🐱 cat-detector

Catch your cat in the act — cross-platform keyboard monitoring that outwits even the sneakiest feline.

🔍 Overview

cat-detector is a cross-platform utility that monitors keyboard input events and uses a real-time, multi-heuristic scoring algorithm to determine whether a cat (or toddler!) is walking on your keyboard. When the detection score crosses a configurable threshold, it fires a snarky desktop notification, optionally plays a meow sound, and locks your screen before any damage is done.

On Linux, it reads raw kernel input events via the evdev interface, requiring no X11/Wayland dependency. On Windows, it uses a low-level keyboard hook via pynput and delivers toast notifications via winotify. Screen lock is on by default on both platforms — use --no-lock to disable it.

This tool is for desktop users who share their workspace with one or more cats (or toddlers) and are tired of finding mysterious terminal commands mid-sentence.

Note

cat-detector runs entirely locally — no cloud, no telemetry, no data collection. Just Python and keyboard events.

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✨ Key Features

_Icon	_Feature	_Description	_Impact	_Status
_🧠	_{Smart Detection Algorithm}	_{Sliding 2s window scoring unique keys, press rate, and spatial zone spread simultaneously}	_High	_{✅ Stable}
_🗺️	_{9-Zone Keyboard Mapping}	_{Full keyboard split into top/home/bottom × left/center/right zones to detect paw spread}	_High	_{✅ Stable}
_🔔	_{Desktop Notifications}	_{notify-send (Linux) / toast (Windows) popups with snarky cat messages}	_High	_{✅ Stable}
_🔒	_{Auto Screen Lock}	_{Locks screen by default on detection — use --no-lock to disable}	_High	_{✅ Stable}
_🍼	_{Toddler Mode}	_{--toddler flag catches small-hand bursts (lower thresholds, instant lock, no grace period)}	_High	_{✅ Stable}
_🔊	_{Meow Sound Alert}	_{Plays assets/meow.wav via PipeWire, PulseAudio, ALSA, or Windows — enabled with --sound}	_Medium	_{✅ Stable}
_⚙️	_{Three Sensitivity Levels}	_{low, medium, high — tune to your specific cat's walking style}	_High	_{✅ Stable}
_⏸️	_{Configurable Input Pause Detection}	_{--pause-secs N — detect when the keyboard goes silent (cat sitting on it)}	_Medium	_{✅ Stable}
_🤖	_{Systemd User Service (Linux)}	_{Auto-starts with your graphical session, restarts on failure}	_Medium	_{✅ Stable}
_😴	_{Cooldown Protection}	_{45-second post-detection silence prevents notification storms}	_Medium	_{✅ Stable}
_🖥️	_{Multi-Keyboard Support}	_{Monitors all connected keyboards concurrently}	_Medium	_{✅ Stable}
_🪟	_{Windows Installer}	_{PyInstaller .exe with Inno Setup GUI installer, Start Menu shortcuts, optional startup task}	_High	_{✅ Stable}
_🧪	_{Comprehensive Test Suite}	_{142 tests across 8 files covering detection, CLI, platform abstraction, and deployment}	_High	_{✅ Stable}

Highlights:

Detection activates in under 100 ms from first paw contact event
Zero false positives observed during normal 120 WPM human typing at low sensitivity
Single-file core (cat_detector.py) — fully auditable in ~700 lines
Works on any keyboard brand — detection uses keycodes, not device vendor IDs
Screen lock is on by default — protects your session without any extra flags

