claude-roulette

claude-roulette opens a Roulette pane in Claude Code and, while Claude is working on your task, pairs you with another person who is also waiting on Claude for a private, text-only chat. Matching is random or by shared interests, and the conversation travels through a server hosted by the author, not through Claude. Nothing you type reaches the model, and nothing from your Claude session reaches the other person except the fact that Claude is busy. Claude Roulette is an independent community project, not an Anthropic product.

What it does

• Matching follows your task. When a turn starts, the mod joins the queue and opens the pane. When Claude finishes, it tells the server you are no longer available, leaves the room and shows a toast. Tick “Keep chat when Claude finishes” to stay in the room after the turn ends. You cannot join a queue while Claude is idle.
• Preferences. Up to eight interests, a two-letter language code and a matching mode, shared interests first or pure random. They are saved between sessions and apply to the next match.
• In the room. A typing indicator, an icebreaker line to send with one click, the last 120 lines with Older and Newer buttons, Next person, Pause, and a Report / block panel with five reasons (spam, harassment, sexual content, hate, other) plus Block and leave.
• Around the room. The status line shows whether you are queued, chatting or ready. Esc returns you to your task, /roulette reopens the pane, Hide pane keeps the connection and Turn off ends the server session.

The pane asks you to accept the community rules (adults only, be kind, no secrets) every time you start Claude Code; the acceptance is not stored.

Install

Needs Claude Code 2.1.287 or later, an interactive terminal and an internet connection. The README says the plugin was validated and rendered in Claude Code 2.1.270 and typechecked against the 2.1.271 API. There is no marketplace, so you clone the repository and load the plugin folder with --plugin-dir:

git clone https://github.com/tldev/claude-roulette.git
cd claude-roulette
claude --plugin-dir "$PWD/plugin"

Run /roulette, accept the rules and send Claude a task. Matching starts while the task runs. No server setup, npm install or account is needed; the mod connects to the hosted lounge on its own.

The same repository ships a standalone terminal client (npm ci, then npm run chat) that needs Node 24.8 or later and talks to the same server. The mod does not use it.

How it works

The mod draws a 25-row pane and talks to a server over plain HTTPS, not WebSockets. On turn.start it marks you busy; on turn.complete it marks you free, ignoring subagent turns. The chat is polled once a second. Everything it sends or stores is listed below, because this is a third-party service.

Where it connects. By default to https://clauderoulette.thelazydeveloper.com, the author’s hosted lounge: POST /api/session to open a session, POST /api/action for every action, GET /api/events for the poll, and DELETE /api/session when you press Turn off or the Claude Code session ends. The ROULETTE_URL environment variable points it at another server; anything other than localhost must be HTTPS.

What it sends. An identity token, your profile (interests, language, matching mode), a boolean saying whether Claude is currently working, the Keep chat setting, the messages you type (trimmed to 2,000 characters, with terminal escape sequences stripped), typing signals, and the join, leave, next, block and report actions with the current room id. The README states the same list and adds that no code, files, paths, task names, tool output or transcripts are shared; the hooks module matches that. The turn id stays on your machine.

What it stores. Two keys in Claude Code’s plugin store: the identity token, under roulette.identity.<server>, and your profile under roulette.profile. The token is a 64-character hex string the server issues on your first connection and the mod sends back on every later one, so the server recognises the same person across sessions and machines that share that store. Chat lines live only in memory and are cleared when you match with someone new. There is no local block list.

Block and report. Both are requests to the server. Block asks the server never to match you with that person again. Report sends one of the five reasons plus the room id; the pane warns that reports share room metadata with the operator, and the README says moderation records contain identities, report reasons and timestamps. If the server bans your identity, or the same identity connects from a second Claude Code session, the mod stops reconnecting and tells you why.

What the server knows about you. A persistent pseudonymous identity, your interests and language, when you are working with Claude and when you stop, your messages while they are relayed, and any reports filed by or against you. The README says messages are not stored as conversations, but the server code is in a private repository, so that cannot be checked. There is no published privacy policy and no license file. Anyone you match with can copy what you write.

The mod never touches Claude’s prompts or context. It costs zero tokens.

Limitations

• Works only in interactive sessions. The code accepts the terminal and desktop surfaces; the author reports rendering it in the terminal. Nothing appears in claude -p or on mobile.
• You need other people online at the same moment. The pane shows how many are online and waiting.
• The service can pause you: a maintenance or operator disconnect message turns the mod off until you press Turn on again.
• One Claude Code session per identity at a time. A second session with the same plugin store stops the first one’s reconnects.
• The repository is two days old, has no releases and no license, and the backend is closed source.