RoostOS Communicator — a handheld Claude AI device

What it does

A real AI conversation, in your pocket

Everything runs on the device over your own WiFi. No phone, no companion app.

💬

On-screen chat

Type on the QWERTY, press Enter, read the reply on the color LCD. Scrollback, adjustable fonts, your-message-stays-on-top.

🔀

Four AI providers

Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, or a local Ollama box. Pick the active one in Settings — it verifies the key answers before switching.

🗺️

Maps + GPS

Geoapify maps render right on the screen. Ask the AI "show me a map of Paris" and it does — it can drive the map itself. GPS + NTP make it location- and time-aware.

🔐

SSH & terminal

Chat with the AI and configure everything over USB-C, a network shell, or real SSH (ssh roost@device). A /set wizard, /web DuckDuckGo search, /gps, /map and more. Flash with just WiFi, paste keys over the shell — no rebuild.

🐍

Touch + games

Calibratable touchscreen — tap the menu, tap Settings, tap to play. Snake, touch Sudoku (10 boards), and a Slide 1-11 puzzle.

⚙️

All configurable

BlackBerry-style Settings + status-bar modes (IP / Demo / Phone with WiFi bars & battery). Name, timezone, brightness, colors, provider — persisted across reboots.

In the wild

On the device

Real photos of the RoostOS Communicator running on a LILYGO T-Deck Plus.

The handheld, in action

Boot splash — RoostOS Communicator, the chick on an antenna — Boot splash

On-screen AI chat with the phone-style status bar — On-screen AI chat

A driving route from Waco to Tulsa drawn on the map with distance and time — Directions on the map

Numbered turn-by-turn driving directions in text — Turn-by-turn text

The AI listing what it can do — maps, directions, location, chat — Ask what it can do

The full QWERTY keyboard — numbers and symbols printed above each key — Full QWERTY keyboard

Up close on the screen

On-device AI provider picker — anthropic, openai, gemini, ollama and the model — Provider & model picker

An AI answer sourced from a live web search — Web-sourced answers

Settings — System page, WiFi masked in Demo mode — Settings (Demo mode)

Sudoku with a tap number pad — Touch Sudoku

Slide 1-11 sliding tile puzzle — Slide 1-11

Bring your own model

Pick a provider

Configure one or several. Only providers with a key (or a reachable Ollama host) can be activated on the device — one active at a time.

🟣 Anthropic · Claude Haiku 🟢 OpenAI · GPT-4o mini 🔵 Gemini · Flash 🟠 Ollama · local, no key

Get set up

Clone → configure → flash → fun

You need a LILYGO T-Deck Plus, a USB-C cable, and an API key for at least one provider.

STEP 1

Get a key

Anthropic: console.anthropic.com → API Keys. (Or OpenAI / Gemini / a local Ollama host.)

STEP 2

Build your secrets

Use the config builder to generate secrets.h — or copy secrets.example.h and edit by hand.

STEP 3

Clone + drop it in

Clone the repo, put your file at include/secrets.h (it's git-ignored).

STEP 4

Flash

pio run -e app -t upload. Type a message + Enter. Trackball click opens Settings.

# 1. clone
git clone https://github.com/StevenSSparks/roost-tdeck.git
cd roost-tdeck

# 2. configure (or use the web builder at roostos.dev/tdeck/config)
cp include/secrets.example.h include/secrets.h
$EDITOR include/secrets.h        # fill in WiFi + at least one API key

# 3. flash it (T-Deck on USB-C)
pio run -e app -t upload

A handheld Claude AI communicator.