Roadmap and Public Alpha

Roadmap and Public Alpha

Mochi's roadmap is intentionally staged. The public alpha should prove that the creature core is dependable before adding deeper care/progression systems.

Current phase

Phase 2 — Make Mochi Feel Alive

Current priorities:

• interaction continuity
• animation polish
• reliable click/double-click behavior
• pickup/drag/drop
• context-menu stability
• walk polish
• sleep/wake reliability
• a small set of expressive emotes
• visual consistency
• packaging and desktop reliability

Public alpha goal

The public alpha does not need every future Mochi feature.

It needs a small, polished, dependable companion that users can install, interact with, and leave running without obvious breakage.

Public-alpha creature core

IDLE
├── click → reaction → IDLE
├── double-click → HEART → IDLE
├── ambient → TYPING → IDLE
├── context menu → WALK / SLEEP / EMOTE / COMPUTER
└── PICKUP → HELD / DRAG → PUT_DOWN → IDLE

Alpha blockers

Do not call the build public-alpha ready while any of these are reproducible:

• crash during ordinary interaction
• permanent input freeze
• context menu cannot reopen
• drag cannot recover after another action
• pickup/put-down can leave Mochi stuck
• one-shot animation leaves behavioral state invalid
• ambient timers multiply or fight direct input
• legacy/noncanonical art appears unexpectedly
• baked checkerboard/obvious gray matte appears in runtime art
• package installs with wrong/missing runtime assets
• normal runtime requests remote-desktop/screen-control permissions

Alpha definition of done

Startup

• clean launch on target Fedora/GNOME environment
• canonical Mochi appears immediately
• transparent undecorated presentation works
• no unexpected permission prompts
• no immediate GTK/Python errors

Idle

• idle/breathing loop is stable
• blink returns to true IDLE
• ambient behavior is low-frequency and interruptible
• no duplicate idle timers

Clicks

• single click produces tactile reaction
• single-click reaction returns to idle
• double-click produces heart reaction
• double-click cancels pending single-click reaction
• input remains responsive afterward

Drag

• pickup transition is seamless
• held/drag state remains responsive
• visual inertia is subtle
• drop position remains accurate
• put-down transition is seamless
• quick release recovers safely
• immediate re-grab works

Context menu

• opens repeatedly
• closes before behavior dispatch
• Walk works
• Sleep/Wake works
• Emote works
• Computer works
• later click/right-click/drag still works

Visual integrity

• crisp nearest-neighbor rendering
• no legacy Mochi art
• no checkerboards
• no gray halo/matte
• canonical eye highlights
• bottom-center anchoring
• transition endpoints do not pop

Reliability

• full test suite passes
• Python compilation passes
• git diff --check passes
• fresh wheel builds
• packaged assets audited
• extended live soak passes
• no stuck states observed
• no timer/input lock observed

Documentation

• installation instructions match actual package
• version metadata reconciled
• issue template exists
• regression watchlist current
• wiki current
• known limitations documented

Version roadmap

The repository's existing conceptual roadmap is:

v0.1 — Exists

Core desktop buddy functionality.

v0.2 — Feels alive

Animation polish, reactions, sleep/wake behavior, status/UI work, and desktop reliability.

v0.3 — Needs care

Potential future systems:

• health
• fullness
• feeding
• XP
• leveling

Do not pull these into the public-alpha interaction-core sprint prematurely.

v0.4 — Develops personality

Potential future systems:

• unlockable behaviors
• expressions
• traits
• cosmetic progression

v0.5 — Lives on your desktop

Potential deeper environment interaction:

• windows
• cursor behavior
• screen edges
• richer desktop-environment awareness

These later versions are direction, not a promise of exact implementation.

Near-term work order

Recommended order from the current development state:

1. finish/validate pickup and put-down
2. verify all new transition art
3. verify typing/computer transparency
4. run full interaction torture tests
5. build/audit package
6. create a known-good checkpoint
7. add/maintain philosophy and alpha-checklist documentation
8. only then return to optional art/animation polish

What not to add before alpha stability

Unless the scope changes intentionally, avoid using the alpha sprint for:

• hunger/feeding
• health systems
• XP/leveling
• inventory/shop
• AI/chat features
• large UI/dashboard systems
• repository-wide architecture rewrites
• unnecessary platform integrations

Feature restraint is part of the alpha strategy.

After public alpha

Use real user feedback to decide what matters next.

Useful questions:

• Which interactions do users naturally discover?
• Does Mochi stay running for long sessions without annoyance?
• Which animations feel delightful versus repetitive?
• Does the context menu expose the right controls?
• Are resource use and Wayland behavior acceptable across machines?
• Do users want deeper care systems, more personality, or more environment interaction first?

Do not assume the later roadmap is correct until users validate the creature core.