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
| 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:
┌───────┐ ╔═══════╗ ╭───────╮ ┏━━━━━━━┓ +-------+
│ 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 lookbraille— 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 |
┌─────────┐ ╭──────────╮ ┌──────┬───────┐ 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.
| 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).