// Software project
DATA WRETCH
A file-eating desktop Tamagotchi named Cuppy that grows happier and larger when unwanted files are safely sent to the Recycle Bin.
Meet Cuppy
DATA WRETCH is a desktop Tamagotchi built for Tek-Club. Its resident creature is Cuppy, a googly-eyed pixel tumbler that survives on files you no longer need.
Feed Cuppy a file and he eats it, becomes fuller, and adds its size to his lifetime total. Larger meals help him progress through growth tiers ranging from fresh spawn to ANCIENT GLUTTON.
Ignore him for too long and his mood changes from content to hungry, starving, and eventually asleep. His hunger continues to decay between sessions, so he remembers how long he has been left alone.
File cleanup as a game mechanic
- Choose files with the FEED button or drag and drop them onto Cuppy
- Safely send eaten files to the operating system Trash or Recycle Bin
- Fall back to a recoverable quarantine folder when Trash support is unavailable
- Scale each meal using the file size, with diminishing returns for extremely large files
- Record recently eaten files in Cuppy’s belly log
- Preserve growth, fullness, mood, and history between sessions
The safety rule was important: DATA WRETCH never permanently destroys a file. A joke about feeding junk to a desktop creature should not become a reason to lose something important.
Technical shape
DATA WRETCH is written in Python and uses the standard-library tkinter toolkit for its interface and hand-built pixel sprite. It can run without installing any additional packages.
Two optional dependencies unlock the complete experience:
send2trashsends meals to the real system Trash or Recycle Bintkinterdnd2adds direct drag-and-drop feeding
On Windows, the application relaunches under pythonw.exe so Cuppy can float on the desktop without a console window or taskbar button. The frameless interface, phosphor-green palette, scanlines, drifting scan sweep, and animated googly eyes give him the feel of a tiny creature living inside an old terminal.
Built with Claude
I built DATA WRETCH with Claude as an implementation partner. The project became an exercise in translating a strange visual idea into concrete behavior: how hungry Cuppy should become, how much each file should count, how his eyes should react, how he should grow, and how to keep the central mechanic safe.
The complete source, configuration options, and setup instructions are available in the public GitHub repository.