How Pawsby works

1. The cat #

Once you finish setup, the cat lands on the bottom of your screen and starts wandering. It walks the floor of the screen and, by default, along the top edges of your open windows.

Do this	What happens
Click once	You pet it. Mood goes up a little and it reacts.
Double-click	Opens the chat box. This is how you talk to it.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Space Mac: ⌥ Option+Space	Opens the chat box from anywhere, even while you're in another app. You can change or turn off the shortcut — see §2.
Drag	Picks the cat up. Let go over a window's top edge and it lands there; let go in mid-air and it falls to the floor.
Right-click	Opens the action menu — see §4.
Leave it alone	It walks, sits, and occasionally says something on its own. Its mood drifts with how much you interact.

The click / double-click split is deliberate: a single click is a pat, so you can nudge the cat without a chat box popping up every time.

The cat's birthday is the day you installed Pawsby. Once a year on that date it'll tell you, with a bubble and a notification.

2. Talking to it #

Double-click the cat (or use the chat shortcut below), type, press Enter. The reply appears in a speech bubble next to the cat and disappears after a few seconds (you set how long in Settings → Chat). Long replies split across pages — click the bubble's arrow for the next one.

It can also search the web, on every plan, so "will it rain tonight" or "who won last night" gets a current answer rather than a guess. Set your location in Settings → Chat so weather questions don't need a city every time.

The chat box comes in three styles (Settings → Chat → Chat Overlay Style):

• Bubble — a compact input that closes as soon as you send. The default.
• Classic — a small chat window with your message history and quick-reply buttons.
• Transparent — frameless bubbles that stack upward and stay open.

Each message is capped at 2,000 characters. The chat box closes when it loses focus.

Chat shortcut

A keyboard shortcut opens the chat box from anywhere — no need to find the cat first. It works on every plan.

• Default — Ctrl+Alt+Space on Windows, ⌥ Option+Space on macOS.
• Change it in Settings → Chat → Chat Shortcut → Change, then press the combination you want. It has to include Ctrl, Alt/⌥, or ⌘/Win. Press Esc to cancel and keep the one you had.
• Reset goes back to the default; Off disables it.

If another app already uses the combination you pick, Pawsby says so and keeps your previous shortcut. The shortcut is set per computer and isn't synced.

3. Slash commands #

Type any of these into the chat box and press Enter. They're handled locally, work on every plan, and don't use a chat from your daily count.

Command	The cat…
/play	plays for a moment, then goes back to what it was doing
/sleep	curls up on a cushion and stays asleep until you pick it up or send another command
/eat	eats
/stretch	stretches
/bored	looks bored for a couple of seconds
/idle or /sit	stops and sits still

Commands are case-insensitive. Anything else you type goes to the AI as normal.

Alarms

A quick timer, handled on your computer. Works on every plan and doesn't use a chat.

Type	What happens
/alarm 10m	Alarm in 10 minutes. A plain number means minutes, so /alarm 90 is 90 minutes.
/alarm 1h30m tea	Units chain together, and anything after the time becomes the label the cat shows when it goes off.
/alarm cancel	Cancels every pending alarm. off and stop work too.

Units: s, m, h (or sec/min/hr), and 초 분 시간 / 秒 分 時間. Anywhere from 5 seconds to 24 hours. /timer is the same command. When it goes off, the cat shows a bubble that stays until you dismiss it, plus a system notification if you've allowed them.

Alarms live in memory — quitting or restarting Pawsby clears them.

Adding a calendar event Pro

/event 2026-10-15 14:00 Dentist adds a one-hour event to your connected calendar. Details in §6.

4. Right-click and tray #

Right-click the cat for the same actions as the slash commands — Relax, Play, Sleep, Eat, Stretch, Bored — plus Sit Still / Walk, which toggles whether it wanders at all.

When a calendar is connected, the menu also starts with Add calendar event, which opens a small form (§6).

The tray icon (Windows: bottom-right near the clock; macOS: top-right menu bar) has:

• Settings — opens the settings window
• Focus Mode — sends the cat to a corner to sleep so it stays out of your way
• Pause — freezes it in place
• Quit

5. Settings #

Open from the tray icon. Six tabs. In Pet, Chat, Calendar and System, changes apply when you press Save; the Account and Sync tabs apply immediately.

Pet

My Pet

• Name — what it's called. The AI uses this as its own name.
• Appearance — Russian Blue, Abyssinian, British Shorthair, Persian, plus any custom sprites you've imported (§9).
• Personality — Calm, Playful, Logical or Gentle. Sets the tone of every reply.
• Advanced — a free-text box added on top of the personality. "Always answer in one line", "you're a pirate", that sort of thing.