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🏗️ Architecture

Detection Pipeline

flowchart TD
  subgraph Linux
    A["Linux Kernel<br/>HID Input Events"] -->|"/dev/input/eventN"| B["evdev Device Monitor<br/>async_read_loop per keyboard"]
    B -->|"EV_KEY key_down events"| Q
  end
  subgraph Windows
    W["Win32 Keyboard Hook<br/>(pynput)"] -->|"KeyEvent"| Q
  end
  Q["queue.SimpleQueue<br/>platform-agnostic event bus"] --> C["Sliding Time Window<br/>2s rolling buffer per keycode"]
  C --> D["Score Calculator"]
  D -->|"unique_keys count"| E{"Threshold Check<br/>All 3 conditions?"}
  D -->|"key-press rate"| E
  D -->|"zone spread 0.0–1.0"| E
  E -->|"Any condition fails"| F["Continue Monitoring"]
  E -->|"All conditions met"| G{"Cooldown<br/>Active?"}
  G -->|"Yes — 45s window"| F
  G -->|"No cooldown"| H["Trigger Alert Sequence"]
  H --> I["Desktop Notification<br/>(notify-send / winotify)"]
  H --> J["play_meow()<br/>assets/meow.wav"]
  H --> K["lock_screen()<br/>(loginctl / Win32)"]
  H --> L["key_times.clear()<br/>Reset Event Window"]
  L --> F

Component Responsibilities

_Component	_File	_{Responsibility}
_{Detection Engine}	_{cat_detector.py (_detection_engine())}	_{Platform-agnostic scoring: sliding window, cat score computation}
_{Linux Backend}	_{cat_detector.py (run_linux())}	_{Reads evdev events, feeds SimpleQueue}
_{Windows Backend}	_{cat_detector.py (run_windows())}	_{pynput keyboard hook, feeds SimpleQueue}
_{Zone Mapper}	_{cat_detector.py (ZONE_KEYS)}	_{Maps keycodes to 9 spatial keyboard regions for spread calculation}
_Notifier	_{cat_detector.py (notify())}	_{notify-send (Linux) or winotify toast (Windows)}
_{Sound Player}	_{cat_detector.py (play_meow())}	_{Plays assets/meow.wav via PipeWire → PulseAudio → ALSA → Windows}
_{Screen Locker}	_{cat_detector.py (lock_screen())}	_{loginctl / KDE / xdg-screensaver (Linux) or rundll32 (Windows)}
_{Service Unit}	_{cat-detector.service}	_{Manages detector as a systemd user service with journal logging}
_Installer	_install.sh	_{Adds user to input group, deploys and enables the systemd unit}
_{Windows Spec}	_{cat_detector.spec}	_{PyInstaller onefile build spec for Windows .exe}
_{Windows Installer}	_{installer/cat-detector.iss}	_{Inno Setup 6 script — GUI installer with Start Menu & optional startup}
_{Build Script}	_{scripts/build_windows.ps1}	_{PowerShell local build script (PyInstaller + Inno Setup)}
_CI/CD	_{.github/workflows/build-windows.yml}	_{GitHub Actions: build exe + installer, upload artifacts, create release on tag}
_{Test Suite}	_tests/	_{142 tests across 8 files covering detection, CLI, platform, deployment}

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🔬 How It Works

sequenceDiagram
    participant Cat as 🐱 Cat
    participant KB as Keyboard Hardware
    participant Backend as Platform Backend<br/>(evdev / pynput)
    participant Queue as SimpleQueue
    participant Detector as _detection_engine()
    participant Notify as Desktop Notification
    participant Lock as Screen Locker

    Cat->>KB: Steps / kneads on keys
    KB->>Backend: Key press events
    Backend->>Queue: Put (keycode, timestamp)
    Queue->>Detector: Get events
    Detector->>Detector: Append timestamp to key_times[keycode]
    Detector->>Detector: Prune events older than 2s, collect active_keys
    Detector->>Detector: Compute unique_keys + rate + zone_spread
    Detector->>Detector: All 3 conditions exceed threshold?
    Detector->>Detector: (now - last_detection) > 45s cooldown?
    Detector->>Notify: "Cat Detected 🐱" (notify-send / winotify)
    Notify-->>Cat: Desktop popup appears
    alt --sound flag set
        Detector->>Detector: play_meow() → audio backend
    end
    alt --no-lock not set (lock is default)
        Detector->>Lock: lock_screen() — 2s delay (0s in toddler mode)
        Lock-->>Cat: Screen locked 🔒
    end
    Detector->>Detector: key_times.clear() — reset detection window

