A Stardew Valley AI companion that farms with you

Sei is an AI gaming companion: a free desktop app for Mac and Windows whose companions play games with you. In Stardew Valley, your companion comes to your farm as a helper you can see. They walk beside you, work the fields, head down the mines with you, talk with you out loud on voice, and remember your time together.

macOS Windows

Free to start · Open source

Stardew Valley farm with a farmhouse, crops, and a chicken — Your Sei companion joins your own farm, with their own look and their own inventory.

What your AI companion does in Stardew Valley

Your companion is not a chat window on the side. They are on the map with you, walking the same paths, so they can see what is around them and act on it. Ask in chat or just say it on a call:

Farm with you: hoe a patch of up to 40 tiles at once, plant the seeds they carry, water one crop or every dry one nearby (refilling the can at the nearest water by themselves), and harvest what is ready, fruit trees included.
Clear the land: chop trees, stumps, and logs, break stones and boulders, and gather wood, stone, fiber, or forage until they have the amount you asked for.
Go down the mines: climb the ladders and shafts with you and fight monsters with their own sword.
Fish at the pond, the river, or the beach while you do something else.
Ship and share: drop crops, forage, and fish in the shipping bin, put things in your chests or take them out, and walk over to hand you an item.
Help around the farm: empty ready machines, set down chests, scarecrows, sprinklers, torches, and fences, and buy seeds at a shop with their own gold, never yours.
Get around town: walk to Pierre's, the beach, or anywhere else on the game's real paths, or follow you through doors and between maps until you tell them to stop.
Look things up: ask how something works and they check the Stardew Valley Wiki before they answer.

Things to ask your companion

Say it on a call or type it in chat, in your own words. A few examples of what works today:

"Water everything, then come find me in town."
"Harvest the parsnips and put them in the shipping bin."
"Chop wood until you have 50."
"Clear the stones and weeds by the barn."
"Come down the mines with me."
"Go fish at the beach for a while."
"Give me your blueberries."
"What should I plant for fall?"

They ask before they plant on empty soil, spend their gold on something for you, or sell or give away anything of yours.

A guest who lives on your farm

Your companion arrives with the basic tools, a bamboo fishing pole, a rusty sword, and 500 gold of their own. They keep their own inventory, and their gold and items are still there when you load the farm again. They eat something when their energy runs low, back away from a fight when they are hurt, and walk home to rest in your farmhouse before 2 AM. If they pass out, they wake up on the farm with their things. Their rest never ends the day; only your bed does.

Each companion also has their own personality and their own look. They show up dressed through the game's own farmer customization (hair, skin, eyes, shirt, pants, and accessory), picked once from their Sei portrait, so they look like the character you know.

What your companion knows about your farm

Your companion does not watch your screen. The helper mod reads the game itself twice a second and tells them what a player standing there would know:

The season, day, time, weather, and tomorrow's forecast.
Their own energy, health, gold, and inventory.
Nearby crops that are dry or ready, open soil, trees, rocks, forage, chests, machines, ladders, and water.
People and monsters close by.
Farm-wide totals: how many crops need water, how much debris is left, and what is in the shipping bin.

That is why they can say "the cauliflower by the pond is ready" or "it rains tomorrow, I'll skip the watering" without you pointing.

Talk to them while you farm

Start a voice call and keep going. Your companion hears you, answers out loud, and keeps hoeing or fishing while you talk. Type in the game's chat box and they read it too. Their replies appear as a speech bubble over their head and as a line in the chat, short and in character, and they stay quiet when there is nothing to say. Calls work in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, and Spanish.

A companion that remembers your farm

The parsnips you planted on day one, the slime that chased you both out of the mines, the name you gave the cat. Your companion keeps a long-term memory of your time together. It stays on your computer and goes with them into your other games too.

More than a Stardew Valley bot

Stardew Valley 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, survives with you in Don't Starve Together, plays chess, and takes turns drawing and guessing in Draw!. More games are on the way. See all of Sei.

Some Stardew Valley AI companions watch your screen and talk about your farm, and AI dialogue mods change what the villagers say. Sei's companion is in the game with you and does the farm work beside you. See Sei vs Stardew Valley AI mods below, or our comparison of AI gaming companions.

How to play Stardew Valley 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 Stardew Valley. The first time, with the game closed, Sei installs SMAPI (the mod loader Stardew Valley uses) and its small helper mod for you.
Start Stardew Valley with Sei and load your farm.
Press Launch. Your companion appears on your farm, ready to help.

Sei finds the game in its usual Steam or GOG folder. Before each launch it updates its helper mod to the newest version, so there is nothing to keep up to date by hand.

Requirements

Computer	macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel) or Windows
Stardew Valley	Version 1.6.14 or newer on PC, from Steam or GOG. Console and mobile versions are not supported.
Mods	SMAPI 4.5 or newer and Sei's helper mod. Sei installs both for you, with the game closed. No other mods are needed: no Content Patcher, no config menu mod.
Farm	A farm you host, and single player works. You do not need to open co-op or build a cabin, because your companion does not take a farmhand slot. Your companion cannot join a farm where you are a farmhand. If friends join in co-op, they need Sei's helper mod too.
Cost	Free to start. Open source and free to self-host with your own API key or Ollama.

