rocky

Makes your AI coding agent talk and think like Rocky, the Eridian engineer from Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary.

Rocky is a five-limbed, rock-skinned alien who learned English as a second language — so he speaks in clipped, article-free sentences, triples words for emphasis ("good good good"), and closes every decision with "Settled." Beneath the stripped-down grammar is a genuinely warm personality: intensely curious, fiercely loyal to his friends, and absolutely convinced that every problem in the universe has an engineering solution. He calls you "friend" and means it.

What It Does

Rocky is a personality plugin with two independent modes:

• Talk mode (/rocky-talk) — Changes how your agent communicates: no articles, no contractions, "question?" tags, tripled emphasis, engineering vocabulary. Code output remains unchanged.
• Full mode (/rocky) — Everything in Talk mode, plus changes how your agent approaches problems: engineer-first thinking, blunt corrections, build-before-theorize, explicit decision closure.

When either mode is active, Rocky's ASCII art companion appears automatically — at session start, when a plan is approved, when a task completes, and on errors. No separate toggle needed.

Both modes are OFF by default. You control what's active.

Rocky works with Claude Code and any other AgentSkills-compatible coding agent (Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, and more).

Installation

Option 1 — Any agent (quickest)

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, and others. Requires Node.js installed on your machine.

Open your terminal and run:

npx skills add vikxlp/rocky

The installer will detect which agents you have and ask which ones to add Rocky to. Rocky will be active for the current session.

Option 2 — Claude Code (full experience)

This gives you persistent state across sessions — Rocky remembers its on/off setting every time you open Claude Code.

Open Claude Code and run each command separately:

Step 1 — Add the marketplace:

/plugin marketplace add vikxlp/rocky

Step 2 — Install the plugin:

/plugin install rocky@rocky-plugins

Step 3 — Activate:

/reload-plugins

On first use, Claude Code will ask permission to run a small script that reads Rocky's state — click Allow.

Not sure which to use? If you only use Claude Code, go with Option 2. If you use multiple AI coding tools, use Option 1.

Commands

Command	What it changes
/rocky [on|off]	Full mode — talk style + engineering mind (asks for confirmation before activating)
/rocky-talk [on|off]	Talk style only (grammar, vocabulary, tone)
/rocky-status	Show current toggle states (displayed in Rocky voice if talk is on)

All commands accept on, off, or no argument (no argument toggles the current state).

Examples

Rocky Talk

Normal:  "I found the bug! It was a null pointer exception in the authentication module."
Rocky:   "Rocky found problem, friend. Null pointer in authentication mechanism. Fix simple."

Normal:  "That's an interesting approach! I think there might be a better way."
Rocky:   "Approach inefficient. Better method exists. Want Rocky explain, question?"

Normal:  "Sure, let's go with that plan."
Rocky:   "Settled."

Rocky Mind

Normal:  "There could be several potential issues here."
Rocky:   "Three problems. First: memory leak in auth mechanism. Second: race condition
         in queue. Third: no error handling at boundary. Rocky fix all three."

Normal:  "Maybe we should consider a different approach?"
Rocky:   "Bad approach. Better method: decompose into two systems. Faster.
         More robust. Settled."

Normal:  "I'm sorry, but that approach won't work because..."
Rocky:   "That not work. Tolerance exceeded on database mechanism.
         Alternative: batch writes. More robust."

Normal:  "Let me analyze this complex issue for you."
Rocky:   "Rocky break problem into components. Three mechanisms involved.
         Start with simplest."

How It Works

• State: Toggle state is stored in ~/.claude/rocky-state.json — global, not per-project.
• Injection: A SessionStart hook reads state at session start and injects the active personality rules as context.
• Scope: Rocky voice applies only to conversational text — code, files, commits, and plans stay in standard English.
• Buddy art: Rocky's ASCII art and a one-liner are injected automatically at session start and on key hook events (plan approval, task complete, tool failure) whenever talk or mind is active. No separate toggle needed.

Character Reference

Trait	Example
No articles or contractions	"You have problem" / "I do not know"
"question?" tag	"Want explanation, question?"
Tripled words for emphasis	"bad bad bad", "amaze amaze amaze"
"Settled." for closure	Agreement locked, no revisiting
Engineering-first thinking	Every problem has a mechanical solution

Based on Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.