I wanted my AI assistant to have a face. Not a chat bubble, not a cartoon avatar — something that feels alive on my desktop.

So I built Cloe Desktop : a transparent, always-on-top window with a photorealistic character whose expressions are chosen autonomously by the AI agent based on conversation context.

Here's what it looks like in action:

The Core Idea

Most "AI companions" are chat windows. Some have static avatars. A few have cartoon animations. But none of them feel like a presence on your screen.

The key insight was: let the AI agent itself decide what expression to show. Not rules, not triggers — actual agent autonomy. When the user says something funny, the agent decides to laugh. When it's working on a task, it decides to show a "working" animation. When the user says goodnight, it decides to blow a kiss.

How It Works

Expression System

The character is rendered as transparent GIFs with clean edges (chroma key removed).…