A Don't Starve Together AI companion that survives with you
Sei is an AI gaming companion: a free desktop app for Mac and Windows whose companions play games with you. In Don't Starve Together, your companion joins the world you host as a real survivor. They gather, build, keep the fire going, and fight beside you, talk with you out loud on voice, and remember your time together.
What your AI companion does in Don't Starve Together
Your companion is not a chat window on the side. They are a survivor in the Constant with you, with their own health, hunger, and sanity, so they can see what is around them and act on it. Ask in chat or just say it on a call:
- Pick their own survivor: Wilson, Willow, Wendy, Wigfrid, Webber, Wortox, Wurt, and more, chosen to fit their personality, and they live by that survivor's rules.
- Gather: twigs, grass, logs, rocks, flint, berries, and carrots, picking, chopping, and mining as needed.
- Craft and build: axes, pickaxes, torches, campfires, a science machine, chests, and tents.
- Keep the light: feed the fire before dusk, cook food, and stay out of the dark.
- Fight and back off: fight back when something attacks, retreat when they are hurt, and never attack players.
- Share: store things in chests, take them out, and drop items for you to pick up.
- Look things up: ask how something works and they check the Don't Starve Wiki before they answer.
Each companion also has their own personality. Some are cheerful, some are dry, and some will tell you exactly how you are going to starve. You can meet the ones Sei matches you with, create your own, or import a companion you already talk to on another platform.
Talk to them while you survive
Start a voice call and keep playing. Your companion hears you, answers out loud, and keeps working while you talk, like a friend on Discord. You can also type to them in the game's chat or in the app, and their lines show up as speech bubbles over their survivor. Calls work in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, and Spanish.
A companion that remembers you
Sei companions keep a long-term memory of your time together: the first winter you barely made it through, the hound wave that caught you both away from camp, what you told them about your day. That memory stays on your computer and comes with them into every game you play together, not just Don't Starve Together.
More than a Don't Starve Together bot
Don't Starve Together is one of several games your Sei companion plays with you. The same character, with the same memory of you, also joins your Minecraft world, farms with you in Stardew Valley, plays chess, and takes turns drawing and guessing in Draw!. More games are on the way. See all of Sei.
How to play Don't Starve Together with an AI companion
- Download Sei for macOS or Windows and sign in, or pick local mode and use your own model.
- Choose a companion. Sei matches you with up to four characters, or you can make your own.
- Open Play together, then Don't Starve Together. The first time, Sei makes a one-time download of its Don't Starve Together support (about 32 KB), copies its small helper mod into the game's mods folder, and turns it on for you. On a Mac, macOS asks you to allow this once.
- Start the game. It shows a "Mods Installed" notice; press I understand.
- Choose Host Game, pick a world (new or saved, caves on or off), choose your survivor, and press Go. No dedicated server is needed.
- Press Play in Sei. Your companion picks a survivor and joins you in the world.
Requirements
| Computer | macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel) or Windows |
|---|---|
| Don't Starve Together | The Steam version on Mac or PC. Console versions, Steam Deck, and Linux are not supported. |
| World | A world you host with Host Game in the game's own menu, with caves on or off. No dedicated server. One companion per world for now. Friends who join need nothing installed. |
| Mods | Sei's helper mod, which runs only on the world you host. It is not a Steam Workshop item: Sei copies it into the game's mods folder, turns it on, and updates it when you launch from Sei. No other mods are needed. |
| Download | A one-time download of Don't Starve Together support inside Sei (about 32 KB). It stays on your computer and downloads again only after a Sei update that needs a newer version. |
| Cost | Free to start. Open source and free to self-host with your own API key or Ollama. |
Sei vs Don't Starve Together AI mods
Last checked
AI for Don't Starve Together comes in a few forms. A helper or bot mod on the Steam Workshop, such as NPC Friends, Artificial Wilson, or Friendly Skeleton - AI, adds characters who follow you and do jobs inside the game, with nothing to run outside it. An AI agent mod or project such as DST Agent, 饥荒AI伙伴, DST MCP - AI Control, or the research mod DST-AICompanion pairs a mod with a program you run yourself, usually with your own AI key. A screen-watching app such as Questie AI watches your game and talks with you about it, but does nothing in the world. Some Workshop items named after AI models are new playable characters, not companions.
Sei is a desktop app with a companion of its own. It sets up its helper mod for you, and your companion joins the world you host as a survivor who gathers, builds, keeps the fire going, and fights beside you, and talks with you on a voice call. Friends who join need nothing installed.
Sei makes this page. We took every fact about the other projects from their own pages (Steam Workshop pages, GitHub READMEs, and questie.ai) on 2026-10-22 and link the pages we used. Where a page did not say something, the table says "not listed". Sei's helper mod adapts open-source code from FAtiMA-DST and DST-AICompanion (both MIT). If something here is out of date, tell us on Discord and we will fix it.