The scoring logic in plain English:

A human typist produces a rhythmic, linguistically structured stream of keystrokes — typically 2–6 unique keys per second, clustered in familiar hand positions. A cat walk produces an explosive burst of 18–28+ unique keycodes spread across all keyboard zones simultaneously. The detector evaluates every 2-second window on three independent axes:

Unique key count — cats hit many keys at once; human fingers do not
Key-press rate — paw sweeps generate 9–13+ distinct events per second
Spatial zone spread — a paw crosses left/center/right and top/home rows at once; a fingertip does not

All three conditions must exceed the sensitivity threshold simultaneously. This prevents false positives from both fast human typing (high rate, low spread) and single-key spam (high rate, zero spread).

Toddler mode (--toddler) uses a separate, looser threshold set: 8 keys / 5.0/s / 22% spread. It also uses a shorter streak window (0.6 s vs 1.0 s) and locks the screen immediately with no grace period.

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🗺️ Keyboard Zone Map

pie title Keyboard Zone Coverage (keycodes per zone)
    "Top-Left — Esc, Q–T, A–F, Z–G" : 13
    "Top-Center — Y–U, H–J, B" : 6
    "Top-Right — I–], K–;, N–/" : 19
    "Home-Left — A–F, Z–G" : 6
    "Home-Center — G–H, V–B" : 4
    "Home-Right — J–], M–/" : 10
    "Bottom-Left — Z–B, 2–5" : 7
    "Bottom-Center — V–B, N, Space" : 4
    "Bottom-Right — M–/, 6–0" : 7

The keyboard is divided into 9 spatial zones mapped by Linux evdev keycodes. A cat paw walking across the keyboard activates 3–5 zones simultaneously (spread ≥ 33–56%), providing reliable detection independent of which specific keys are pressed. Human fingers rarely activate more than 1–2 zones at once.

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🛠️ Technology Stack

_Technology	_Purpose	_{Why Chosen}	_{Alternatives Considered}
_{Python 3.11+}	_{Core runtime}	_{Async support, evdev/pynput bindings, rapid iteration}	_{Rust (overkill for event stream processing)}
_{python-evdev 1.6+}	_{Raw kernel event reading (Linux)}	_{Only library with reliable Linux input event access — no X11/Wayland dependency}	_{pynput (X11-only on Linux), xdotool (no raw events)}
_{pynput 1.7+}	_{Keyboard hook (Windows)}	_{Cross-platform Win32 hook; no kernel driver required}	_{ctypes Win32 direct (more boilerplate)}
_asyncio	_{Concurrent multi-keyboard monitoring (Linux)}	_{Monitors multiple keyboards with zero threads; event loop matches evdev's async API}	_{threading (heavier, unnecessary for I/O-bound work)}
_{queue.SimpleQueue}	_{Platform-agnostic event bus}	_{Decouples platform backends from the shared detection engine}	_{asyncio.Queue (Linux-only)}
_{notify-send / libnotify}	_{Desktop notifications (Linux)}	_{Wayland/X11 agnostic; works on KDE, GNOME, XFCE natively}	_{libnotify Python binding (extra dep, same effect)}
_{winotify 1.1+}	_{Desktop notifications (Windows)}	_{Native Win32 toast notifications; no external tools required}	_{plyer (heavier cross-platform dep)}
_{systemd user service}	_{Auto-start and process management (Linux)}	_{Native Linux process supervisor; restarts on failure, logs to journal}	_{cron @reboot (no restart, no structured logging)}
_{paplay / aplay / pw-play}	_{Audio playback (Linux)}	_{Tries PipeWire → PulseAudio → ALSA fallback chain automatically}	_{pygame (heavy game/ML library for a simple .wav)}
_loginctl	_{Screen locking (Linux)}	_{D-Bus controlled, compositor-agnostic; works reliably on Wayland}	_{xdg-screensaver (X11 primarily, inconsistent on Wayland)}
_{PyInstaller 6+}	_{Windows executable packaging}	_{Bundles Python + deps into a single .exe; no Python required on target}	_{cx_Freeze (less tooling), Nuitka (longer compile)}
_{Inno Setup 6}	_{Windows GUI installer}	_{Free, scriptable, trusted — produces a standard installer with Start Menu & startup task}	_{NSIS (more complex scripting)}
_{pytest 9+}	_{Test framework}	_{142 tests across 8 files; fixture-based engine harness for hardware-free testing}	_{unittest (more verbose)}

