Roody AI Companion ✦

A speaking companion that helps you understand your work, learn, and plan—right inside a floating orb.

Built with OpenAI Codex. A hackathon companion for learning, coding, and planning.

Website: roodyaicompanion.vercel.app

Current version: Chrome hackathon demo 3.2.0.

Download the Chrome extension ZIP · Windows installation steps · Vercel demo setup

What we built

Roody is a Chrome extension for developers, founders, and people learning to navigate unfamiliar pages. Open its orb on a work page to ask questions, talk through a problem, or understand visible code without copying everything into a separate chatbot.

• Talk while you work. OpenAI Realtime voice supports English, Telugu, and natural interruption. Voice controls and Settings stay inside the orb.
• Read the page together. Roody extracts page text and visible code from Monaco, CodeMirror, and Ace editors. It can discuss articles, documentation, code, and PDFs.
• Analyze what you share. Explain page can attach a tab screenshot. See my screen lets you choose an editor window, tab, or screen for sampled images. Open two files side by side to discuss their visible differences.
• Get useful check-ins. Optional browser following refreshes readable page text about every five seconds. Changed shared images are sampled about every twelve seconds. Speak up offers brief observations when the context changes, waits while either participant speaks, and uses a thirty-second cooldown.
• Remember your next step. Goals, tasks, blockers, persona, and language are saved locally and included as context in conversations.
• Keep the controls simple. The main view focuses on Talk and chat; personas, language, assistance modes, goals, and tasks are under More.

The voice engine runs in a protected offscreen extension document. Closing the panel or changing browser pages can leave voice running. Pause voice stops microphone access, browser following, and screen sharing. Screen sharing from a particular page stops when that page navigates or closes; select the screen again from the new page's orb.

Personas and assistance modes

Persona	How Roody helps
Developer	Reasons through visible code, debugging, and architecture; explains the next step.
Founder	Acts as a CEO/CTO-style adviser: weighs tradeoffs and turns goals into a practical plan.
Grandparent	Uses patient, simple explanations and helps understand unfamiliar pages one step at a time.

Mode	What it does
Teach me	Explains the reasoning and asks useful learning questions.
Do with me	Works through a problem with you.
Do for me	Prepares code drafts, plans, or analysis for you to review.

These modes guide conversation. Roody does not click controls, edit files, send messages, book appointments, or make payments.

Install in Chrome on Windows

No npm command or terminal is needed for the Chrome extension.

1. Download Roody-Companion-3.2.0-Chrome.zip and choose Extract All.
2. Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode.
3. Disable older Roody installs. Click Load unpacked and select the extracted folder containing manifest.json.
4. Confirm version 3.2.0, then refresh the webpage where you want Roody.
5. Click the toolbar icon or press Alt + R to summon the orb.

Connect your own key

Open orb Settings → Use my own OpenAI key instead, paste your key, and click Save key. Clear any demo server address and save demo access to switch back to your own key. OpenAI voice requires API billing and Realtime access; ChatGPT subscriptions do not include API credits. Never put an owner key in a shared ZIP or paste it into chat.

The extension also supports optional own-key Anthropic, Gemini, and Grok models for text/vision requests. Model discovery chooses available models without requiring users to type model IDs. Live voice uses OpenAI Realtime.

Connect guest demo access

An owner can host the guest gateway on Vercel and keep the OpenAI key in server environment variables. Guests enter the server address and their invite code in orb Settings, then click Save demo access.

• Each code has 100 total app credits.
• A text reply costs 1 credit.
• A started voice session costs 30 credits for up to 3 minutes.
• Pausing a started session early does not refund its reservation.
• Sharing a code shares its balance. Redis keeps the balance across restarts and extension reinstalls.

App credits are separate from OpenAI dollar charges. A server background task schedules voice shutdown, with a client timer as well; hosting or network failure can interrupt shutdown, so this is not an unconditional billing cap. See Vercel setup and limits before distributing codes.

Website and sample demos

Deployment address: https://roodyaicompanion.vercel.app/.

The homepage contains three clearly labeled fictional scenarios:

1. Developer: compare two JavaScript files and find a missing await.
2. Founder: choose a realistic priority before a hackathon presentation.
3. Grandparent: understand a practice appointment summary.