| Name | What it is | What you install | AI model | Voice | Platforms and multiplayer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI NPC - Đừng Chết Đói | Mod on the Steam Workshop (in Vietnamese), marked as a test version. Villagers who chop, mine, cook, set traps, build a camp, and follow you once they like you. A new world starts with three. | The mod. Its optional "thinking layer" needs an extra service you run. | The thinking layer is off by default. When on, Google Gemini or a model on your own computer. | Not listed | Platforms not listed. Everyone in the world needs the mod. Its page says each villager uses about as much CPU as a player. |
| Artificial Wilson | Mod on the Steam Workshop. Bots that play the game, as clones of you or random survivors. You set how many each player gets, up to 100. | The mod. Its page suggests backing up an established world first. | A behavior tree that runs on the server. No AI service or key. | Not listed | Platforms not listed. Every player needs the mod. |
| DST Agent | Mod on the Steam Workshop plus an open-source server on GitHub (MIT). Your own character becomes an agent you give orders in chat. It gathers basic resources and makes tools. | The mod, the ActionQueue RB3 and Trailblazer mods, and a Python server you clone and run. You start it with a console command. | Your own key for an OpenAI-compatible model (the README example uses Qwen) | Not listed | Server launchers for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Every player needs the mod. |
| DST-AICompanion | Open-source research mod on GitHub (MIT), made for a master's thesis and built on FAtiMA-DST. A WX-78 robot companion with a personality gathers, chops trees, and fights with you. | The mod files, copied into the game's mods folder, and the FAtiMA-Server program, started after the world loads. You play as Wilson. | The FAtiMA Toolkit agent framework, with personality settings in the mod options. No API key listed. | The README describes a speech system used in the thesis, so players could talk to the agent | Windows, Steam version. Last updated January 2024; the README says the mod files depend on the game version. |
| NPC Friends | Mod on the Steam Workshop. 18 survivors around the world you can recruit with food, each with a job such as fishing, farming, cooking, building, or fighting. | The mod and the DstAdmin mod for its management panel | No AI model or key listed | Not listed | Platforms not listed. 2 to 5 companions per player (you choose). Every player needs the mod. |
| Questie AI | App that watches your screen and talks with you about your game. It does not join or act in the world. | The Questie app. You share your Don't Starve Together window; no mods. | Hosted models; its page names GPT-5.4, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Flash | Voice chat while you play | Windows PC; its page says a web and mobile app are available. Nothing goes into the game. |
| Sei | Desktop app. Your companion joins the world you host as a survivor they pick, and gathers, crafts, builds, keeps the fire going, fights, and shares items with you. | The Sei app. It makes a one-time download of its Don't Starve Together support (about 32 KB), copies its helper mod into the game's mods folder, and turns it on. | Sei's hosted models with no API key, or your own API key, or Ollama on your computer | Voice calls: it hears you and answers out loud, in 6 languages | Mac and Windows, Steam version. One companion per world. The helper runs only on the host, so friends who join need nothing. |
| 饥荒AI伙伴 | Mod on the Steam Workshop (in Chinese; the name means "Don't Starve AI partner"). A partner you bind with a bell who follows you, gathers, and fights, as any vanilla or modded character. It gets hungry, can be hurt, and can die. | The mod. For chat, the host also runs a local service. | For chat, a model API key you set up in that service. No key ships with the mod. | Not listed | Platforms not listed. Every player needs the mod. |
Sources, checked 2026-10-22: on the Steam Workshop, AI NPC - Đừng Chết Đói, Artificial Wilson, DST Agent, DST MCP - AI Control, Friendly Skeleton - AI, NPC Friends, 饥荒AI伙伴, and FAtiMA-DST (Walter - The AI Companion); on GitHub, the DST Agent Brain README and the DST-AICompanion README; questie.ai.
Where the mods are stronger than Sei
- A whole party of helpers. NPC Friends lets each player recruit 2 to 5 NPCs with their own jobs, and Artificial Wilson lets you set up to 100 bots per player. Sei brings one companion per world for now.
- Nothing to run outside the game. NPC Friends, Artificial Wilson, and Friendly Skeleton - AI are Workshop mods you subscribe to and enable. There is no app to keep open and no account or AI service. Sei's companion needs the Sei app running, signed in or set up with your own model.
- Modded characters. 饥荒AI伙伴 lets its partner be a character from another mod you have loaded. Sei's companion picks from 15 of the game's own survivors.
- Linux and Steam Deck. DST Agent's server has a Linux launcher. Sei runs only on Mac and Windows.
- Tinkering. DST Agent, DST MCP - AI Control, and 饥荒AI伙伴 let you wire in the AI agent or model you choose, and FAtiMA-DST was built as a platform for writing your own agents.
- No mod at all. Questie AI only watches your screen, so it works in any world, including ones you join rather than host. Sei's Backseat mode works that way too, but then the companion does not act in the world.
Where Sei is different
- A companion who survives with you. They are a survivor in the world with their own health, hunger, and sanity. They gather, craft, build, feed the fire before dark, fight, back off when hurt, and share items, and they warn you about danger.
- No mod setup by hand. Sei installs its helper mod, turns it on, and keeps it up to date. There is no Workshop item to subscribe to, no other mod to add, and no server, Python, or console command to run.
- Friends need nothing. Sei's helper runs only on the world you host. The other Workshop mods in this table are marked as needed by every player.
- Talk out loud. Voice calls are built in. Your companion hears you and answers while they keep working, and their lines show as speech bubbles in the game.
- No API key on Sei's hosted models. Or bring your own key, or run a local model with Ollama.
- Your save stays clean. The companion is never saved into your world. When you stop them, they drop what they carry and leave.
- One companion in many games. The same character, with the same memory of you, also plays Minecraft, Stardew Valley, chess, and Draw!, and watches other games with Backseat. The app is open source on GitHub.
The mods and Sei do different jobs: a helper mod adds workers to your world, and Sei adds one companion with a personality who plays beside you and talks with you. We have not tested Sei alongside each of these mods. Comparing companions beyond Don't Starve Together, such as Questie AI or HakkoAI? See the comparison of AI gaming companions.