Weekend Special: playing Doom while Claude works

In part 8 I complained: Claude is working, the tests are running, and I'm sitting next to it, waiting. The sensible answer was worktrees. Today you get the other one.

Jarrod Watts has built a plugin nobody asked for and everybody wants to install right away: intermission. Once Claude has been working for two seconds, a pane opens next to the chat and you drop into a Doom deathmatch. Against everyone else who is waiting on Claude right now.

🎮 How it works

• Claude gets going: pane opens, deathmatch on.
• Claude is done: three-second countdown, then back to work.
• Claude needs your approval: you're handed back at once and dropped in again after you answer.

So even in the middle of a firefight, the permission prompt comes first. Part 7 would be proud.

The game is Odamex with the free Freedoom maps. Monsters are left in so the server is never empty. Not even when everyone else's Claude finishes faster than yours.

🔧 Installation

/plugin install intermission --marketplace jarrodwatts/intermission
/intermission

The first time, it downloads the game, about 20 MB. Turn it off with /intermission off, for example just before someone from management walks by.

You need a terminal that can show pixels: Ghostty on macOS, or Rio on Windows 10/11 (setup takes a few more steps and is described in the README). Plus Claude Code 2.1.287 or later.

🧩 More than a gag

intermission is a mod (part 2) and uses hooks (part 11) to react to whether Claude is working, finished or waiting for you. The very same moments you would otherwise hook notifications, status displays or checks into. If you ever wondered how far Claude Code can be extended: all the way to Doom.

A word of caution:

The game connects over UDP to the author's server, under a random name such as "QueuedMarine42". According to the README, nothing about your session, your project or Claude's work is sent. Still, as always: read first, then install. And on a company laptop, ask IT first. They'll be thrilled. 😉

My rule of thumb for the weekend:

• /intermission on.
• Give Claude a proper refactoring so the round is worth it.
• And when Claude is done, close the laptop anyway.

Next time it gets serious again: someone else's code and how to be productive with it from day one.