whack-a-claude

whack-a-claude

The arcade game that pops up when Claude is taking too long.

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Claude taking more than 8 seconds to respond? A small picker pops up — Skip / TUI / Browser — and the game opens in whatever you choose. Don't pick? It vanishes after 12s. Claude finishes mid-game? The game closes itself. Fast turns never see anything.

Two playable modes — browser (pixel-art HTML game) and terminal (full TUI in your shell).

Install

As a Claude Code plugin:

git clone https://github.com/ChenJiangxi/whack-a-claude ~/.claude-plugins/whack-a-claude
claude plugin install ~/.claude-plugins/whack-a-claude

That's it. Next slow Claude turn → game opens.

Modes

Browser

Auto-launches 8s after a slow turn starts and auto-closes when Claude is done. Pixel SVG sprites, squish/bonk animations, score pop-ups, persistent best score.

Terminal

npm install && npm run tui

Full-screen blessed TUI. Mouse and keyboard both work — Q W E / A S D / Z X C maps your keyboard's left-hand 3×3 onto the grid, so hand position matches grid position with zero translation.

Scoring

target	points
brown mole	+10
gold mole	+30
Claude	−50 (don't.)

60-second round. Difficulty ramps from chill to frantic across the round. Best score persists at ~/.local/share/whack-a-claude/best.

How it works

UserPromptSubmit hook  →  status.json: "thinking"  +  schedule picker in 8s
Stop hook              →  status.json: "done"      +  cancel pending picker/game

Fast turn: cancel fires before the picker does, you see nothing. Slow turn: native macOS dialog pops with Skip / TUI / Browser; pick one and the chosen game opens; ignore it for 12s and it dismisses itself. Game polls /status, shows a "Claude's done" overlay when Claude finishes, auto-closes after 10s.

Configure

env var	default	what it does
WHACK_MODE	ask	ask (per-turn picker) · browser (auto-open browser, no prompt) · tui (auto-open terminal, no prompt) · off (kill switch)
WHACK_DELAY	8	seconds Claude has to finish before the picker appears
WHACK_ASK_TIMEOUT	12	seconds the picker waits before auto-Skipping
WHACK_DISABLE	0	set to 1 to disable hooks entirely (same as MODE=off)
WHACK_PORT	7654	local server port (browser mode only)

Quick on/off without editing env — touch ~/.whack-off to silence both hooks instantly; rm ~/.whack-off to bring the game back. No restart needed.

Trigger condition — picker appears when Claude takes longer than WHACK_DELAY seconds. Cancelled if Claude finishes first.

Stay-quiet condition — nothing pops when ~/.whack-off exists, or WHACK_MODE=off, or WHACK_DISABLE=1. Set WHACK_MODE=browser or tui to skip the picker and auto-launch the same mode every time.

Mode condition — WHACK_MODE=tui launches the terminal version in a tmux split-pane (or a new Terminal.app window if not in tmux). Requires tmux for the cleanest experience.

Run standalone (no Claude required)

npm install
npm start         # browser at http://127.0.0.1:7654
npm run tui       # terminal

License

MIT