“Interface 2037 Ready for Inquiry.”

This is MUTHR — a Weyland-Yutani-inspired personal terminal I’ve been building over the past few weeks. It’s a functional cyberdeck disguised as a prop from the Alien universe, and honestly it might be my favorite project I’ve worked on so far.

The Concept

This whole thing started when I stumbled across bee-write-back, an open source project that I ended up forking as the foundation for this build. The Weyland-Yutani theming was my own spin on it — I wanted something that felt like it belonged on the USCSS Nostromo rather than on a desk in 2026.

The goal was never just a prop though. MUTHR is meant to actually do things:

• Journaling and writing — a distraction-free terminal for getting words down (courtesy of the original bee-write-back software)
• Claude chat terminal — a dedicated IRC-inspired AI interface (yes, I asked Claude to help me build a Claude terminal)
• Scripting and network analysis — a lightweight tool for poking around on networks and running Python scripts

The Hardware

The guts are pretty straightforward — it’s running on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, which is small enough to tuck cleanly inside the case without any drama. Speaking of the case, it’s 3D printed PLA, which I got printed at my local library for basically nothing. Huge shoutout to public library makerspaces — genuinely underrated resource.

The keyboard and other internals/additions I’ve made to the original project will be featured in the next post once the build is fully assembled. Stay tuned on that one.

The Software

Here’s where it comes together. The UI is a custom green-on-black terminal interface, very deliberately styled after the chunky retro-futuristic displays you’d see in the Alien franchise. Monospace font, white border lines, amber section headers, the whole deal.

The engineering readout you’re seeing there is the WIP screensaver — reactor status, plasma manifold pressure, cooling node temps, fuel reserves. You know, the essentials. Weyland-Yutani Corp. timestamps included (and a secret rare message I’ll share later).

What’s Next

There are some other additions I’ll make like an aluminum backpanel and power indicator light, which will complete the whole assembly. Maybe even an ethernet port if I can squeeze it in. Either way, next up I’ll be doing a full finished-build post with proper photos, a deeper dive into the software, and a demo of the Claude terminal in action.

Until then — MUTHR is nominal. All systems stable.

2026.04.27 // WEYLAND-YUTANI CORP.