode.
Role
Interaction design, Prototyping, Motion
Timeline
October 2026
Team
Solo, with AI agents
Tools
Claude Code mods, Claude Code, HyperFrames, Python for the music
Live
Concept
Models, each with its own color and Clawd
4
Effort levels, from a nap at Low to a cloud ride at Ultracode
6
Keyword rules, taken from my own model routing notes
9

Model Buddies is a concept for Claude Code. You type a task, and Clawd, Claude's pixel mascot, picks the model and effort for you and acts it out. Haiku naps at Low, Sonnet crab walks at High, and Ultracode turns the whole window into a purple starfield.

It started as a habit. My Claude Code setup already suggests a model and effort for each prompt, so I stop spending tokens on the biggest model. It worked, but it was a line of text nobody would look at twice. So I built the picker as a real Claude Code mod, then made the parts a mod can't do into a concept video.

Overview

Anyone should see which model fits, without knowing what a model is.

It's easy to pick the biggest model for everything, because nothing tells you otherwise. I wanted the choice to read at a glance. Each model got its own color, Haiku green, Sonnet blue, Opus orange and Fable dark purple, and three dot meters for speed, smarts and cost.

Clawd reads the task with nine keyword rules taken from my own routing notes. A cover letter goes to Sonnet at High. A quick summary goes to Haiku at Low. A Pick tag marks his choice, so you can still see it after you change your own.

Process

Clawd only moves in Claude's own pixels.

I didn't draw a new mascot. I found the Clawd GIFs inside the Claude app, decoded every frame into a grid of pixels, and learned the rules: square pixels, moves of one whole pixel, about 85 ms a frame.

Then I recolored him per model and gave each effort level its own act. He naps at Low, idles at Medium, crab walks at High, runs and sweats at Extra high, jumps with a headband at Max, and rides a cloud at Ultracode.

Four frames of Clawd from the video: blue Sonnet crab walking at High, green Haiku napping at Low, dark purple Fable running at Extra high, and orange Opus riding a cloud through purple stars at Ultracode.
Same Clawd, recolored per model, acting out the effort.

Process

A mod can't paint the whole window, so the video does.

The live mod draws a band above the prompt and a side panel. It can't redraw the window, and it can't see your draft until you send it. So Clawd picks the moment you hit send, runs that message on his pick, and gives you a button to go back to your own setting.

The purple starfield and Clawd reacting while you type only exist in the concept video. I made that video with Claude in HyperFrames, with 8 bit music composed in code and timed to every click.

The live mod's side panel and bands, drawn by the mod: four model cards with Clawd tiles and dot meters, effort buttons with Clawd's pick on High, an Auto switch, and two bands announcing Clawd's pick for a message, one in Ultracode purple.
The mod's own drawing, rendered outside the app. Bands and a side panel are what a mod gets.

Reflection

It works in my Claude Code, and the full version is still a wish.

The mod runs as a quieter version of the video, and its animations play once and hold, because a looping pane hurt my eyes. The rest waits for Claude Code to open more of its window to mods.

Clawd, the Claude look and its fonts belong to Anthropic. This is an unofficial concept I made because I wanted it to exist.