Kao/CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Important:

• When updating this file, always update README.md as well. The README is the main user-facing documentation for the project.
• On every commit, bump the version number in index.html (the VERSION constant) and update README.md with any relevant changes.

Project Overview

Kao is a minimalist ambient display for an old Pixel phone. It uses ASCII "emotes" to represent system health instead of graphs or dashboards. External systems (Home Assistant, Uptime Kuma, scripts, etc.) push events and notifications to Kao via REST — Kao itself does not poll or monitor anything.

Design Philosophy

Kao is a display, not a monitor. It should not duplicate work that other tools already do. The right pattern is: your existing monitoring stack detects a problem, then POSTs to Kao to show it. This keeps Kao simple and lets each tool do what it's good at.

The bundled detectors/ scripts are legacy and exist for standalone use cases. New work should focus on making the REST API richer, not adding more detectors.

Architecture

REST push model:

┌─────────────────────┐     POST /event      ┌─────────────┐     GET /status     ┌─────────────┐
│  External systems   │ ──────────────────▶  │  Aggregator │ ◀────────────────── │   Emote-UI  │
│  (HA, scripts, etc) │     POST /notify     │   (broker)  │                     │  (display)  │
└─────────────────────┘                      └─────────────┘                     └─────────────┘

• Aggregator (aggregator.py) — Flask service managing the event queue and priority logic
• Emote-UI (index.html) — OLED-optimized web frontend
• Sentry (kao.py) — Unified entry point managing all processes
• Detectors (detectors/*.py) — Legacy standalone sensors; prefer REST push from existing tools

Quick Start

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # or .\venv\Scripts\activate on Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt
python kao.py

UI available at http://localhost:5100

Configuration

Edit config.json to configure detectors:

{
  "aggregator_url": "http://localhost:5100",
  "aggregator": { "script": "aggregator.py" },
  "detectors": [
    {
      "name": "cpu",
      "enabled": true,
      "script": "detectors/cpu.py",
      "env": { "CHECK_INTERVAL": "30", "THRESHOLD_WARNING": "85", "THRESHOLD_CRITICAL": "95" }
    }
  ]
}

Legacy Detectors

These bundled scripts exist for standalone use but are not the preferred approach. Prefer pushing from Home Assistant, Uptime Kuma, or any tool that already monitors what you care about.

Detector	Script	Required Env Vars
Disk Space	detectors/disk_space.py	—
CPU	detectors/cpu.py	—
Memory	detectors/memory.py	—
Service	detectors/service.py	SERVICES (comma-separated process names)
Network	detectors/network.py	HOSTS (comma-separated hostnames/IPs)
Docker	detectors/docker.py	CONTAINERS (optional, monitors all if empty)

All detectors support: AGGREGATOR_URL, CHECK_INTERVAL, THRESHOLD_WARNING, THRESHOLD_CRITICAL

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
/event	POST	Register event: {"id": "name", "priority": 1-4, "message": "optional", "ttl": seconds}
/clear	POST	Clear event: {"id": "name"}
/clear-all	POST	Clear all active events
/notify	POST	Notification with optional customization (see below)
/sleep	POST	Enter sleep mode
/wake	POST	Exit sleep mode
/stream	GET	SSE stream — pushes state JSON on every change (used by the frontend)
/status	GET	Current state JSON (one-shot query)
/events	GET	List active events
/docs	GET	Interactive API documentation (Swagger UI)

/notify Endpoint

{
  "message": "Someone at the door",
  "duration": 10,
  "emote": "( °o°)",
  "color": "#FF9900",
  "animation": "popping",
  "sound": "chime"
}

Field	Required	Description
message	No	Text to display below emote
duration	No	Seconds before auto-expire (default: 5)
emote	No	Custom emote to display
color	No	Custom color (hex, e.g., #FF9900)
animation	No	One of: breathing, shaking, popping, celebrating, floating, bouncing, swaying
sound	No	One of: chime, alert, warning, critical, success, notify, doorbell, knock, ding, blip, siren, tada, ping, bubble, fanfare, alarm, klaxon, none

Priority System

Lower number = higher priority. Events with a ttl auto-expire (heartbeat pattern).

Priority	State	Emote	Color	Animation
1	Critical	( x_x)	Red	shaking
2	Warning	( o_o)	Yellow	breathing
3	Notify	( 'o')	Blue	popping
4	Optimal	varies	Green	varies

Personality System

The optimal state face is set once per day on /wake (random pick). Each morning a fresh emote is chosen:

Emote	Animation	Vibe
( ^_^)	breathing	calm
(◕‿◕)	bouncing	cheerful
( ・ω・)	swaying	curious
( ˘▽˘)	breathing	cozy

Additional states:

• Idle expressions (15% chance): ( -_^), ( ^_~), ( ᵕ.ᵕ) with blink animation
• Recovery celebration: \(^o^)/ with bounce for 5 seconds after issues resolve
• Connection lost: ( ?.?) gray, searching animation
• Sleep mode: ( -_-)zzZ dim, very slow breathing

Home Assistant Integration

Add REST commands to configuration.yaml:

rest_command:
  kao_notify:
    url: "http://kao-host:5100/notify"
    method: POST
    content_type: "application/json"
    payload: '{"message": "{{ message }}", "duration": {{ duration | default(5) }}}'

  kao_sleep:
    url: "http://kao-host:5100/sleep"
    method: POST

  kao_wake:
    url: "http://kao-host:5100/wake"
    method: POST

Use in automations:

# Doorbell notification
- service: rest_command.kao_notify
  data:
    message: "Someone at the door"
    duration: 10

# Bedtime routine
- service: rest_command.kao_sleep

# Morning routine
- service: rest_command.kao_wake

File Structure

├── kao.py              # Unified entry point
├── aggregator.py       # Event broker/API server
├── index.html          # OLED-optimized frontend
├── kao_tui.py          # Developer TUI for testing sounds/events
├── config.json         # Runtime configuration
├── openapi.yaml        # API documentation (OpenAPI 3.0)
├── detectors/
│   ├── base.py
│   ├── disk_space.py
│   ├── cpu.py
│   ├── memory.py
│   ├── service.py
│   ├── network.py
│   └── docker.py
├── requirements.txt
├── TODO.md             # Planned features and improvements
└── SPEC.md             # Original project specification