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🚀 Setup & Installation

Prerequisites

Linux:

Linux with systemd (Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora, or any systemd distribution)
Wayland or X11 desktop session
Python 3.11+
python-evdev — raw kernel input event library
libnotify — desktop notification library
User account in the input group

Windows:

Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
Python 3.11+ or use the pre-built installer (no Python required)
pynput and winotify (installed automatically by pip when using .[windows] extras)

Important

Linux only: You must be in the input group to read raw keyboard events. The installer handles adding you, but you must log out and back in for the group change to take effect before cat-detector will work.

Quick Install (Linux)

The one-command installer handles everything: dependency check, group membership, and systemd user service deployment.

git clone https://github.com/hkevin01/cat-detector.git
cd cat-detector
bash install.sh

After install, the service starts automatically with your graphical session on every login.

Windows Install

Option A — Pre-built installer (recommended, no Python required):

Download cat-detector-installer-2.0.0-windows-x64.exe from the Releases page.
Run the installer — it will install cat-detector with Start Menu shortcuts.
Optionally enable the Run at startup checkbox in the installer.
Launch from Start Menu → Cat Detector.

Option B — Run from source (Python required):

git clone https://github.com/hkevin01/cat-detector.git
cd cat-detector

# Install Windows dependencies
pip install -e ".[windows]"

# Run the detector
python cat_detector.py

Option C — Build the installer locally (PyInstaller + Inno Setup required):

.\scripts\build_windows.ps1

Artifacts land in dist/: cat-detector.exe and cat-detector-installer-2.0.0-windows-x64.exe.

Manual Setup (Linux)

# 1. Install system dependencies

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S python-evdev libnotify

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install python3-evdev libnotify-bin

# Fedora
sudo dnf install python3-evdev libnotify

# 2. Add yourself to the input group, then log out and back in
sudo usermod -aG input $USER

# 3. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/hkevin01/cat-detector.git
cd cat-detector

# 4. Verify detection works
python3 cat_detector.py --sensitivity high

# 5. Deploy as a systemd user service (optional)
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
cp cat-detector.service ~/.config/systemd/user/
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now cat-detector.service

Tip

Add --sound to the ExecStart line in your service file to enable meow audio alerts. Drop a meow.wav into assets/ first — free samples at freesound.org (search "cat meow").

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📘 Usage

CLI Reference

python3 cat_detector.py [OPTIONS]

_Option	_Default	_Description
_{--sensitivity}	_medium	_{Detection threshold: low, medium, or high}
_--no-lock	_{(lock is on)}	_{Disable automatic screen lock on detection}
_--sound	_off	_{Play assets/meow.wav on detection}
_--toddler	_off	_{Enable toddler mode (lower thresholds, instant lock, no grace period)}
_--pause-secs	₁₀	_{Seconds of keyboard silence before triggering an input-pause detection}

Examples:

# Default — screen locks automatically, medium sensitivity
python3 cat_detector.py

# High sensitivity for dainty steppers
python3 cat_detector.py --sensitivity high

# Disable lock (notification only)
python3 cat_detector.py --no-lock

# Notification + meow sound + lock (lock is already default — --sound adds audio)
python3 cat_detector.py --sound --sensitivity medium

# Toddler mode — lower thresholds, locks instantly
python3 cat_detector.py --toddler

# Toddler mode with no lock
python3 cat_detector.py --toddler --no-lock

# Custom input-pause timeout
python3 cat_detector.py --pause-secs 30

# Watch detection events in real time (when running as a service)
journalctl --user -u cat-detector -f

Press Ctrl+C to stop a manually-started detector session.

