Open source · Native, written in Rust
animaEngine draws characters in a transparent overlay above your windows. They walk, bounce, follow each other and play tag — and every click passes straight through to your work.
A recording of animaEngine on the project’s test rig: the built-in characters walking and floating.
What it does
Bring your own pictures or use the ten built-in characters. Give them as much life as you like, and they stay out of your way.
Drop a PNG, GIF, WebP or a short MP4 on the screen, or paste a picture: it becomes a character.
Walking, wandering, bouncing, following the cursor or each other, playing tag — or a small script you write.
Clicks pass through. They step aside for full-screen games and films, and hold still while you are away.
Reminders to take a break or drink water, a focus timer, bedtime, and a welcome back when you return.
Save what is on screen under a name, switch by the time of day, and share a scene or a character as one file.
Ten languages, screen readers over AT-SPI, every action from the keyboard, and high-contrast themes.
The app makes no network connection at all. Nothing about you or your desktop leaves your computer.
Showcase
Short, silent recordings of the real app. Pick one to watch.
Compatibility
Linux first. Each status below is what the project itself reports for release 1.5.1.
Any desktop on an X server
The default backend. Every feature works here, including following the cursor outside edit mode.
Runs through XWayland, automatically
These desktops do not offer layer-shell, so the overlay uses XWayland with no flag needed. Full-screen detection and window-edge landing see XWayland apps only, and “pause when away” is unavailable under KDE on Wayland.
sway, Hyprland, river, Wayfire (wlroots)
Start with ANIMA_USE_WAYLAND_NATIVE=1 for a true layer-shell overlay. Feature parity with X11, except that following the cursor works in edit mode only. Global shortcuts are bound in the compositor.
Installer or portable ZIP, new in 1.5
Built and tested under Wine so far, not yet on a real Windows machine. The files are not signed yet, so SmartScreen asks before running them. Reports are very welcome.
No build
Not supported, and not scheduled: the engine relies on Linux desktop interfaces and the maintainer has no Mac to test on. A port is welcome as a community contribution.
make flatpak; it is not on Flathub yet. cargo build --release with Rust 1.88 or newer and two system libraries. Under the hood
A desktop companion runs from login to shutdown, so animaEngine is built to cost next to nothing while nothing moves.
Based on the project’s architecture notes.
The scene knows when the next frame is due. With nothing moving, hidden, snoozed or asleep, the overlay wakes a few times a second at most.
While characters move the overlay draws at display refresh, or at 30 fps — always or only on battery — at the same apparent speed.
On a Linux laptop with an NVIDIA GPU beside an integrated one, it draws on the integrated GPU and leaves the NVIDIA one asleep, unless you choose otherwise.
No Electron, no Chromium, no web view: a native program with GPU rendering and small memory needs.
Download
Version 1.5.1, released . Free and open source.
x86_64 packages. Flatpak and AUR recipes are in the repository, not yet published.
New in 1.5, tested under Wine so far; not signed yet, so SmartScreen asks first.
Not supported, and not scheduled: the engine relies on Linux desktop interfaces and the maintainer has no Mac to test on. A port is welcome as a community contribution.
Interested in a port? Contributions are welcome.