Artscii

artscii

LLMs can't draw. This MCP can.

ASCII art, kaomoji, animations, diagrams, charts, image conversion & procedural characters — 11 focused tools for AI agents.

81 curated arts × 12 motions = 972 terminal animations. 153,600 unique procedural characters from a single seed. Plus 100 kaomoji, 11 diagram types, FIGlet banners, and image-to-ASCII with braille mode.

     .::-::.         .:-::.        --- apple (16w) ---

.=#%@@@@@%#=: .=*%@@@@@%#+: +: -%@@@@@@@@@@@%*+%@@@@@@@@@@@%+ :--:#*.--: .%@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@- -#@@@@#%@@@@%= -@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@* :@@@%****+#%@@@: .%@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@= -@%%%+*@@+*@%%@- =@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@* *@@%+*+#=#%@@# -#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@%= +%@@@#@@@@%+ =%@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@%*. .-+**=*+=. =#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@%+. =#@@@@@@@@@@@@%+. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ (◕‿◕) (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ -#@@@@@@@@%+. -#@@@@%=. -*#=

Install

Claude Code — one command:

claude mcp add artscii -- npx -y artscii

Claude Desktop — add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "artscii": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "artscii"] } } }

Cursor — add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "artscii": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "artscii"] } } }

VS Code — search @mcp artscii in Extensions panel, or add to settings.json:

{ "mcp": { "servers": { "artscii": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "artscii"] } } } }

MCP Tools

Box Frames

Draw borders around any text with 5 styles:

┌───────┐   ╔═══════╗   ╭───────╮   ┏━━━━━━━┓   +-------+

│ hello │ ║ hello ║ │ hello │ ┃ hello ┃ | hello | └───────┘ ╚═══════╝ ╰───────╯ ┗━━━━━━━┛ +-------+ single double rounded bold ascii

Options: padding, align (left/center/right), title in top border.

Charts

Unified chart tool with 3 types: progress, sparkline, heatmap.

Progress:   ███████████████░░░░░ 75%

Sparkline: ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█▇▅▃▁ Heatmap: A B C X ░▒█ Y ▓░▒

Animations

Compose any art (noun) with a motion (verb) to create terminal animations. 81 arts × 12 motions = 972 combinations. Custom text works too.

animate("apple", "bounce")     → bouncing apple

animate("trophy", "progress") → trophy rides a progress bar 0→100% animate("lock", "reveal") → line-by-line reveal animate("GAME OVER", "blink") → blinking custom text

Motions: bounce, shake, blink, slide, reveal, fade, pulse, rain, progress, wave, jump, talk

Output: script (bash for terminal playback) or frames (raw data)

Character

Procedural ASCII character generator. One seed → one unique character. 153,600 standard combinations (16 species × 10 eyes × 8 mouths × 10 hats × 12 accessories).

character("alice")                   character("bob", mood: "happy")

____ /\_/\ ]==== ) ( ^ ^ ) _____ ( u ) / * * \ \_^_/ | u | \_____/ ||||| ~~o=o~~

Species: blob, cat, bear, robot, bird, bunny, ghost, alien, fox, frog, penguin, octopus, dragon, mushroom, cactus, skull

Mood presets: happy, sad, angry, surprised, sleepy, cool, love, silly — sets eyes+mouth in one param. Explicit eyes/mouth still override.

Mini mode: 2-line inline characters for chat and status lines.

mini blob: (^ ^)    mini cat: /^ ^\    mini robot: [^ ^]

(u) >u< [u]

Same seed always produces the same character. Output works directly with the animate tool — try wave, jump, or talk motions.

Compose

Combine multiple text blocks horizontally (side-by-side) or vertically (stacked):

┌───┐ ┌───┐         ┌───┐

│ A │ │ B │ │ A │ └───┘ └───┘ └───┘ horizontal --- ┌───┐ │ B │ └───┘ vertical

Options: gap, align (top/middle/bottom), separator (vertical mode).

Image Conversion

Convert images (URL or base64) to ASCII art. Two render modes:

• `ascii` — character ramp ( .:-=+*#%@), classic look
• `braille` — Unicode braille dots (⠿), 8x resolution per character

Options: size (16/32/64), invert, contrast, gamma, threshold (braille).

Diagrams

11 diagram types with unicode, rounded, and ascii border styles.

┌─────────┐    ╭──────────╮    ┌──────┬───────┐    src

│ Start │ │ Status │ │ Name │ Score │ ├── index.ts └────┬────┘ ├──────────┤ ├──────┼───────┤ └── diagram.ts │ │ Line 1 │ │ A │ 95 │ ▼ │ Line 2 │ │ B │ 87 │ ┌─────────┐ ╰──────────╯ └──────┴───────┘ │ End │ └─────────┘ flowchart box table tree

Class Diagram

{ "type": "class", "classes": [

{ "name": "Animal", "properties": ["+ name: string"], "methods": ["+ speak(): void"] }, { "name": "Dog", "properties": ["+ breed: string"], "methods": ["+ bark(): void"] } ]}

┌──────────────────┐ │ Animal │ ├──────────────────┤ │ + name: string │ ├──────────────────┤ │ + speak(): void │ └──────────────────┘ ▲ │ ┌──────────────────┐ │ Dog │ ├──────────────────┤ │ + breed: string │ ├──────────────────┤ │ + bark(): void │ └──────────────────┘

Gantt Chart

{ "type": "gantt", "tasks": [

{ "label": "Design", "start": 0, "duration": 3 }, { "label": "Develop", "start": 2, "duration": 5 }, { "label": "Test", "start": 5, "duration": 3 } ], "unitLabel": "weeks" }

0 2 4 6 8 weeks ┼──────────────────── Design ████████ Develop █████████████████ Test ████████████

Banner

Render text as large ASCII art using FIGlet fonts: Standard, Small, Slant, Big, Mini.

Size Tiers

Each art is stored at its minimum identifiable size.

Kaomoji

100 curated entries across 26 categories. Source: kao.moji (MIT).

License

MIT. Art icons from game-icons.net (CC BY 3.0, Lorc & Delapouite).