Development picked up again at 19th of April 2026. Expect many updates and improvements every week now!

🖥️ OpenClaw Pixel Agents

A pixel art office dashboard for OpenClaw — where your AI agents walk around, sit at desks, and visually reflect what they're doing in real time.

What It Does

Turns your OpenClaw multi-agent system into a live pixel art office. Each agent becomes a character that walks to their desk, sits down, and animates based on real agent state — typing when writing code, reading when analyzing, thinking when reasoning, waiting when they need your attention.

Features

• Live agent visualization — characters animate based on real OpenClaw Gateway state (typing, reading, thinking, waiting, error)
• Drag-and-drop layout editor — place, move, rotate, and delete furniture on a grid
• Persistent layouts — save and load office designs; create multiple layouts
• 25 furniture types — desks, PCs, chairs, plants, bookshelves, whiteboards, coffee machines, paintings, and more
• Agent toggle — choose which agents appear in the pixel office
• Character sprites — animated pixel characters with walk, typing, and reading states
• Fallback rendering — works even without sprite assets (colored rectangles)
• Real-time sync — polls OpenClaw Gateway for agent state every 3 seconds

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/SweetSophia/openclaw-pixel-agents.git
cd openclaw-pixel-agents
npm install
npm run dev

The app runs at http://localhost:3000 with the backend API on port 3001.

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• One of:
  • OpenClaw running locally with CLI in PATH (for cli/auto data mode)
  • Ingest API — set DATA_SOURCE=ingest + INGEST_API_TOKEN and push data from a collector script on the OpenClaw host

Demo Mode

Without a running OpenClaw Gateway, the app starts with 8 demo agents (Cybera, Shodan, Cyberlogis, Descartes, Chi, Cylena, Sysauxilia, Miku) in various activity states. This is enough to test the layout editor and rendering.

Usage

Agent Sidebar

The right sidebar shows all configured agents with:

• Activity state badge (color-coded)
• Model name
• Token usage bar
• Toggle button to show/hide in the pixel office
• Bulk Show All / Hide All controls

Layout Editor

Click ✏️ Edit in the header to enter editor mode:

Action	How
Place furniture	Click a type in the 📦 palette, then click on the grid
Select furniture	Click on placed furniture (green dashed border)
Move furniture	Click and drag
Rotate furniture	Right-click, or use 🔄 button in the info bar
Delete furniture	Use 🗑️ button in the info bar, or press Delete
Save layout	Click 💾 Save

Layouts auto-save 2 seconds after the last furniture change; the explicit Save button remains available.

Layout Manager

Click 📐 Layouts to manage saved layouts:

• Create new layouts with custom names
• Switch between layouts
• Delete layouts (default layout is protected)

Architecture

Data Source Modes

The server supports three modes for getting agent data, controlled by the DATA_SOURCE env var:

Mode	DATA_SOURCE	How it works
Auto (default)	auto	Tries CLI polling; if openclaw is not found and INGEST_API_TOKEN is set, switches to ingest-only
CLI Poll	cli	Polls openclaw sessions locally every 3 seconds (requires OpenClaw on the same machine)
Ingest	ingest	Accepts pushed data via POST /api/ingest/agents — no local OpenClaw needed

Mode 1: Same machine as OpenClaw (CLI Poll)

Browser                          Server                     OpenClaw
┌──────────────┐   HTTP/WS   ┌──────────────┐   CLI poll   ┌──────────────┐
│ React 19     │◄───────────►│ Express      │◄────────────►│ Gateway      │
│ Canvas 2D    │             │ Socket.IO    │   (3s)       │ Sessions API │
│ GameEngine   │             │ Layout API   │              └──────────────┘
└──────────────┘             └──────────────┘

Just run it on the same machine as OpenClaw. No extra configuration needed.