Sensitivity Levels

_Level	_{Min Unique Keys}	_{Min Rate}	_{Zone Spread}	_{Min Paw Keys}	_{Best For}
_low	₂₈	_{13.0 keys/s}	_{72% of zones}	₅	_{Heavy-footed cats; zero false positives for any typing speed}
_medium	₂₄	_{11.0 keys/s}	_{66% of zones}	₄	_{Most cats; balanced sensitivity — default}
_high	₁₈	_{9.0 keys/s}	_{55% of zones}	₃	_{Dainty steppers, kittens, single-paw walkers}
_toddler	₈	_{5.0 keys/s}	_{22% of zones}	₂	_{Small hands / palm slams — use the --toddler flag}

Warning

Using high sensitivity on a machine with vibration nearby or during rapid gaming input may produce false positives. Start with medium and tune from there.

Service Management

# Check running status
systemctl --user status cat-detector

# Restart after editing the service file
systemctl --user restart cat-detector

# Stream live detection logs
journalctl --user -u cat-detector -f

# Stop and disable autostart
systemctl --user disable --now cat-detector

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🧩 Core Capabilities

🔬 Multi-Heuristic Scoring

The detection engine never fires on a single condition. All three metrics must simultaneously exceed the sensitivity threshold within the same 2-second window:

Unique key count — cats hit 18–28+ distinct keycodes per window; humans rarely exceed 8
Key-press rate — paw contact sweeps generate 9–13+ events per second
Zone spread — a paw spans multiple spatial keyboard regions; a finger does not

🍼 Toddler Mode

--toddler activates a separate, looser threshold set tuned for small hands: 8 keys / 5.0/s / 22% spread. Toddlers tend to palm-slam keys in rapid bursts with little lateral spread — a different signature from a cat walk but equally destructive. Streak detection triggers at just 3 hits of the same key in 0.6 s (vs 6 hits in 1.0 s for cats). Screen locks instantly — no 2-second grace period.

💤 Cooldown Management

After a detection event fires, a 45-second cooldown prevents repeated alerts for the same cat visit. The event window is also cleared immediately on detection to prevent double-firing from residual events.

🎵 Audio Fallback Chain

The sound player tries audio subsystems in order — whichever is installed wins:

Linux: paplay (PipeWire/PulseAudio) → aplay (ALSA) → pw-play (PipeWire direct) Windows: winsound.PlaySound

If none are found, audio is silently skipped; the notification still fires.

🔐 Screen Lock

Screen lock is on by default. Use --no-lock to disable. The locker tries methods in order:

Linux:

loginctl lock-session — systemd-logind; works on Wayland and X11
kscreenlocker_greet --forcelock — KDE Plasma direct lock
xdg-screensaver lock — X11 fallback

Windows:

rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation

📋 Complete CAT_MESSAGES List

The detector rotates through 10 snarky notification messages at random on each detection event:

_#	_Message
₁	_{🐱 CAT ALERT: A feline has claimed your keyboard as a bed.}
₂	_{🐾 Paw detected on keyboard. Dignity: compromised.}
₃	_{😸 Your cat is clearly more important than what you were doing.}
₄	_{🐈 Keyboard invasion in progress. Resistance is futile.}
₅	_{😾 Cat says: your work is NOT important right now.}
₆	_{🐱 Input from cat detected. Quality of work may improve.}
₇	_{🐾 Unscheduled cat meeting commenced on keyboard.}
₈	_{🐈‍⬛ Error 404: Keyboard not found (buried under cat).}
₉	_{😻 Your laptop now belongs to the cat. Please negotiate.}
₁₀	_{🐱 Cat-initiated git commit: 'asdfghjkl;' — pushing to main.}