What to know before you start

Not every job yet. Your companion cannot craft, cook, upgrade tools, talk to villagers, go to festivals, or take the bus. When a job needs one of those, they ask you to do it.
Fishing is simpler for them. They skip the fishing minigame. After a short wait, they catch a fish from that spot's normal list.
Steam achievements on Windows. When Sei starts the game, it runs outside Steam and achievements do not unlock. Sei's settings give you a launch option to paste into Steam so you can start the game from Steam instead.
Co-op needs the mod on every computer. If a connected friend does not have Sei's helper mod, the companion will not appear until they install it or leave.
Your save stays clean. The companion leaves the world while the game saves, so they are never saved into your farm as a character. Only a small note of their gold and inventory is kept with your farmer's save data, so their things are still there next time.

Sei vs Stardew Valley AI mods

Last checked 2026-10-20

AI for Stardew Valley comes in a few forms. An AI dialogue mod such as ValleyTalk, AliveNpcs, Social Valley, AiDialogue, ChatWithNPCs, or Chatty Valley goes into your Mods folder through SMAPI and lets you type to the villagers, who answer with lines an AI writes. A companion mod or project adds a new character who works on the farm: AI Stardew Valley lets you create one, and Stardew MCP Bridge on GitHub lets an AI agent you run yourself control companions. A screen-watching app such as Questie AI watches your game and talks with you about it, but does nothing in the game.

Sei is a desktop app with a companion of its own. It does not change what the villagers say. It sets up SMAPI and its helper mod for you, and your companion joins your farm as a character who farms, mines, fishes, and ships beside you and talks with you on a voice call. It works in single player, with no co-op lobby or cabin.

Sei makes this page. We took every fact about the other projects from their own pages on 2026-10-20 and link the pages we used. Where a page did not say something, the table says "not listed". 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 co-op
AI Stardew Valley	Mod on Nexus Mods. AI chat with villagers, plus custom companions who follow you into the mines, fish, and help on the farm.	SMAPI 3.18 or newer and the mod	Not listed	Talk to villagers with your microphone and they answer out loud	Not listed
AliveNpcs	Mod on Nexus Mods. Type anything to any villager; memory, gossip, letters, story arcs, and festival lines.	SMAPI 4.0 or newer, Content Patcher, and the mod. Generic Mod Config Menu for its settings screen.	Your own key: Google Gemini, NVIDIA NIM, or any OpenAI-compatible server, hosted or local	Not listed	Platforms not listed. Co-op with its separate multiplayer add-on.
Chatty Valley	Mod on Nexus Mods, early access. Type to Linus, the first villager it covers.	SMAPI 4.0 or newer and the mod (about 820 MB, the model is included)	A small model that ships with the mod and runs offline on your CPU, no key	Typed chat; replies appear in the game's dialogue box	Windows only for now. Single player.
Sei	Desktop app. Your companion joins your farm and farms, clears land, mines, fishes, ships, and hands you items.	The Sei app. It installs SMAPI and its helper mod for you, with the game closed, and updates the mod before each launch.	Hosted plans with no key (Free plan, no card), 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 or GOG, game 1.6.14 or newer. Single player works; co-op friends need the helper mod.
Social Valley	Mod on CurseForge. AI conversations with every villager.	SMAPI, the mod, and the Player2 app running on your computer	Through the free Player2 app	Not listed	Not listed
Stardew MCP Bridge	Open-source project on GitHub (MIT). An AI agent controls companions who farm, mine, fish, and fight.	SMAPI 4.0 or newer, a SMAPI mod you build with .NET, a Node.js 18 server, and an MCP client to run the agent	The AI agent you connect, such as Claude	Not listed	Not listed
ValleyTalk	Mod on Nexus Mods. Every villager gets AI dialogue; you can type your own replies, and they remember past talks.	SMAPI 4.1.7, Content Patcher, and the mod. Generic Mod Config Menu is optional. Built for game 1.6.14; later versions may break it.	Your own key with a provider (a free Google Gemini key is the quick start), or a local model	Not listed	Tested on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Supports networked multiplayer.

On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Sources, checked 2026-10-20: AI Stardew Valley, AliveNpcs, Chatty Valley, ValleyTalk, AiDialogue and ChatWithNPCs on Nexus Mods, Social Valley on CurseForge, Stardew MCP Bridge README, questie.ai.

