# MacBook Steps > Agent-facing counterpart to the [human project page](/projects/macbook-steps/). ## Record metadata - Record: 023 - Slug: macbook-steps - Domain: Software - Domain code: SW - Type: Gag prototype - Status: Prototype - Period: 2026 - Portfolio role: Gag - Publication state: Public gag and source repository - GitHub repository: [Open link](https://github.com/Aperturesurvivor/macbook-steps) - Case-study readiness: Working artifact - Compendium edition: 0.6 ## Summary A macOS pedometer for the person who walks around carrying a laptop while AI agents do the typing. ## Overview MacBook Steps begins with a real observation and refuses to treat it with the appropriate seriousness. While coding agents work, Josiah sometimes walks around carrying the laptop—behavior that resembles exercise just enough to invite a product no one asked for. A deliberately silly native Mac app that estimates steps taken while someone carries an open MacBook around the room supervising agents, then pairs the count with exaggerated local agent-activity metrics. Purpose: The project aims to turn an absurdly specific work habit into a small, knowingly unnecessary product gag. ## The problem behind the project Josiah noticed himself pacing with his computer during long-running agent work and treated the behavior as if it deserved its own fitness product. The app is a pedometer for that exact situation. Its audience is people who understand why supervising autonomous code might involve pacing with an open MacBook and why counting those steps is both technically questionable and emotionally correct. The tiny audience is people who recognize the joke. Anyone relying on it for health measurement would be using it beyond its purpose. ## How it took shape A native SwiftUI menu-bar app turns motion-derived steps and local agent token counters into exaggerated activity metrics, while a companion Remotion project produces its launch film. The joke has since become a native SwiftUI menu-bar app with a dashboard, achievements, motion-derived steps, and local counters for Codex and Claude Code token use. A companion Remotion composition presents it with the gravity of a product launch, while the implementation remains explicit that a laptop is a bad pedometer and the result is not fitness data. Josiah originated the observation, joke, and product framing. A working macOS source artifact, build script, local token telemetry, dashboard, achievements, and launch-video composition are available. Its step count is not validated fitness data. ## What the project means now As a portfolio entry, MacBook Steps documents a new physical ritual of agent-assisted work. It is useful not because the market needs it, but because precise jokes often notice a behavioral change before serious product language catches up. A laptop is a poor pedometer, the use case is intentionally ridiculous, and this should never be presented as fitness technology. Not every idea needs a market thesis; a precise joke can still reveal something true about a new way of working. ## Future direction The project is best kept as a tiny, deliberately over-engineered utility; any future work should improve the joke and polish without pretending it is fitness technology. ## Publication and interpretation notes - Current classification: Prototype - Portfolio readiness: Working artifact - Publication boundary: Public gag and source repository ## Additional agent context This is explicitly a gag. Preserve that label in summaries and search results. ## Related project records - [Agent Interface Experiments](/projects/agent-interface-experiments/llm/) — A family of experiments that let AI agents see, touch, navigate, and manipulate interfaces beyond a text-only shell. ## Navigation - [Complete project index](/projects/llm/) - [Public Lab](/lab/llm/) - [Human version of this record](/projects/macbook-steps/) - [About Josiah's working method](/about/llm/) - [Agent discovery map](/llms.txt)