Behavior

• Move Speed — Off / Slow / Normal / Fast. Off means it stays put.
• Pet Size — 0.5× to 2.0×. Drag the slider and the cat resizes live.
• Focus Mode — the same as the tray toggle, plus an optional schedule so it turns on by itself between two times each day.
• Pet Can Walk On — Floor and Windows, or Floor Only if you'd rather it never climbs on your windows.

Chat

About you

• Your Name — how the cat addresses you.
• Your Location — used for weather and local questions.
• Chat Language — Auto (matches whatever you type), or force English, 한국어, 日本語, 中文, Español, Français.

Look

• Chat Overlay Style — Bubble / Classic / Transparent (§2).
• Chat Shortcut — the key combination that opens chat from anywhere (§2).
• Bubble Duration — how long a reply stays on screen, 3–30 seconds.
• Font Size — 10px to 20px for bubbles and the chat box.
• High Contrast — black-and-white bubbles and chat box.

Quick replies — three one-tap messages shown in Classic style.

History — view, export as JSON or Markdown, or delete your whole chat log. Delete is permanent.

Account

• Plan — your tier, a View Plans button on Free, and a Manage button on a paid plan that opens your billing portal (§10). On a paid plan you may also see Upgrade to Pro or Switch to yearly. Also where you restore a subscription on a new computer.
• AI — use the app's built-in AI, or your own API key (§8). Both need a paid plan.
• Usage — how many chats you've used today, and when the count resets. If you have bonus chats, they show as (+N bonus); they never expire and are only used once the daily limit runs out.
• Sign out — stops this computer using your subscription. The subscription itself keeps billing (cancel it with Manage), sync turns off here, and any saved API key is removed from this computer. Your chats, pet and calendar connections stay. Restore with the same email to reconnect.
• Danger zone — Delete My Account. Only shown once you've had a subscription; there's nothing to delete on a never-subscribed Free install.

Sync

Cloud sync between your devices — see §7. Grouped as Sync (on/off, status, auto-sync), Devices, and Danger zone (delete cloud data).

Calendar

Accounts — connect or disconnect Google and Outlook. With both connected, Add Events To picks which one new events go to (Pro).

Alerts — Enable Calendar Reminders, Alert Before Event, and Also Alert At Start Time. See §6.

System

General

• Launch at Login
• App Language — English, 한국어, 日本語. Changes the whole interface immediately. (Separate from Chat Language, which is what the cat replies in.)
• Theme — Light, Dark, or follow the system.
• Reduce Motion — the cat animates at a very low frame rate and creeps instead of walking, and skips the landing animation on launch.

Updates — automatic check on/off, Check Now, and Install when one is waiting (§11).

About — version, and links to this guide, Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

6. Calendar Standard · Pro #

Settings → Calendar → Connect Google Calendar or Connect Outlook Calendar. Your browser opens to sign in; when you're done it sends you back to the app. You can connect both.

Reminders

Once connected, turn on Enable Calendar Reminders and pick Alert Before Event: 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes. Before each event the cat pops up a bubble with the event name, and — if you've allowed notifications — a system notification too. Turn on Also Alert At Start Time for a second reminder the moment it begins.

The cat reads the titles and start times of upcoming events on your main (primary) calendar. It never reads event bodies, attendees, or other calendars.

Adding events Pro

Two ways, both on Pro:

• Right-click the cat → Add calendar event. Fill in the title, date, time and duration (15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes; 60 by default), then Add.
• Type it: /event 2026-10-15 14:00 Dentist. The date is YYYY-MM-DD, the time is 24-hour HH:MM in your local time, and everything after is the title. Events added this way are always one hour.

The cat confirms with a bubble, and the event shows up in Google Calendar or Outlook like any other. The next reminder check picks it up too. The date and time must be in the future.

Both calendars connected? Events go to the one chosen in Settings → Calendar → Add Events To. To pick for a single event, choose it in the form, or put google or outlook first: /event outlook 2026-10-15 14:00 Dentist.

Pawsby only adds the events you ask for, and only to your primary calendar. It never changes or deletes events you already have. The Google and Microsoft sign-in screens describe the permission more broadly than that, because neither offers an add-only option.

Disconnect any time from Settings → Calendar; that deletes the stored sign-in from your computer.

Windows: if alerts appear in the app but not as notifications, check Settings → System → Notifications → Pawsby is allowed. The app re-checks when you come back to it.