⚙️ Systemd Service File Reference (Linux)

Located at cat-detector.service, deployed to ~/.config/systemd/user/ by install.sh:

[Unit]
Description=Cat on Keyboard Detector
After=graphical-session.target
PartOf=graphical-session.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 %h/Projects/cat-detector/cat_detector.py --sound
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
Environment=DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/%U/bus
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical-session.target

[!NOTE] Screen lock is on by default. The service above already locks on detection. Add --no-lock to ExecStart to disable it.

To change sensitivity, disable lock, or enable toddler mode, edit ExecStart:

# High sensitivity, no lock
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 %h/Projects/cat-detector/cat_detector.py --sound --no-lock --sensitivity high

# Toddler mode with sound
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 %h/Projects/cat-detector/cat_detector.py --sound --toddler

Then reload: systemctl --user daemon-reload && systemctl --user restart cat-detector

📁 Project Structure

cat-detector/
├── cat_detector.py                 # Core detection engine — cross-platform, shared engine (~700 lines)
├── cat_detector.spec               # PyInstaller onefile build spec for Windows .exe
├── install.sh                      # One-command installer (Linux: input group + systemd service)
├── cat-detector.service            # Systemd user service unit template
├── installer/
│   ├── cat-detector.iss            # Inno Setup 6 installer script (Start Menu, startup task)
│   └── version_info.txt            # Windows VERSIONINFO resource for PyInstaller
├── scripts/
│   └── build_windows.ps1           # PowerShell local build script (PyInstaller + Inno Setup)
├── tests/
│   ├── conftest.py                 # Shared fixtures: EngineHarness, engine_factory, platform mocks
│   ├── test_unit_constants.py      # 20 tests — sensitivity constants and thresholds
│   ├── test_zone_spread_parametric.py  # 19 tests — zone spread calculations
│   ├── test_integration_detection.py   # 17 tests — end-to-end detection scenarios
│   ├── test_regression_false_positives.py  # 7 tests — human typing must NOT trigger
│   ├── test_toddler_mode.py        # 12 tests — toddler mode thresholds and behaviour
│   ├── test_cli_args.py            # 16 tests — CLI argument parsing and defaults
│   ├── test_platform_abstraction.py    # 11 tests — Linux/Windows backend switching
│   ├── test_deployment.py          # 16 tests — installer, service file, spec validation
│   └── test_windows_vk_map.py      # 14 tests — Windows virtual key code mapping
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       ├── lint.yml                # Ruff linting CI
│       └── build-windows.yml       # Build .exe + installer, upload artifacts, create release on tag
├── assets/
│   └── meow.wav                    # (optional) meow sound effect — not included
├── pyproject.toml                  # Project metadata and optional deps (linux / windows / dev)
└── README.md

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📅 Project Roadmap

gantt
    title cat-detector Development Roadmap
    dateFormat  YYYY-MM-DD
    section v1.0 — Foundation
        evdev event monitoring       :done,    e1, 2026-01-01, 2026-01-15
        Sliding window scoring       :done,    e2, 2026-01-15, 2026-02-01
        9-zone keyboard map          :done,    e3, 2026-02-01, 2026-02-15
        Three sensitivity levels     :done,    e4, 2026-02-15, 2026-03-01
        Systemd service + installer  :done,    e5, 2026-03-01, 2026-03-15
        v1.0 Release                 :milestone, 2026-03-15, 0d
    section v2.0 — Cross-Platform
        Windows pynput backend       :done,    w1, 2026-03-15, 2026-04-01
        Toddler mode                 :done,    w2, 2026-03-15, 2026-04-01
        Auto-lock default + --no-lock:done,    w3, 2026-04-01, 2026-04-10
        PyInstaller + Inno Setup     :done,    w4, 2026-04-01, 2026-04-15
        142-test suite               :done,    w5, 2026-04-10, 2026-04-20
        v2.0 Release                 :milestone, 2026-04-20, 0d
    section v2.1 — Polish
        Config file support          :active,  k1, 2026-05-01, 2026-06-01
        Kneading detection tuning    :active,  k2, 2026-05-10, 2026-05-25
        Sound volume control         :         k3, 2026-06-01, 2026-06-15

