Desk Crawler

Desk Crawler

Install Desk Crawler on TRMNL · Play at trmnlgames.com

Also by the same author: Formula 1 Race Weekend, a TRMNL plugin that follows the current F1 weekend with sessions, weather, grid and results, powered by GrandPrixPicks.com.

A passive multiplayer office RPG for your desk. A hero explores every 15 minutes, finds equipment, survives mishaps, and climbs a global leaderboard. Built exclusively for TRMNL: install the plugin to start your hero, watch the story on e-ink, and use the companion website for occasional decisions.

Phase: live on the TRMNL marketplace. Plugin 564 was submitted to TRMNL on 2026-10-07 and is listed at https://trmnl.com/integrations/desk-crawler. The companion, Convex backend and TRMNL integration are live, with production on content v12 (stances, potion pouch, merchant, decisions, effects, affixes, epic gear, desk raids, the to-do list, gold-only bag and pouch ladders, and from v12 the career ladder with level-gated unlocks) and device template v52. See the roadmap for what comes next. See implementation status and release checks for verified behavior and remaining gates. Run pnpm install then pnpm check and pnpm balance.

Confirmed on 2026-10-03:

• Month 1: one Warrior class, three office biomes (five since content v16: the Archive and the Parking Garage follow the Cafeteria), forgiving death and automatic revival.
• Public Third Party marketplace plugin with TRMNL OAuth from the first release.
• TRMNL-exclusive MVP: a verified saved installation activates the hero; the web app is its companion.
• Free gameplay; the TRMNL Creator Fund is the main revenue source, with an optional GitHub Sponsors link that changes nothing in play (D134).
• TanStack Start + Vite + Clerk + Convex; Cloudflare Workers hosts the web app.
• Continuous integration and delivery; monthly themes group larger improvements. No separate beta program.
• Use existing Convex, Clerk, and Resend subscriptions; keep additional costs low.
• Email, Google and GitHub sign-in; required public pseudonyms; pause/resume without catch-up.
• Public GitHub repository from this folder; no fixed monthly extra-spend cap.
• Rolling 24-hour/seven-day XP ranking within level bands, published hourly; dormant heroes drop off recent boards. Seven-day view on TRMNL, both plus lifetime in the companion.
• Manage gear every three to seven days; retain the first overflow and sleep until deliberate resume (Resume can name the next biome; chosen gear sells in bulk). Start tuning at 30 slots/~five gear per day; slow the late-game gear curve and trim gold income.
• Bounded reward rolls plus rare elite foes and gold jackpots for a little luck.
• Gold reserved for later merchants; Barry initially handles private support and audited name repair. Following D40, game-progress deletion preserves the shared account; account deletion removes all game progress and the TRMNL Games Clerk account.
• Approved pacing/content targets, bounded return recap, owner incident alerts, daily backups and an early install-to-display milestone; build refinements.

Start with the documentation index, MVP definition, decisions and open questions, and agent work packages.

Desk Crawler now runs on the shared TRMNL Games platform at trmnlgames.com. The monorepo/domain migration is complete; the migration plan records the rollout and remaining review preparation.

The first release includes all four TRMNL layouts because Third Party marketplace publication requires them. The canonical flat player JSON remains a separate API contract; the marketplace endpoint returns markup plus merge variables.

Game constants, targets, and estimates are planning proposals, not measured outcomes. Platform facts have references in research notes. Future releases are direction, not instructions to build every feature now.

Running locally

pnpm install
cp .env.example .env.local     # then fill in values (see comments)
npx convex dev                 # Convex backend, schema and functions
pnpm dev                       # web app on http://localhost:3000
pnpm check                     # typecheck + all tests
pnpm lint:trmnl:setup           # install the pinned official linter (once)
pnpm lint:trmnl                 # lint all four TRMNL layouts
pnpm crosscheck:trmnl           # compare preview Liquid (liquidjs) with Ruby Liquid via trmnlp
pnpm balance                   # balance harness (see docs/evidence/balance.md)
pnpm tsx tools/trmnl/preview.ts  # local TRMNL layout previews in .previews/
# Interactive preview gallery (dev server only): http://localhost:3000/dev/desk-crawler
#   every scenario × OG/X/BWRY × full/half/side/quarter × landscape/portrait

TRMNL lint uses the official trmnlp lint command from trmnl_preview 0.27.0. It requires Ruby 4+ and Bundler; if your default Ruby is older, the wrapper uses mise exec ruby@4.0.7 (install it with mise install ruby@4.0.7). Dependencies stay in ignored .trmnl-lint/, and setup uses the committed Gemfile lock. The wrapper extracts the current TypeScript templates into a temporary directory, uses the preview's pinned framework version, and runs every official rule. It then checks that every static class in the templates exists in that framework version's CSS (downloaded once into .trmnl-lint/framework/), because the official rules accept classes that do nothing, such as mt--[1px]. For JSON output, run pnpm exec tsx tools/trmnl/lint.ts --json. Listing name/description are mirrored in tools/trmnl/lint/settings.yml; update them when the listing changes.

The previews and the companion's live preview render Liquid with liquidjs, while TRMNL renders with Ruby Liquid. pnpm crosscheck:trmnl uses the same pinned bundle to render every preview fixture set (each state and layout, with and without a keepsake code) through the Liquid environment trmnlp builds: Ruby Liquid plus TRMNL's filters, in UTC, with strict filters. It fails on any difference from liquidjs, including a filter that liquidjs supports but TRMNL lacks, and writes both outputs to .previews/crosscheck/. It compares markup only and does not inject trmnlp's simulated trmnl object, since third-party markup only receives merge variables. Run it after template changes alongside lint.

The separate TRMNL lint workflow runs for relevant pull requests and pushes to main. pnpm check remains the Node-only typecheck/test gate used by Cloudflare builds. Lint complements the required layout previews and live render checks.

What is built and what remains: implementation status.

Deploying

Cloudflare Workers Builds deploys production on every push to main:

• Build command: pnpm build:deploy (typecheck, tests, then convex deploy to exciting-cormorant-948, which runs pnpm build once the backend is live). Deploy command: pnpm deploy:web (companion on trmnlgames.com).
• Build variable (secret): CONVEX_DEPLOY_KEY. Non-production branch builds are off, because any build deploys production Convex.
• Public build values live in .env.production. Server secrets live on the platforms: Convex env (npx convex env set --prod ...) and Worker secrets (npx wrangler secret put ...: CLERK_SECRET_KEY, INSTALL_FLOW_KEY).
• Backend changes must stay additive: the old companion briefly runs against the new Convex functions before the Worker redeploys.

Repository contents

Read AGENTS.md before taking a work package.

Also useful: TRMNL player experience, ranking, inventory and the implementation evidence checklist. Earlier planning reviews are in docs/history. Tuning and technical evidence remain open.