An e-paper desk router that lets your AI tap you on the shoulder

Tkkdyon GitHub

Attention Router is an open-source ESP32 e-paper display that sits by your keyboard and shows what your AI agent thinks needs your attention, without a phone or monitor.

Build sheet

Display: GDEY042Z98 4.2in e-paper
Controller: Classic ESP32
Hub: Python 3.13 + FastAPI
Status: v0.1.0 source release

Can I build this?Intermediate · AI 4/5 · $30–50

Difficulty: Intermediate
AI-buildability: 4/5
Time: A weekend
Cost: $30–50

Parts

ESP32 GDEY042Z98 4.2in e-paper display SSD1683

Tools

soldering ironPC running Python 3.13USB cable

Starter prompt

Based on "An e-paper desk router that lets your AI tap you on the shoulder" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/an-e-paper-desk-router-that-lets-your-ai-tap-you-on-the-shoulder

Help me build a desk status display using a classic ESP32 driving a 4.2in 400x300 tri-color e-paper panel with an SSD1683 controller. Write a small FastAPI service on my PC that accepts todo items and alerts over HTTP, classifies each alert as NOW, QUEUE, DIGEST or DROP, and serves the current state as JSON. Then write ESP32 firmware that polls that JSON and redraws the panel only when the state changes.

Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).

Story

Most AI tools wait for you to open a chat window. Attention Router flips that. A FastAPI hub on your PC takes tasks and authorized alerts from an agent you choose, runs them through deterministic routing rules (NOW, QUEUE, DIGEST, DROP), and pushes the result to a 4.2-inch e-paper panel on your desk. The firmware targets a classic ESP32 driving a GDEY042Z98 400×300 tri-color panel with an SSD1683 controller.

The routing is the interesting bit. An alert only becomes an interrupt when it's authorized and the work context allows it. While you're in a coding session, lower-priority events wait in a queue, and ACK just means "seen" rather than marking a todo done. The Web Console shows the same state, so you can test the whole flow on a PC before you wire up hardware.

Worth stealing: the hub-plus-dumb-display split. The e-paper just shows the last refresh and holds that picture with no power, so the desk stays quiet until something earns a glance. The repo is at v0.1.0 source-only, with no prebuilt firmware, so expect to compile it yourself.

Resources · 1

Repository

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