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Pretend You Have Friends

Coming in the future

Planned for Pretend You Have Friends but not in the mod yet. Plans can change, and none of this has a date.

Menus and controls

  • A command wheel, roster and quick-talk boxHold a key and flick to pick a friend and give an order; a roster with a gear button for settings; a quick-talk box for typing a line. Being built now.
  • A voice orbWhile you hold the voice key, an orb sits clearly above the hotbar: the "Shell" design, a rotating 3D point cloud that swells in a wave as you talk.
  • Friends in the tab listFriends show in the player list when you hold Tab, with a grey name and their owner, for example "Pip · Alex's friend". For display only.
  • Assistance optionsFour helps you can switch on yourself: unsticking a stuck friend and easier survival (Phase 3), keeping items on death and catching up by teleport (Phase 5). Survival stays the default.

Work in the world

  • Acting like a real playerFriends aim, mine, use items, click through menus, craft and trade the way a player does. Planned for Phase 2B.
  • Real crouchingFriends crouch for real: they stop at ledges, bridge across gaps, greet you with a crouch and copy your crouch taps back.
  • Rails, minecarts, shulker boxes and an ender chestRiding rails in minecarts, packing shulker boxes, and an ender chest of the friend's own.
  • How the world treats friendsMobs go after friends and villagers remember them, as with players, but a friend never causes phantoms or raids.
  • Skills they write themselvesFriends write, practise and save their own small programs for jobs, in a sealed sandbox that can only ask the server to act.
  • Gathering, crafting and deliveryGet wood, make tools from empty hands, cook, store and bring things back, from real materials.
  • Farming, breeding and villager tradingPlanting, harvest, feeding animals and trading with villagers, paying with real items.
  • Fishing, boats, horses and bucketsBasic fishing, riding and liquid handling.
  • Building from a descriptionAgree a small build in chat, then watch it go up block by block, with simple redstone.
  • Adventures and the Nether and EndExpeditions, enchanting, brewing, portals and boss fights alongside you.
  • Fetching dropped gearA friend that died goes back for its own items when it has nothing else to do.
  • Following through portalsToday a friend stays behind and says so.

Friends who feel alive

  • Promises and follow-upsThey remember what you said you would do, and their own plans, and bring them up later.
  • A journal and a nightly thinkDated entries in their own words, written when they sleep, kept on your computer.
  • Body language and moodHead turns, nods, sitting by a fire and a mood you can see.
  • Your story and their tastesShared milestones, favourite places and quirks learned from playing together. They unlock nothing.
  • Off-the-record talkChat that never goes into memory.
  • A new-friend interviewA few questions that draft a personality you can edit.
  • Friends talking togetherSeveral friends planning, splitting jobs and helping each other, including friends of two players who both agree.
  • Competence sliderHow well a friend plays, from relaxed to expert. It never changes what a friend is allowed to do.

Connections and voice

  • Understanding your modpackFriends learn modded items, dimensions and mods from the game itself. When you ask, or when they are unsure, they look things up online: Modrinth, wikis and GitHub first, then your AI connection's own search, with a notice about what is sent.
  • Local models with a guided setupFinds Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, KoboldCpp or Jan on your computer and walks you through it.
  • Free hosted optionsMistral's free plan and Cloudflare Workers AI's free plan, each with a notice before the first message. Planned for the connections slice after Phase 2.
  • A spending counterA running count of what replies have cost, with an optional stop cap.
  • Inventory and status panelSee what a friend carries and how it is doing.
  • Simple Voice ChatOptional: friends hear you through Simple Voice Chat's key too, with speech still turned into text on your computer.
  • Friends speaking aloudPlanned for a much later phase. Today friends answer in text and speech bubbles.

Release

  • A public downloadThere is no release yet. Other game versions and loaders are decided at release.

The roadmap has the whole plan, phase by phase.

Choosing a connection

Your friends think using the AI connection you choose. It is set on your own computer, and each player in multiplayer brings their own. Open the friends menu with O, then AI connection. The screen says: “Your friends think using the AI connection you choose here. It’s stored only on this computer.”

The connections

Section titled “The connections”
Connection What you need Who pays
ChatGPT subscription (Codex) A ChatGPT plan, and OpenAI’s Codex app on this computer. Press Sign in with ChatGPT and finish in your browser. Your ChatGPT plan’s own limits
Claude subscription A Claude Pro or Max plan, and Anthropic’s Claude Code app on this computer, signed in. Your Claude plan’s own limits
Claude API (API key) An Anthropic API key Your Anthropic account
OpenAI API (API key) An OpenAI API key Your OpenAI account
OpenRouter (API key) An OpenRouter key Your OpenRouter account
DeepSeek (API key), Groq (API key), xAI (API key) A key from that provider That account
Ollama (this computer), LM Studio (this computer) The program running on your computer, with a model loaded Nobody: it runs on your own hardware
Custom endpoint An address (https://, or http://localhost for your own computer) and, if it needs one, a key That service
None

The subscription routes start the official apps unchanged, signed in with your own account. The mod never reads, stores or sends your sign-in. For ChatGPT the mod keeps its own Codex folder, so your other Codex settings aren’t touched, and it refuses to run if Codex has extra tools or settings turned on: “Codex has extra tools or settings turned on, so it can’t be used safely”.

For local models in more programs, with a guided setup, see Local models. For free hosted options, see Free hosted options.

Setting it up

Section titled “Setting it up”
  1. Pick the Connection.
  2. Check the Model. A default model is filled in where one is known: GPT-6.1 Sol for ChatGPT, Claude Haiku 5.5 for the Claude API, GPT-6 Luna for the OpenAI API. Leave it blank for the connection’s default, or type another model.
  3. For a key route, paste your key into API key and press Save key. See Keys.
  4. For Custom endpoint, type its address. Only the custom route takes an address.
  5. Read the Status line, then press Done.

Where the provider publishes prices, the screen shows an estimate under the model: see Prices and spending.

Keys

Section titled “Keys”
  • A key is saved only on this computer, in a separate secrets file, never in the settings file or on the server.
  • It is masked as you type, never shown again and never read aloud by the narrator.
  • Each key goes only to its own provider’s address.
  • OpenRouter can also read its key from the OPENROUTER_API_KEY environment variable.

Status messages

Section titled “Status messages”
Status Meaning
Ready Set up and available.
Unable to connect The connection could not be reached.
That connection’s app isn’t installed on this computer The ChatGPT or Claude subscription needs its official app.
Sign in with ChatGPT to use this connection Press Sign in with ChatGPT.
No key saved for this connection on this computer Paste and save a key.
Choose a model for this connection This route has no default model: type one.
The address must start with https:// (or http://localhost) Fix the custom address.

If the connection fails

Section titled “If the connection fails”

Nothing switches to another connection. The screen says it: “Replies are billed to your own … account. If it fails, no other connection is used.” Your friends keep following simple orders, and tell you: “Pip can’t think without an AI connection (…). Follow, stay, come and stop still work. Choose a connection in the friends menu.”, with the reason in brackets. See Troubleshooting.

What each connection receives is on the Privacy page.