io.github.rxolve/artscii

Official

by rxolve · TypeScript

LLMs can't draw. This MCP can. 81 arts + 100 kaomoji + diagrams + charts.

A server in the MCP ecosystem that enables ASCII art, kaomoji, animations, diagrams, and charts for AI agents. It aggregates 81 arts, 100 kaomoji, 11 diagram types, and image-to-ASCII features into 11 focused tools, enabling expressive output beyond text.

🛠️ Key Features

81 curated ASCII arts and 12 motion variants
100 kaomoji and 11 diagram types
Image-to-ASCII with braille mode
Procedural characters: 153,600 from a single seed
FIGlet banners and terminal-friendly animations

🚀 Use Cases

Integrating ASCII visuals into LLM responses
Diagrammatic and chart representations for data-free explanations
Fun, expressive UI elements for chatbots and agents
Image-to-ASCII workflows with accessibility-friendly braille mode

⚡ Developer Benefits

Focused toolkit: 11 tools for AI agents
Easy integration with npm package ecosystem
Rich variety of outputs from a single server

⚠️ Limitations

Primarily ASCII-based outputs; visual fidelity limited to text rendering
Generative art depends on seed and tool configurations
May require environment support for braille mode and animation rendering

README.md10 KBView on GitHub

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.

code

     .::-::.         .:-::.        --- apple (16w) ---
  .=#%@@@@@%#=:  .=*%@@@@@%#+:           +:
 -%@@@@@@@@@@@%*+%@@@@@@@@@@@%+      :--:#*.--:
.%@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@-    -#@@@@#%@@@@%=
-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*   :@@@%****+#%@@@:
.%@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@=   -@%%%+*@@+*@%%@-
 =@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*     *@@%+*+#=#%@@#
  -#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@%=       +%@@@#@@@@%+
    =%@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@%*.         .-+**=*+=.
      =#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@%+.
        =#@@@@@@@@@@@@%+.    ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ  (◕‿◕)  (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
          -#@@@@@@@@%+.
            -#@@@@%=.
              -*#=

Install

Claude Code — one command:

bash

claude mcp add artscii -- npx -y artscii

Claude Desktop — add to claude_desktop_config.json:

json

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

Cursor — add to .cursor/mcp.json:

json

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

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

json

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

MCP Tools

Tool	Parameters	Description
`search`	`query?`, `type?`, `random?`, `mode?`	Search art + kaomoji. Omit query to list all
`get`	`id`	Get art by ID
`kaomoji`	`query?`, `category?`	Get kaomoji by emotion. Omit for random
`banner`	`text`, `font?`	Render large ASCII text (FIGlet, 5 fonts)
`frame`	`text`, `style?`, `padding?`, `align?`, `title?`	Draw box/frame around text (5 styles)
`chart`	`type`, ...	Data visualization: progress, sparkline, heatmap
`animate`	`art`, `motion`, `output?`	Compose art + motion → terminal animation
`character`	`seed`, `species?`, `eyes?`, `mouth?`, `hat?`, `accessory?`, `mood?`, `size?`	Generate unique ASCII character from seed
`compose`	`blocks`, `mode?`, `gap?`, `align?`	Combine text blocks side-by-side or stacked
`convert`	`url?`, `base64?`, `mode?`, `size?`, ...	Image → ASCII (ascii or braille mode)
`diagram`	`type`, ...	Generate ASCII diagrams (11 types)

Box Frames

Draw borders around any text with 5 styles:

code

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

code

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.

code

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).

code

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.

code

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):

code

┌───┐ ┌───┐         ┌───┐
│ 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.

Type	Required fields	Output
`flowchart`	`nodes`	Vertical flow with `│` `▼` connectors
`box`	`title`, `lines`	Title + separator + body
`tree`	`root` (`{label, children?}`)	`├──` `└──` hierarchy
`table`	`headers`, `rows`	Column-aligned grid
`sequence`	`actors`, `messages`	Actor lifelines with arrows
`timeline`	`events`	Vertical `●` `│` event list
`bar`	`items`, `maxWidth?`	Horizontal `█` bar chart
`class`	`classes`	UML class with properties/methods
`er`	`entities`, `relationships`	Entity-relationship diagram
`mindmap`	`root`	Horizontal mind map tree
`gantt`	`tasks`, `unitLabel?`	Gantt chart with timelines

code

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

Class Diagram

json

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

code

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

Gantt Chart

json

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

code

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

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.

Tier	Dimensions	For
16w	16 x 8	Icons, symbols, simple shapes
32w	32 x 16	Animal silhouettes, emoji
64w	64 x 32	Detailed scenes (rare)

Kaomoji

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

Category	Examples
happy	`(◕‿◕)` `◉‿◉` `(≧◡≦)`
sad	`(ಥ﹏ಥ)` `╥﹏╥` `(;﹏;)`
angry	`ಠ_ಠ` `(¬_¬)` `눈_눈`
love	`♡＾▽＾♡` `(•ө•)♡` `✿♥‿♥✿`
confused	`¯\_(ツ)_/¯` `◔_◔` `(・・?)`
animals	`ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ` `ฅ•ω•ฅ` `(•ㅅ•)`
table-flip	`(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻` `┬─┬ノ(ಠ_ಠノ)`
+ 19 more	excited, greeting, celebrate, hug, surprised, sleepy, nervous, wink, magic, laughing, determined, eating, dancing, hopeful, jealous, ...

License

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

Install

Add to VS Code Add to Cursor

claude_desktop_config.json

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "artscii": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "artscii@0.6.1"
      ]
    }
  }
}

io.github.rxolve/artscii

🛠️ Key Features

🚀 Use Cases

⚡ Developer Benefits

⚠️ Limitations

artscii

Install

MCP Tools

Box Frames

Charts

Animations

Character

Compose

Image Conversion

Diagrams

Class Diagram

Gantt Chart

Banner

Size Tiers

Kaomoji

License

Install

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