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 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 |

┌─────────┐    ╭──────────╮    ┌──────┬───────┐    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).