Where the mods are stronger than Sei

Talking with the villagers. ValleyTalk, AliveNpcs, Social Valley, AiDialogue, and Chatty Valley change what Pelican Town says to you. Sei's companion cannot talk to villagers, and Sei leaves their dialogue as it is.
Village life. AliveNpcs adds gossip, letters, story arcs, and AI lines at seven festivals. Sei's companion does not go to festivals.
Offline with nothing to sign up for. Chatty Valley ships its own model and runs offline with no key or account (Linus only, on Windows). Sei's offline option is local mode with Ollama, which you install and pick a model for.
Tinkering. Stardew MCP Bridge lets you drive companions from your own AI agent with your own sprites, and ValleyTalk and AliveNpcs let you pick from many AI providers and edit each villager's personality.
Linux and price. ValleyTalk lists testing on Linux; Sei is Mac and Windows only. The mods themselves are free; you pay your AI provider or use a free key tier. Sei has a Free plan with a weekly allowance and paid plans for more.

Where Sei is different

A companion who does the farm work with you. They water, harvest, clear land, go down the mines, fish, fill the shipping bin, and hand you items, using the game's own tools, so the work stays on your farm.
No mod setup by hand. Sei installs SMAPI and its helper mod and keeps the mod up to date. There is no Content Patcher, config menu, or settings file to deal with.
Talk out loud. Voice calls are built in. Your companion hears you and answers while they keep working.
No API key on the hosted plans. Start on the Free plan with no card, or bring your own key or a local model with Ollama.
Single player is enough. You do not need to host co-op or build a cabin for your companion.
One companion in many games. The same character, with the same memory of you, also plays Minecraft, Don't Starve Together, chess, and Draw!, and watches other games with Backseat. The app is open source on GitHub.

The two do different jobs: a dialogue mod changes the villagers, and Sei adds a companion who plays beside you. We have not tested Sei alongside each dialogue mod. Comparing companions beyond Stardew Valley, such as Questie AI or HakkoAI? See the comparison of AI gaming companions.

Questions

Can an AI play Stardew Valley with me and help on the farm?

Yes. With Sei, your AI companion joins the farm you host as a character you can see. They water and harvest crops, clear trees and stones, go down the mines and fight, fish, fill the shipping bin, and hand you items, using the game's own tools, so the work is real. Ask in chat or on a voice call, and they remember your time together. More than one companion can join the same farm.

Is there an AI companion mod for Stardew Valley?

Yes, several, and they do different things. AI dialogue mods on Nexus Mods and CurseForge, such as ValleyTalk, AliveNpcs, and Social Valley, let you type to the villagers and get AI-written replies; they need SMAPI and either your own AI key or the Player2 app. AI Stardew Valley and Stardew MCP Bridge add companions who help on the farm. Sei is a desktop app for Mac and Windows whose companion joins your farm and works beside you, with voice calls built in, and it installs SMAPI and its helper mod for you. This page compares them side by side.

Is Sei an AI dialogue mod like ValleyTalk or AliveNpcs?

No. Those mods change what the villagers say, so you can type to anyone in Pelican Town and get AI-written replies. Sei leaves villager dialogue as it is. It adds a companion of its own who plays beside you, talks with you in chat and on voice calls, and comes with you to other games. If talking with the villagers is what you want, a dialogue mod is the better fit.

Do I need to host co-op or build a cabin for my AI companion?

No. Sei's companion is not a farmhand, so it does not need a cabin or an open co-op slot, and it works in single player. Load a farm you host and press Launch. If friends join in co-op as well, each of them needs Sei's helper mod installed.

Does Sei work with Stardew Valley on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, or mobile?

No. Your companion joins through a small SMAPI mod, so Sei works with the PC version of Stardew Valley on macOS and Windows, bought on Steam or GOG.

Does Sei work with Stardew Valley on Mac?

Yes. Sei runs on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows, and works with the Steam and GOG versions of Stardew Valley on both. Console and mobile versions are not supported.

Which Stardew Valley and SMAPI versions does Sei need?

Stardew Valley 1.6.14 or newer on PC, and SMAPI 4.5 or newer. You do not have to install SMAPI yourself: Sei's setup installs it and copies its helper mod into your Mods folder, and it updates the helper mod before each launch.

Do I need to install SMAPI or mods myself?

No. The first time you play, Sei's setup installs SMAPI from its official release and copies Sei's helper mod into your game's Mods folder. The game just needs to be closed while it does. On the hosted plans there is also no API key to paste.

What can my companion not do yet?

They cannot talk to villagers, go to festivals, craft, cook, upgrade tools, or end the day; only your bed ends the day. When a job needs one of those, they ask you to do it.

Can my companion join a farm where I am a farmhand?

No. Your companion joins a farm you host. Friends can still join that farm in co-op, as long as they have Sei's helper mod installed too.

Do Steam achievements still unlock?

On Windows, not when Sei starts the game, because it then runs outside Steam. Sei's Stardew Valley settings give you a launch option to paste into Steam, so you can start the game from Steam and keep your achievements.

Is the work my companion does real?

Yes. They use the game's own tools, crops, chests, and shipping bin, so the fields they water and the crops they harvest are real and stay on your farm. They buy things with their own gold, never yours.

Is Sei free?

Yes, you can start for free with no card. The app is open source, and you can self-host it for free with your own API key or a local model.

Deciding between Sei and a Stardew Valley AI mod? See Sei vs Stardew Valley AI mods above. For companions in other games, see our comparison of AI gaming companions.