Show a sample reply displays a scripted preview with no API request or credit use. Connecting a guest code enables actual text replies through the OpenAI Responses API. Live voice and screen sharing use the Chrome extension.

Deploy the repository’s default branch with Vercel Framework Other, repository root, and output directory public. The repository’s vercel.json configures the API. The homepage is available at the website link above. Live provider-backed replies require the environment variables in the setup guide.

Tools and architecture

Component	Technology implemented
Development assistance	OpenAI Codex
Chrome orb	JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Chrome Manifest V3, content scripts, service worker
Voice	OpenAI Realtime API (gpt-realtime), WebRTC, microphone permission, transcription
Persistent voice host	Chrome offscreen document with extension runtime messages
Page and code context	DOM extraction, editor text extraction, tab screenshots, explicit screen sharing
Guest demo text	OpenAI Responses API (gpt-4.1-mini), Node.js Vercel function
Demo access and accounting	Invite codes, Upstash Redis REST, atomic credit reservations
Voice shutdown	OpenAI call hangup endpoint and Vercel waitUntil background task
Optional model providers	OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, xAI Grok
Separate Windows prototype	Electron, selected-window screenshots, local goals/tasks, voice
Separate editor prototype	VS Code-compatible extension, Gemini transcription, optional ElevenLabs voice

MCP status: this build has no Model Context Protocol server/client or MCP app integrations. Personas and assistance modes are prompt-driven. Direct API calls and browser context reading should not be described as MCP integrations.

flowchart LR
    Page[Work page or shared screen] --> Orb[Chrome orb]
    Orb --> Worker[Extension worker]
    Worker --> Own[Selected provider using own key]
    Worker --> Demo[Vercel demo gateway]
    Demo --> OpenAI[OpenAI APIs]
    Demo --> Redis[Redis credit balance]
    Orb --> Voice[Offscreen WebRTC voice engine]
    Voice --> Realtime[OpenAI Realtime]

Privacy and current limits

• Roody's browser orb runs on work pages. Browser reading excludes banking, payment, email, messaging, social media, government, and pages with sensitive password/card fields.
• Screen sharing includes visible information in the surface you choose; those browser exclusions cannot filter every visible desktop app.
• Goals and tasks are stored locally. The extension does not persist screen images or voice recordings. Supplied text, images, and audio are transmitted to the selected provider to generate responses.
• The Chrome orb appears inside browser pages. It does not float over native Windows apps; selected screen sharing only lets it discuss their pixels.
• Desktop and editor prototypes are separate projects with separate settings.
• This is a hackathon prototype. Automated checks do not validate live billing, Windows microphone behavior, or Vercel background-task persistence.

Read PRIVACY.md for details.

Project layout

Path	Purpose
manifest.json	Chrome extension manifest
src/content.js / content.css	Orb, chat, goals/tasks, page and editor reading
src/background.js	Provider routing, screenshots, protected voice controls
src/companion.js	Structured companion memory and preferences
src/live-engine.html / voice.js	Persistent audio engine
src/orb-voice.html / orb-voice.js / orb-voice.css	Voice controls inside the orb
src/options.html / options.js	Keys, invite code, server address, preferences
src/study.html / study.js / pdf.js	PDF study page
public/	Vercel homepage, samples, guest text demo, owner code page
api/demo.js / server/demo.js	Vercel guest gateway
server/VERCEL-DEMO.md	Deployment variables and setup instructions
server/index.js	Legacy Hostinger invite-code proxy
desktop/	Separate Electron Windows prototype
editor/	Separate VS Code-compatible editor prototype
backend/ / backend-php/	Alternative legacy backends
site/	Earlier website and portal
eval/	Regression and behavior checks

Run the checks

Use Node.js 20+ for the root project:

npm ci
npm run eval
node --test eval/*.test.js

The desktop prototype has its own instructions and dependencies: desktop/README.md. The editor prototype is documented in editor/README.md.

Roody's journey

• v1: a voice companion that read along and talked out loud.
• v2: a coding assistant with a glass orb, editor reading, screenshots, and multiple model providers.
• v3: a broader companion with personas, assistance modes, goals/tasks, English/Telugu voice, and a separate desktop prototype.
• v3.2: simpler voice controls inside the orb, persistent audio, optional browser/screen context, Vercel guest credits, and a sample demo homepage.