7. Cloud sync Standard · Pro #

Off by default. Turn it on in Settings → Sync → Enable Sync; you'll see a short consent screen first. Then:

• Your chats and settings are encrypted on your device before upload. The server stores ciphertext it cannot read.
• Give each device a Device Name so you can tell them apart.
• Auto-sync toggles for conversations and settings separately; or push a manual sync with the buttons.
• Connected Devices lists every device on your account with a Remove button. Standard syncs 2 devices; Pro has no limit.
• Delete All Cloud Data wipes the server copy. Your local history is untouched.

Sync runs in the background while you work, and again right after your computer wakes from sleep.

Calendar connections, API keys and custom sprites stay on the computer they were set up on and are never synced.

8. Your own API key Standard · Pro #

If you'd rather the cat talk to your own AI account, Settings → Account → AI → Use My Own Key (BYOK).

• Provider — OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI or Groq.
• API Key — pasted once, encrypted and stored only on this device. It's sent straight to the provider you chose, never to our servers.
• Model — pre-filled with a sensible default per provider; change it if you like.
• Test confirms the key works before you save.

In BYOK mode your daily chat count doesn't apply — you're paying the provider directly. Web search and calendar still work.

9. Custom sprites Standard · Pro #

Settings → Pet → Appearance → + to import your own sprite sheet. Pawsby reads the Codex pets format as-is — both the original 8×9 sheet (1536×1872) and the newer v2 8×11 sheet (1536×2288), 192×208 cells, PNG or WebP. Browse sheets at codexpets.org and codexpets.net; each sheet belongs to its creator, so check the usage terms where you download it.

Imported sprites show up next to the built-in breeds. Hover one to rename or delete it.

10. Plans and billing #

	Free	Standard	Pro
AI chats per day	3	50	Unlimited
Model	Fast, natural conversation		Smarter, follows long chats
Web search	✓	✓	✓
Calendar reminders	—	✓	✓
Add calendar events	—	—	✓
Cloud sync	—	2 devices	Every device
Your own API key	—	✓	✓
Custom sprites (Codex pet sheets)	—	✓	✓
Walking, commands, alarms, chat shortcut, four breeds	✓	✓	✓

Prices are on the pricing page. To subscribe: Settings → Account → View Plans. Checkout is handled by Creem, our merchant of record; if you have a promo code, there's an Add discount code link on the checkout page under the subtotal. Checkout asks for a card even when the code makes the total $0 — that's the payment processor, not us.

Manage (Settings → Account) opens your billing portal, where you can see your next charge, change your card, switch between monthly and yearly, or cancel. Cancelling keeps your plan until the end of the period you've paid for, then drops to Free. Your chat history stays on your machine either way.

Upgrading. On a paid plan, Settings → Account can show Upgrade to Pro and Switch to yearly. You'll see the new price before confirming; today's charge is prorated for the rest of your current period, and your plan updates within a few minutes. To go down a plan or cancel, use Manage.

Moving to a new computer? Install Pawsby, and on the "Welcome back?" step choose I have a subscription. Enter the email you paid with and the one-time code we send, and your plan follows you. If you turned sync on, you can bring your chats and settings across in the same step.

11. Updates #

Pawsby checks for updates on its own (Settings → System to turn that off). When one is waiting, the cat says so in a bubble that stays until you dismiss it — double-click the cat to install and restart, or use the Install Update button in Settings → System.

12. If something's wrong #

• Windows said the installer "isn't commonly downloaded" — that's SmartScreen's reputation check, which every new app trips until enough people have installed it. The installer is signed by IT TEC. Click More info → Run anyway.
• The cat is gone — first check the tray icon: if it says Pause is on, turn it off. If it's still missing (this can happen after unplugging a monitor, because Pawsby remembers where the cat was), toggle Focus Mode on and off from the tray — entering Focus Mode moves the cat to a corner of the screen, which brings it back into view.
• It stopped answering — Settings → Account → Usage shows your daily count. On Free that's 3; it resets at midnight UTC. If you're on a plan and it's the model being slow, it retries once automatically.
• "Reconnect Google Calendar" / "Reconnect Outlook Calendar" — Settings → Calendar → Disconnect, then Connect again. You'll see this when the sign-in has expired, or when you try to add an event with a connection made before adding events existed — reconnecting grants the new permission.
• Outlook stopped working after an update — Pawsby's Microsoft sign-in was moved to our verified business account, so Outlook connections made before that need to be connected again once. Disconnect and Connect in Settings → Calendar.
• "Adding events requires a Pro subscription" — reminders work on Standard; adding events is Pro only.
• The chat shortcut does nothing — another app may have grabbed the same combination. Pick a different one in Settings → Chat → Chat Shortcut.
• Sync says device limit reached — Standard allows 2. Remove an old device under Connected Devices, or move to Pro.
• Anything else — support@pawsby.app. Say which OS you're on and roughly what you were doing; the app version is in Settings → System.