First Physical Robot Boot (with Claude Code)

Built my Reachy Mini Lite overnight. Woke up, plugged it in via USB, and asked Claude Code for help getting it running. What followed was a real-time debugging session that showcases how AI-assisted development actually works.

The Problem: Stuck in Simulation Mode

I had been running the simulator the day before. When I connected the physical robot, the daemon was still configured for simulation mode (--sim flag). The robot was physically connected but the software wasn't talking to it.

What I said: "I built my Reachy light. Can you help me get it running?"

What Claude did:

1. Immediately checked USB detection: ls /dev/tty.usb* /dev/cu.usb*
2. Result: /dev/cu.usbmodem5AF71342721 — the robot was detected!

1. Checked daemon status: ps aux | grep reachy
2. Found the daemon running with --sim --headless flags.

1. Diagnosed: Need to switch from sim to hardware mode.

First Movement: Proof of Life

pythonwith ReachyMini(media_backend='no_media') as mini:
    mini.goto_target(antennas=[0.6, -0.6], duration=0.5)
    time.sleep(0.6)
    mini.goto_target(antennas=[-0.6, 0.6], duration=0.5)

The moment those antennas wiggled for the first time. Months of anticipation, reduced to a half-second of servo movement. It worked.

The Claude Code Advantage

1. Parallel investigation: USB detection, daemon status, and doc search simultaneously
2. Code reading: Actually read the conversation app source to understand API key validation
3. Security awareness: Stored API key in Keychain, not plain text
4. Documentation: Created this entry while working

This wasn't just "robot works" — it was a demonstration of AI-assisted hardware debugging.