Active installationsNewAdoption metric — not a quality score
WordPress.org ratingNo WordPress.org ratings yet
Official packageDirect from WordPress.org
Repository metrics are context, not quality scores. Active installations measure adoption and can strongly reflect a plugin’s age and historical popularity. Ratings, recent updates and “Tested up to” metadata also do not guarantee modern code, error-free operation, security, feature completeness or suitability for a particular site. Why active installs don’t tell the whole story →
WP PlugIndex currently records RangerHQ Buddy version 0.1.5 as active, updated 4mo ago and tested up to WordPress 7.0.
Overview
About this plugin
Adopt a small virtual companion that lives in your WordPress admin. Right now Buddy just exists — they bob, they blink, they show their mood. As the plugin grows, their stats will come to reflect how well you take care of your WordPress site itself: published posts feed them, outdated plugins make them sick, clearing spam makes them happy.
Gamifies WordPress maintenance with a bit of charm.
What it does today
Dashboard widget shows your Buddy with name, mood, and four stat bars (hunger, happiness, health, energy).
Dedicated Buddy admin page for the bigger view, with the same character and stats.
Settings page where you can rename your Buddy.
Each WP admin user gets their own Buddy stored per-user in user_meta. Nothing leaves your site database.
About page explaining the plugin and the roadmap.
What it does not do yet
No interactions — feed, play, clean, sleep are coming in Phase B.
No time-based stat decay yet — that is Phase C.
Only one species available right now — Phase D will add a dog, dragon, sprite, and more.
The headline feature — having Buddy stats reflect your actual WP site health (post counts, outdated plugins, spam queue) — is Phase E.
Privacy
RangerHQ Buddy stores its data per-user in the WordPress user_meta table on your own site. No data is sent anywhere. No telemetry.
No third-party JavaScript. com to see if a new version is available.
About the RangerHQ family
RangerHQ Buddy is part of the RangerHQ plugin family by David Keane. Sister plugins include RangerHQ Radio (an admin-only internet radio player) and the upcoming RangerHQ Logbook.
WordPress.org metadata
Plugin tags
Topics listed for this plugin in the WordPress.org directory.
virtual pet
dashboard
fun
gamification
Compatibility & maintenance
Compatibility & maintenance
Tested up to WordPress 7.0
Not yet marked as tested with WordPress 7.1. WordPress.org currently lists Tested up to 7.0.
Current WordPress releaseWordPress 7.1
WordPress.org Tested up to7.0
Minimum requirementsWordPress 5.0 · PHP 7.4
Update activity10 Jun 20264mo ago
“Tested up to” is directory metadata supplied by the plugin author. WP PlugIndex does not turn an older declaration into a claim that the plugin is incompatible.
Changes recorded by WP PlugIndex
Recent tracked changes
No tracked version or compatibility changes have been recorded by WP PlugIndex yet.
Tracking & source
WP PlugIndex tracks public WordPress.org directory metadata and records selected version, compatibility and availability changes as they are detected.
