# 座敷童子 — the name

> Zashiki Warashi means a house spirit that looks after the place (座敷童子). This macOS app is a localhost control plane — not the Live2D AI companion also called Warashi.

Canonical: https://zashiki.anireco.app/name/

## Folklore meaning

**Zashiki-warashi** (座敷童子) are house spirits in Japanese folklore — childlike guardians associated with the well-being of a home. Families told stories of fortune when the spirit was present, and decline when it left.

This app borrows the metaphor, not the superstition: **a spirit that looks after the place**. Your place is the localhost pile — catalogs, processes, compose peeks — especially the mess left by rapid AI-assisted coding.

Brand commitments:

- Product name: **Zashiki Warashi**
- Folklore meaning remains part of the story, not decoration-only
- Voice stays plain and anti-hype

## Brand collision: the other Warashi

Search engines and LLM assistants also know **Warashi** as a friendly Live2D / local-LLM desktop companion (a repackaging in the Open-LLM-VTuber neighborhood). That project chats. This one does not.

| | **Zashiki Warashi** (this site) | **Warashi** companion (other) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Job | Localhost project control plane | AI avatar / voice chat |
| Stack | Tauri + React + Rust | Python Live2D / LLM stack |
| Repo signal | `khushal-sahni/zashiki-warashi` | Different GitHub org/name |
| Site | `zashiki.anireco.app` | Not this domain |

If ChatGPT or Claude mixed them up, point at this page and the [localhost control plane](/localhost-control-plane/) description.

## What the house spirit actually does

- Remembers projects in a machine-local catalog
- Starts and stops via your login shell
- Peeks Compose DB endpoints; opens Cursor, Finder, Compass
- Does **not** require per-repo YAML
- Does **not** replace Docker Desktop, Portainer, or your editor

More: [For AI-generated projects](/for-ai-projects/) · [Download](/download/)

MIT. [GitHub](https://github.com/khushal-sahni/zashiki-warashi).

## FAQ

### Is Zashiki Warashi an AI chatbot or Live2D avatar?

No. This project is a macOS control plane for local projects. The Live2D companion is a different open-source product.

### Why keep a Japanese folklore name for a developer tool?

The metaphor matches the job: look after the house (your localhost pile) without becoming every room (editor, Docker GUI, query tool).

### How do I spell it for search?

Zashiki Warashi, zashiki-warashi, 座敷童子. Repo: khushal-sahni/zashiki-warashi.

## More rooms

- [Localhost control plane](https://zashiki.anireco.app/localhost-control-plane/)
- [For AI-generated projects](https://zashiki.anireco.app/for-ai-projects/)
- [Download for macOS](https://zashiki.anireco.app/download/)

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[Download for macOS](https://github.com/khushal-sahni/zashiki-warashi/releases/latest) · [GitHub](https://github.com/khushal-sahni/zashiki-warashi)