GitHub Universe Badge

This repository now targets the GitHub Universe 2026 badge. The current badge filesystem lives in badge/ and is intended to be copied to the badge's /system partition.

The Universe 2025 sources remain available in badge25/ for people using the previous badge.

Repository layout

The legacy simulator and Badgeware API documentation are under badge25/. They do not model the 2026 graphics and input APIs.

Pimoroni and Badgeware resources

• Tufty 2350 product page and specifications
• pimoroni/tufty2350 firmware, board definitions, modules, and examples
• pimoroni/badgeware-docs Badgeware documentation and examples
• pimoroni/badgeware-simulator desktop Badgeware Simulator
• pimoroni/badgeware-web-simulator browser-based Badgeware Simulator

These upstream simulators and documents are useful references for the Tufty and Badgeware ecosystem, but they do not model GitHub's custom 2026 accelerometer, IR, capacitive controls, or firmware APIs exactly. Test those features on a Universe 2026 badge.

Universe 2026 badge

The 2026 badge is a custom derivative of Pimoroni's Tufty 2350, part of the Badger, Tufty, and Blinky digital badge crew. It retains Tufty's RP2350B, 320x240 colour LCD, 8 MB PSRAM, 16 MB flash, wireless module, battery, case lighting, light sensor, and Qw/ST expansion connector.

The GitHub Universe version extends that platform with hardware designed for interactive games and badge-to-badge experiences:

• An onboard LSM6DS3TR-C accelerometer and gyroscope.
• IR transmit and receive hardware.
• Eight capacitive touch controls: a directional pad plus Select, Back, Menu, and Home pads.
• Five physical front controls that work with the touch controls through the firmware's orientation-aware logical input API.

The firmware automatically handles screen orientation and exposes logical input actions. Apps should use BUTTON_UP, BUTTON_DOWN, BUTTON_LEFT, BUTTON_RIGHT, BUTTON_SELECT, BUTTON_BACK, BUTTON_MENU, and BUTTON_HOME with badge.pressed(), badge.held(), and badge.released(). Do not hard-code a physical control based on which end of the badge is currently uppermost.

See the complete Universe 2026 hardware reference for the RP2350 GPIO map and onboard peripheral connections. See the USB serial and MicroPython REPL guide to inspect a connected badge and copy files or apps.

Creating a 2026 app

Apps are directories under badge/apps/:

badge/apps/my_app/
├── __init__.py
├── icon.png
└── assets/

icon.png should be a 24x24 PNG. A minimal application is:

import os
import sys

APP_DIR = "/system/apps/my_app"
os.chdir(APP_DIR)
sys.path.insert(0, APP_DIR)

screen.font = font.nope


def update():
    screen.pen = color.rgb(20, 24, 28)
    screen.rectangle(screen.clip)

    screen.pen = color.rgb(255, 255, 255)
    screen.text("Hello Universe!", 10, 10)

    if badge.pressed(BUTTON_SELECT):
        print("Selected")


run(update)

The runtime supplies commonly used graphics and badge objects as globals, including badge, screen, image, font, color, shape, brush, vec2, rect, mat3, run, button constants, mode constants, and filesystem helpers. Inspect the apps in badge/apps/ for working patterns.

Input and orientation

if badge.pressed(BUTTON_SELECT):
    activate()

if badge.held(BUTTON_LEFT):
    x -= speed * (badge.ticks_delta / 1000)

if badge.released(BUTTON_BACK):
    close_panel()

if badge.touched(BUTTON_MENU):
    show_touch_feedback()

direction = badge.direction()
upside_down = badge.upside_down()

Use badge.ticks_delta for frame-rate-independent animation and movement. Use screen.width and screen.height instead of assuming a resolution. The default logical mode used by most included apps is 160x120; apps that need the full display can request badge.mode(HIRES | VSYNC), which provides a 320x240 drawing surface.

Graphics

sprite = image.load("assets/sprite.png")
sheet = image.load("assets/characters.png").spritesheet(7, 2)

screen.pen = color.rgb(73, 219, 255)
screen.shape(shape.rectangle(0, 0, screen.width, screen.height))
screen.blit(sprite, vec2(10, 10))
screen.blit(sheet.sprite(0, 0), rect(40, 20, 32, 32))

Set screen.pen before drawing. Fonts are available through the font namespace, for example font.nope, font.sins, font.ark, and font.ziplock.

Persistent state

from badgeware import State

state = {"highscore": 0}
State.load("my_app", state)

# Save after a meaningful state change.
State.save("my_app", state)

Persistent state is stored outside /system; do not commit runtime state or real Wi-Fi credentials.

Installing files on a badge

Copy the contents of badge/ to /system/ on the Universe 2026 badge. To install a single app, copy its complete directory to /system/apps/<app_name>/. The menu discovers directories containing __init__.py or __init__.mpy.

The normal MicroPython REPL mounts /system read-only. Use USB mass-storage mode for persistent deployment; mpremote mount badge is useful for transient hardware tests without copying. See hardware/USB_SERIAL.md for the tested workflow.

The Wi-Fi template is badge/secrets.py. Keep committed values empty and configure credentials only on the device.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. New development should target the 2026 runtime under badge/; only compatibility fixes for the older hardware should be made under badge25/.