How to use your Sprout

Feed and care

• Feed is spent from your balance to raise rest, water, or food stats so your Sprout stays happy and healthy.
• In the IDE Companion, open the Care tab, choose amounts, and allocate Feed to the stat that needs it.
• You can buy Feed packs with Stripe from the Companion Store tab; the balance refreshes when you return to the editor.

Leveling up

• Your account gains experience from activities (goals, bonuses, IDE git commits, and hatching—see below). That contributes to your overall progression in the app.
• Each Sprout also has its own level and experience on its profile; keep caring for it and completing linked goals to push it forward.
• As you play, you may earn attribute points to improve strength, speed, or intelligence from the Companion details panel.

Egg and hatching (IDE)

When you pair the IDE for the first time, you get a starter Sprout that begins as an egg. The sidebar shows the animated egg until you are ready.

• Hatching happens automatically on your first credited local git commit (same rules as the coding bonus: new HEAD, up to several times per UTC day). Open a folder workspace so the extension can read git rev-parse HEAD.
• On that commit you earn XP, Feed, and the egg becomes a full Sprout (with a welcome burst of experience). The API picks a random display name from the server's name catalog (stored in the database); you can rename your Sprout from the IDE Companion afterward.
• The Companion periodically checks git HEAD, when you focus the window, and after saves—so you do not need a special button to hatch.

Eggs from the Store (Stripe)

Eggs purchased through Stripe in the web or app use the incubator / egg inventory flow (hatch requirements vary by tier). That path is separate from the IDE starter egg above. Use the main app to incubate and hatch those eggs.

Personality and Cursor (MCP)

Each Sprout has a personality string stored with your account (set when the Sprout is created or hatched in the IDE flow). The Sprouts MCP reads that field from the API when you list or open a Sprout in Cursor, so the assistant can match tone and behavior to that Sprout.

• The prompt library (which personalities exist) lives in the backend codebase, not as separate rows in Supabase. New sprouts get a personality from that library when one is assigned at hatch time.
• If an older Sprout row has no personality set, MCP may not get style hints until that field is backfilled or you recreate the pairing flow—check your Sprout in the app or IDE after hatching.