@dustydonkey/pi-spinner

Smooth working spinner with shimmering verbs for Pi — inspired by Claude Code.

Replace Pi's default Braille spinner with customizable frame presets, rotating status verbs, and a gentle per-character shimmer effect that pauses when the agent is idle.

Demo

Install

pi install npm:@dustydonkey/pi-spinner

Or project-local:

pi install npm:@dustydonkey/pi-spinner -l

Then /reload.

Features

• 6 frame presets — Claude Code's star sequence, Braille, pulse, dot, star, or none
• 5 verb presets — 187 Claude Code verbs, short, technical, fun, or custom
• Shimmer effect — Gentle per-character color sweep across the verb text
• Idle-aware — Automatically pauses shimmer when waiting for sub-agents or user input (no glitchy re-rendering)
• Fully configurable via /spinner and /verbs slash commands
• Settings persist to .pi/settings.json

Usage

Slash commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /spinner | Show current preset | | /spinner claude | Use Claude Code star frames | | /spinner braille | Use Braille dot frames | | /spinner pulse | Use pulse animation | | /spinner dot | Static dot | | /spinner star | Star burst frames | | /spinner none | Hide spinner | | /spinner frames ·,✢,✳,✶,✻,✽ | Custom frames | | /spinner interval 150 | Set frame interval (ms) | | /verbs | Show current verb preset | | /verbs claude | 187 Claude Code verbs | | /verbs short | 6 focused verbs | | /verbs technical | 12 dev verbs | | /verbs fun | 23 whimsical verbs | | /verbs none | Disable verbs | | /verbs add reading,typing | Append custom verbs | | /verbs replace foo,bar | Replace all verbs |

Settings

Saved to .pi/settings.json under the workingSpinner key:

{
  "workingSpinner": {
    "frames": "claude",
    "frameIntervalMs": 150,
    "verbs": "claude",
    "verbRotationIntervalMs": 3000,
    "showCompletionVerb": true,
    "completionVerbDurationMs": 2000
  }
}

Why this exists

Pi's default Braille spinner is functional but plain. This extension adds:

1. Visual polish — Customizable frames make waiting feel intentional
2. Context — Rotating verbs ("Analyzing...", "Typing...", "Planning...") hint at what the agent is doing
3. Delight — The gentle shimmer gives the terminal life without being distracting
4. Performance — Shimmer pauses during idle states so sub-agent execution doesn't cause terminal flicker

Gallery

Find it on pi.dev/packages.

License

MIT