ProtoModule ProtoModule
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About

The origin story: A gap between what the agent knows and what you can see $ claude-code --mission "refactor auth" ▶ Planning: 5 files to modify ▶ Editing: src/auth/token.rs ▶ Running tests... ✓ test_token_expiry passed ✓ test_refresh_flow passed ⚠ Decision needed: migration strategy [1] Auto-migrate [2] Manual review Laptop: Agent works here 14" window • All the context THE GAP Agent knows everything You see a terminal Can't guide what you can't see 65" TV • Three feet away Showing a screensaver • Doing nothing ProtoModule HDMI stick = Local MCP server Bridges the gap "Show me where it's stuck." — Said to an empty apartment at 11pm. The TV was dark. That was the moment ProtoModule was born.
protoModule origin story: laptop terminal → dark TV → ProtoModule bridge

A letter from the builder

I've spent ten hours a day working with AI agents. They write code, run tests, deploy, debug. All of it happens in a terminal, in a small window on a laptop. Meanwhile, my 65-inch TV sits three feet away, showing a screensaver.

One night at 11pm, I said out loud to an empty apartment: "Show me where it's stuck." The agent answered in text. I read it on a laptop. I looked at the TV. It was dark.

That gap — between what the agent knows and what I can see — is the problem.

ProtoModule closes it. An HDMI stick that plugs into any TV, becomes a local MCP server, and turns the biggest screen in your home into a real-time canvas for your agentic session.

I'm building this because I need it. And every developer living in their terminal needs it.

What it does

ProtoModule does three things, from the same device:

↻ Reshape Screen reorganizes around what matters right now Before: static After: priority first ⏱ Just-in-time Info appears when needed Fades when it's not Arrive → Peak → Fade ≡ One timeline AI and you share the same moment, provably AI µs PM ms You same
three capabilities: reshape, just-in-time, one timeline
  • Reshape. The display changes based on what's happening. No more static dashboards that go stale the moment they render.
  • Just-in-time. Information appears when you need it and fades when you don't. It's there for you, not demanding your attention.
  • One timeline. The agent on your laptop and the visuals on your TV share the same moment, provably. What the model sees is what you see.

The greenest screen is the one you already own

ProtoModule is a stick, not a screen. It adds a job to the TV you already have, and it does not ask you to buy a new computer, a new desktop, or a new tablet to see your work.

That is a deliberate choice. Every new display is a new LCD panel: hundreds of liquid-crystal chemicals, loosely sealed between polarizers, persistent, and released at every stage of a display's life — manufacturing, use, recycling, disposal. And the recycling stage is where the story gets worse. There is no industrial-scale process for recycling LCD panels. The glass, the indium, the liquid crystals are fused into a sandwich that costs more to separate than the materials are worth. So the panels sit in stockpiles at recycling facilities, or they go to landfill, where the same chemicals leach into the water.

The carbon math is just as blunt. Manufacturing a single LCD TV panel consumes thousands of megajoules of energy and emits over 200 kg of CO₂. And over 60% of flat-screen TVs that get replaced are still working when they're replaced — replaced after an average of 5.6 years, even though the panel is built to last a decade. The carbon to make them was paid once. Replacing them early pays it again.

ProtoModule's answer is not a better recycling process. It is to give the screens that are already here a reason to stay turned on. A TV that becomes an agent's canvas, a mission board, a morning briefing, is a TV that stays in service because it is useful again. Breathing life back into idle screens is the single biggest environmental decision in the product. One fewer display per use case, and one fewer working screen heading to a landfill before its time.

The Rosa test

Rosa is 75. She just wants to see her grandkids. If ProtoModule works for Rosa, it works for everyone. If it works for everyone else but not Rosa, we failed. Rosa is our acceptance test: a grandmother can answer a video call within 24 hours of opening the box.

That's the standard we hold the product to — and it's the reason the calling feature isn't in the box yet. The sticks don't talk to each other today. We'd rather ship nothing than ship a call that makes Rosa give up. The ambient dashboard, the wake word, and the local-first privacy are the foundation that feature will be built on.

Design principles

Every decision on ProtoModule follows the same principles:

  • Calm technology. It informs without demanding attention.
  • Privacy visible. Controls are tangible, not buried in menus.
  • TV-native. Designed for the ten-foot interface, not a phone scaled up.
  • Content first. AI enhances what you're watching, never obscures it.
  • Accessible by default. Voice, gesture, remote, and phone are all first-class.
  • Hackable. Developer affordances are visible, not hidden.
  • Safe by design. Agents send descriptions, never code. We render from a verified allowlist.

The one-sentence version

The product: an HDMI stick that connects your TV to your agentic session as a real-time visual companion.

The platform: the first iteration of a world where every screen can be a real-time companion for AI work, starting with the TV and expanding to native apps, embedded builds, and beyond.

The growth model: four viral loops — gift, developer, marketplace, and commercial — each designed around the habit loop and each bounded by trust: local-first privacy, deterministic rendering, and the anti-placebo principle, the promise that every control genuinely does what it says.

Stealth

ProtoModule is in stealth. There are no price plans and no pre-orders, and the owner is a software engineer working at a bank — this project is what he builds after hours. It is based on research from SideSpin.com, the parent company. When the device is ready to leave the workshop, you will hear it here first.