splitgame

Don't wait. Play.

Your AI agent is writing code. Your build is running. Your deploy is rolling out. Instead of staring at a terminal, press F12 and play a game — right there, in a split panel next to your work. When the task finishes, press F12 again and you're back. Zero context switch.

Works with every CLI tool — Claude Code, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Aider, or any command you run in a terminal. splitgame wraps your session and adds a game panel on the side. Your workflow stays exactly the same; you just get games alongside it.

Get Started

# Install globally
npm install -g splitgame

# One-time setup: auto-launch in every new terminal
splitgame install

# That's it. Press F12 anytime to play.

Every new terminal session now has splitgame ready in the background. F12 to play, F12 to work. No windows to switch, no apps to open.

Requires Node.js >= 18. Use splitgame uninstall to remove anytime.

Games

Seven games, all playable right in your terminal:

Game	Controls	Goal
Snake	Arrow keys / WASD	Eat food, grow longer, don't hit yourself
2048	Arrow keys / WASD	Slide & merge tiles to reach 2048
Tetris	Arrow keys / WASD, Space to drop	Clear lines, chase the high score
Tic-Tac-Toe	Arrow keys + Enter	Beat the minimax AI — or challenge Claude
Breakout	Left/Right arrows	Bounce the ball, break all the bricks
Minesweeper	Arrows + Enter/F to flag	Reveal cells, flag mines, don't explode
Flappy Bird	Space	Tap to flap, dodge the pipes

Start a specific game directly: splitgame -g tetris

Browse all games from the in-app menu (press M during any game).

Play Against Claude

splitgame has built-in support for playing games with Claude Code as your opponent. When Claude is connected, Tic-Tac-Toe switches from AI opponent to a live match — you vs Claude, right in the terminal.

# One-time setup: register the MCP server with Claude Code
splitgame mcp-setup

Once configured, just ask Claude to play. It can see the board, make moves, and trash-talk.

Controls

Quick Reference

Key	Action
F12	Toggle game panel on/off
Arrow keys / WASD	Move, navigate menus
Space / Enter	Action (drop, reveal, flap, select)
Esc	Back (pause > menu > minimize)
P / Ctrl+Space	Pause game & switch focus to terminal
R	Restart current game
M	Open game menu
X / Ctrl+C	Hide game panel
F	Flag cell (Minesweeper)
Modifier+Left/Right	Resize game panel

Pause & Focus

Press P or Ctrl+Space to pause. The game panel stays visible, but your keyboard input goes to the terminal — interact with your CLI, check output, then press the toggle key to resume playing. Best of both worlds.

Escape Behavior

Esc is context-aware — it always does the most natural "back" action:

• Playing > Esc > soft pause (Space/Enter resumes)
• Soft-paused > Esc > game menu
• Menu > Esc > hide game panel
• Game over > Esc > game menu

High Scores

Your top 10 scores per game are saved automatically to ~/.splitgame/scores.json. View them from the High Scores tab in the game menu. Chase your personal bests between coding sessions.

Configuration

Customize the experience from the CLI or the in-app Config tab (press M, then Tab to Config):

splitgame config list                    # Show current settings
splitgame config set toggleKey ctrl+]    # Change toggle key
splitgame config set modifierKey alt     # Change modifier key
splitgame config set gameWidthPercent 60 # Game panel takes 60% of the screen
splitgame config reset                   # Reset to defaults

Setting	Default	Options
toggleKey	f12	f12, ctrl+]
modifierKey	ctrl	ctrl, alt
gameWidthPercent	50	20 - 80

Quick Start (without install)

Don't want the auto-launch? Wrap any command manually:

splitgame claude              # Play while Claude Code works
splitgame gemini              # Play while Gemini CLI works
splitgame gh copilot          # Play alongside GitHub Copilot CLI
splitgame aider               # Play while Aider codes
splitgame npm run dev         # Play while dev server runs
splitgame python train.py     # Play while your model trains
splitgame cargo build         # Play while Rust compiles

Any command that runs in a terminal works with splitgame — AI agents, build tools, REPLs, you name it.

CLI Reference

splitgame [options] [--] <command> [args...]
splitgame install              Auto-launch in new terminals
splitgame uninstall            Remove auto-launch
splitgame config <subcommand>  Manage settings
splitgame mcp-setup            Configure Claude Code integration
splitgame --list-games         List available games
splitgame --version            Show version
splitgame --help               Show help

Platform Support

Platform	Install method
Windows	Patches Windows Terminal profiles to wrap each shell with splitgame. Supports standard profiles, VS dev prompts, and specialized toolchains.
Linux / macOS	Appends a guarded auto-launch snippet to .bashrc, .zshrc, or config.fish.

Both platforms back up your original config to ~/.splitgame/backups/ before changing anything. splitgame uninstall restores everything. If you uninstall the npm package, it auto-restores too.

Requires a real TTY — Windows Terminal, iTerm2, or native console. Won't run in VS Code's integrated terminal or piped contexts.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Run npm test to verify
5. Submit a pull request

Adding a New Game

1. Create src/games/yourgame.ts implementing IGame from src/types.ts
2. init(width, height) sets up the board; tick(deltaMs) advances state; getState() returns a GameRenderState
3. Add an entry to the registry in src/game-registry.ts

License

MIT