The pill shows “Offline” — what's wrong?

Offline almost always means the app can't reach our servers. Check your internet connection, make sure you're signed in, and confirm you still have voice time left this month (the dashboard shows your remaining hours). Once any of those is fixed it reconnects on its own — no restart needed.

Windows won't let it use my microphone.

Peranima can't hear you without microphone access. Open Windows Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone, turn on 'Microphone access' and 'Let desktop apps access your microphone', then tap the hotkey again. If you have more than one input device, set the right one as your default in the Windows sound settings.

I tap the hotkey and nothing happens.

Remember it's a toggle: tap Ctrl+Shift+Space once to start, talk, then tap again to send — you don't hold it down. If it still doesn't react, another app may have claimed the same shortcut, or the Peranima pill isn't running. Make sure the pill is visible at the top of your screen and that no fullscreen game has swallowed the hotkey.

It takes a few seconds to answer — is it broken?

No. Around 3 seconds from the end of your sentence to the start of the reply is normal — like a teammate thinking, not an instant assistant. It won't keep up with twitch reactions, but for talking things through and handing off tasks it feels natural.

Peranima — Your AI companion that actually knows you

This is the whole first run, start to finish: install the app, sign in, create the companion you write yourself, and have your first spoken conversation. No setup wizard to fight, no config files. Five steps, and the one part people always misread — the push-to-talk hotkey — is spelled out so you get it right the first time.

1. Get Peranima on your PC

Peranima is in early access: grab your invite at peranima.com — access opens in waves so every companion stays fast. When your invite is ready, download and run the small Windows installer (Windows 10/11). Because the app is new, Windows may show a blue “Windows protected your PC” screen — that's SmartScreen being cautious about anything it hasn't seen many times yet, not a problem with the file. Click More info → Run anyway. Once installed, Peranima lives as a tiny pill at the top edge of your screen — no big window fighting your game for space.

2. Sign in with Discord

Open Peranima and click “Sign in with Discord”. Your browser opens, you approve once, and then Windows pops up a small “Open Peranima?” prompt — that's the app catching the sign-in handing back to it. Click Open and you're back in the app, signed in. You only do this once; it remembers you after that.

3. Create your companion

Now the fun part. Give your companion a name, pick one of 6 voices, and write its personality in plain words. There's no preset character — you can start from a template like The Gremlin (a chaotic little menace that roasts your deaths) and tweak it, or write your own from scratch: a calm tactician, a deadpan older sibling, an over-caffeinated hype machine. What you type is who shows up. You can edit any of this later, so don't overthink the first version.

4. Have your first conversation

This is the step everyone gets wrong, so read it once: the hotkey is a toggle, not a walkie-talkie button.

Tap Ctrl Shift Space once — the pill glows to show it's listening.
Say whatever you want. Take your time; it's not racing you.
Tap Ctrl Shift Space again to send. Don't hold the keys down — that's the part people miss.

A spoken reply comes back in a few seconds — about 3 on average from the end of your sentence. That pause is real and we won't pretend otherwise: it's a teammate thinking before they speak, not an instant assistant. Say hello, ask it something, tell it about your day. It listens, answers out loud, and quietly writes down what matters so it remembers next time.

5. Optional — bring it into Minecraft

If you're on the Pro plan, your companion can join your Minecraft world as a real second player — mining, building, and following you on voice command. The short version: pick Java Edition 1.21.x in the launcher (the bot engine doesn't support the new 26.x updates yet), press ESC → “Open to LAN” in your single-player world, and ask your companion to join. No mod, no server. The full walkthrough with every catch is on the Minecraft setup guide.

What to expect (the honest part)

It's Windows-only for now — Windows 10/11. Mac is planned for later in 2026, Linux after that.
~3 seconds to first audio. Natural for conversation and handing off tasks; not built for twitch reactions.
Voice time is metered. The free trial is a 4-hour starter credit, then 1 free hour every month; paid plans add more, and the Minecraft integration is part of Pro ($9.99/mo). What each plan includes is on the home page.

Getting Started With Peranima