Mode 2: Separate server (Ingest via Collector)

┌─────────────────────┐         every 15s          ┌──────────────────┐
│  OpenClaw Server     │ ──── collector script ───→ │  Your Server     │
│  (has openclaw CLI)  │    token-authenticated     │  (pixel-agents)  │
│                      │    POST /api/ingest/agents │                  │
└─────────────────────┘                            └──────────────────┘

1. Set DATA_SOURCE=ingest and INGEST_API_TOKEN=<secret> on the pixel-agents server
2. On the OpenClaw host, copy collector/.env.collector.example to .env.collector and configure:
   • PIXEL_AGENTS_URL — URL of the pixel-agents server
   • PIXEL_INGEST_TOKEN — same secret as INGEST_API_TOKEN
3. Install the systemd timer from collector/systemd/:

   # Edit the .service file to match your install path
   sudo cp collector/systemd/openclaw-pixel-collector.* /etc/systemd/system/
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable --now openclaw-pixel-collector.timer

The ingest endpoint accepts additive fields from OpenClaw's evolving session output, then sanitizes each entry into the small session shape used by this server. Registered agent IDs, retained field types and sizes, and opaque session IDs are validated before an update is applied; invalid retained fields return HTTP 400.

See collector/README.md for full setup instructions.

Key Components

Component	Purpose
GameEngine	Canvas 2D rendering loop, sprite animation, pathfinding, and host façade
EditorController	Mouse/touch editor state and canvas listener lifecycle
SpriteLoader	Loads and slices sprite sheets into individual frame canvases
LayoutEditor	Toolbar, furniture palette, layout manager UI
PixelOffice	Canvas wrapper, wires agent/layout data to GameEngine
AgentSidebar	Agent list with toggles and activity badges
useAgentStore	Fetches agent state from backend API
useLayoutStore	CRUD operations for layouts with auto-save

Sprite Format

Character sprite sheets are 112×96px PNGs:

• 7 frames per row (16×32px each)
• 3 rows: down (row 0), up (row 1), right (row 2)
• Frame mapping: 0-2 walk, 3-4 typing, 5-6 reading
• Left direction is auto-generated by flipping the right row

Furniture uses per-type directories with manifest.json for dimensions and rotation schemes.

Adding Custom Assets

New Furniture Type

1. Add sprites to public/assets/furniture/<TYPE>/
2. Create manifest.json:

   {
     "id": "MY_FURNITURE",
     "name": "My Furniture",
     "category": "decor",
     "type": "single",
     "members": [{
       "type": "asset",
       "id": "MY_FURNITURE",
       "file": "MY_FURNITURE.png",
       "width": 32,
       "height": 32,
       "footprintW": 2,
       "footprintH": 2
     }]
   }

3. Add the type name to the furniture catalog in server/index.ts
4. It appears in the editor palette automatically

New Character Sprite

1. Create a 112×96px sprite sheet following the format above
2. Place in public/assets/characters/
3. The SpriteLoader picks it up automatically

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 19, TypeScript, Vite, Canvas 2D
• Backend: Node.js, Express, Socket.IO
• Assets: MetroCity character pack by JIK-A-4
• Agent Data: OpenClaw Gateway

Configuration

Environment Variable	Default	Description
PORT	3001	Backend server port (3000 in production)
NODE_ENV	(set to production by npm start)	Runtime mode; production requires CORS_ORIGIN for WebSocket origin checks
CORS_ORIGIN	(none)	Comma-separated browser origins allowed to open Socket.IO connections and to send state-mutating REST requests in production
DATA_SOURCE	auto	Data mode: auto, cli (local polling), or ingest (push-based)
OPENCLAW_CLI	openclaw	Path to OpenClaw CLI binary (cli mode only)
POLL_INTERVAL	3000	Agent state poll interval in ms (cli mode only)
ACTIVE_MINUTES	30	Session staleness threshold
INGEST_API_TOKEN	(none)	Shared secret for ingest API auth (required for ingest mode)
OPENCLAW_AGENTS_DIR	~/.openclaw/agents	Path to agent session transcripts
DATA_DIR	./data	Persistence directory for preferences and layouts

Reverse-proxy deployments

If you terminate TLS or rewrite requests in a reverse proxy in front of the Node server, make sure the Origin header from the browser is forwarded unchanged. State-mutating REST routes (POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE /api/*) require an allowed Origin in production; stripping or rewriting it will cause legitimate browser mutations to fail with 403 Forbidden origin.

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start dev server (Vite + backend)
npm run build	Production build to dist/
npm start	Run production build

License

MIT — free for personal and commercial use.

Pixel art assets by JIK-A-4 (MetroCity pack) — free for personal and commercial use per itch.io terms.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, code style, and how to add custom assets.