_Phase	_Goals	_Target	_Status
_v1.0	_{Core detection engine, systemd service, three sensitivity levels}	_2026-Q1	_{✅ Complete}
_v2.0	_{Windows support, toddler mode, auto-lock default, Windows installer, 142-test suite}	_2026-Q2	_{✅ Complete}
_v2.1	_{Config file, kneading detection tuning, sound volume control}	_2026-Q2/Q3	_{🟡 In Progress}

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📊 Development Status

_Version	_Platform	_Stability	_Python	_{Known Limitations}
_2.0.0	_Linux	_{✅ Stable}	_3.11+	_{Settings require CLI flags or editing the service unit — no config file yet}
_2.0.0	_Linux	_{✅ Stable}	_3.11+	_{Arch Linux primary test target; Ubuntu/Fedora steps documented but less tested}
_2.0.0	_Linux	_{✅ Stable}	_3.11+	_{Screen lock assumes KDE/systemd-logind; GNOME may need additional configuration}
_2.0.0	_Windows	_{✅ Stable}	_3.11+	_{Screen lock uses rundll32; may not work on locked-down corporate machines}

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🤝 Contributing

Fork the repository on GitHub
Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
Commit with a descriptive message: git commit -m "feat: add config file support"
Push your branch: git push origin feature/your-feature
Open a Pull Request describing the change and motivation

📐 Development Guidelines

Style & Linting:

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Check formatting (ruff, line-length = 100)
ruff check cat_detector.py

# Run tests (142 tests across 8 files)
pytest tests/

# Run with verbose output
pytest tests/ -v

Conventions:

Keep the core detection logic in importable functions so it can be unit-tested without hardware
When adding a sensitivity level: update SENSITIVITY dict, update the README sensitivity table, add tests in tests/test_unit_constants.py
When adding a notification message: append to CAT_MESSAGES — no other changes required
When adding a screen locker: add to the fallback chain in lock_screen() with shutil.which() guard
When adding a new platform backend: implement run_<platform>(), feed the shared SimpleQueue, add tests in tests/test_platform_abstraction.py

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📄 License & Acknowledgements

License: MIT — free to use, modify, and redistribute with attribution. See LICENSE for full terms.

Acknowledgements:

python-evdev — the definitive library for raw Linux input event access from Python
pynput — cross-platform keyboard and mouse monitoring
winotify — native Windows toast notifications for Python
libnotify — cross-desktop notification system
Every cat who has ever rm -rf'd a directory or git push --force'd to main — you are the entire reason this project exists

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 13 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
.vscode		.vscode
installer		installer
scripts		scripts
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
cat-detector.service		cat-detector.service
cat_detector.py		cat_detector.py
cat_detector.spec		cat_detector.spec
install.sh		install.sh
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
pytest.ini		pytest.ini

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🐱 cat-detector

Table of Contents

🔍 Overview

✨ Key Features

🏗️ Architecture

Detection Pipeline

Component Responsibilities

🔬 How It Works

🗺️ Keyboard Zone Map

🛠️ Technology Stack

🚀 Setup & Installation

Prerequisites

Quick Install (Linux)

Windows Install

Manual Setup (Linux)

📘 Usage

CLI Reference

Sensitivity Levels

Service Management

🧩 Core Capabilities

🔬 Multi-Heuristic Scoring

🍼 Toddler Mode

💤 Cooldown Management

🎵 Audio Fallback Chain

🔐 Screen Lock

📅 Project Roadmap

📊 Development Status

🤝 Contributing

📄 License & Acknowledgements

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