Spinner Verbs

"Thinking..." is the most boring thing a genius could say.

Customize the text that appears while the LLM is working. Replace the default spinner verbs with something that has a little more personality.

Before: "Thinking...", "Processing...", "Working..." 🥱

After: "Paying the iron price...", "With fire and blood..." ⚔️🐉

Choose Your Integration

• Using pi? → Pi Integration
• Using Claude Code? → Claude Code Integration
• Browse themes → Available Themes

Pi Integration

If you use pi, install this as a pi package directly from GitHub:

pi install npm:@robhowley/spinner-verbs

Or directly from GitHub:

pi install git:github.com/robhowley/spinner-verbs

That's it. The extension registers automatically and on the next session start will randomly pick a theme for you.

Switching Themes with /verbs

Change your verb list at any time during a session:

/verbs game-of-thrones
/verbs doc-emrick
/verbs random
/verbs (default)

Run /verbs with no argument to get an interactive picker. Use random to pick a new random theme, or (default) to restore Claude's built-in spinner.

Auto-configure via settings.json

Set your preferred theme once and forget about it. Pi checks both project-local (.pi/settings.json) and global (~/.pi/agent/settings.json) settings on session start.

Randomly pick a theme each session (default):

{
  "spinnerVerbs": "random"
}

Use a specific built-in theme by name:

{
  "spinnerVerbs": "game-of-thrones"
}

Point to your own custom verbs file:

{
  "spinnerVerbsFile": "~/my-verbs.json"
}

The path supports three forms and is resolved relative to the settings.json file that contains it — not relative to your working directory:

| Form | Example | Resolved as | |------|---------|-------------| | ~/... | ~/my-verbs.json | Expanded from your home directory | | /absolute/... | /etc/my-verbs.json | Used as-is | | relative/... | ../my-verbs.json | Relative to the settings.json file's directory |

So if your .pi/settings.json contains "spinnerVerbsFile": "../my-verbs.json", it resolves to my-verbs.json in the project root — not wherever you launched pi from.

Your custom file can be a plain JSON array:

["Brewing coffee...", "Asking the oracle...", "Consulting the void..."]

Priority order: --verbs CLI flag → project .pi/settings.json → global ~/.pi/agent/settings.json

Claude Code Integration

Quick Start

Install any theme with a single command:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robhowley/spinner-verbs/main/update-spinner-verbs.sh | bash -s game-of-thrones

Replace game-of-thrones with any theme name from the /spinner-verbs directory.

How It Works

The script will:

• Download the specified theme
• Create .claude/settings.json if it doesn't exist
• Merge the spinner verbs into your existing settings

Manual Installation

Edit your Claude settings file directly:

~/.claude/settings.json            # global
[project-root]/.claude/settings.json  # project-specific

Add the spinner verbs configuration:

{
  "spinnerVerbs": {
    "mode": "replace",
    "verbs": [
      "Paying the iron price...",
      "What is dead may never die..."
    ]
  }
}

Modes:

• "replace" — swap out the defaults entirely
• "append" — add your verbs alongside the defaults

Available Themes

| Theme | Sample | |-------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | game-of-thrones | Taking the black..., Winter is coming..., By your leave... | | lord-of-the-rings | One does not simply..., You shall not pass..." So it begins... | | action-movie | Yippee-ki-yay..., I'll be back..., I know kung fu... | | game-show | Come on down..., Survey says..., Is that your final answer... | | doc-emrick | Shunting..., Sliding..., Fiddling... | | momentum | Making moves..., Spinning up..., Getting traction... |

Use "spinnerVerbs": "random" to have a theme randomly selected from the list above at each session start.