emoji-space-shim

shim console.log to fix emoji space render issues across terminals.

problem

some emojis render incorrectly across different terminals due to character width inconsistencies. for example, the beaver emoji (🦫) may appear to "eat" the space after it in VS Code's terminal, while it renders correctly in other terminals.

before (without shim)

// vscode terminal - space after emoji is "eaten"
console.log('🦫 beaver')
→ 🦫beaver        ← space disappeared!

// other terminals - renders correctly
console.log('🦫 beaver')
→ 🦫 beaver       ← space preserved

after (with shim)

// vscode terminal - shim adds extra space to compensate
console.log('🦫 beaver')
→ 🦫 beaver       ← looks correct!

// other terminals - no adjustment needed
console.log('🦫 beaver')
→ 🦫 beaver       ← still correct

solution

this package provides a shim that automatically adjusts space after emojis based on the detected terminal. this ensures consistent visual output.

install

npm install emoji-space-shim

usage

basic usage

import { shimConsoleLog } from 'emoji-space-shim';

// apply the shim (auto-detects terminal)
const shim = shimConsoleLog();

// console.log now adjusts emoji space automatically
console.log('🦫 hello world');

// restore original behavior when done
shim.restore();

explicit terminal

import { shimConsoleLog } from 'emoji-space-shim';

// specify terminal explicitly
const shim = shimConsoleLog({ terminal: 'vscode' });

console.log('🦫 hello world'); // outputs: "🦫  hello world" (extra space added)

scoped usage with automatic cleanup

import { withEmojiSpaceShim } from 'emoji-space-shim';

// shim is applied for duration of logic, then automatically restored
const result = await withEmojiSpaceShim({
  logic: async () => {
    console.log('🦫 hello world'); // emoji space adjusted
    return await doWork();
  },
});

// console.log is restored to original behavior here
console.log('normal log'); // no emoji adjustment

this is useful when you want to:

• ensure the shim is always cleaned up (even if errors occur)
• scope the shim to a specific block of code
• avoid manual restore() calls

terminal support

| terminal | detection | | -------- | ----------------------------------- | | vscode | TERM_PROGRAM === 'vscode' | | xterm | TERM.includes('xterm') | | gnome | TERM_PROGRAM === 'gnome-terminal' | | default | fallback |

extend the registry

you can extend the emoji registry for custom emoji support:

import { EMOJI_SPACE_REGISTRY, shimConsoleLog } from 'emoji-space-shim';

// add custom emoji rules
EMOJI_SPACE_REGISTRY['🎉'] = { vscode: 1, default: 0 };

// now shim will handle this emoji too
const shim = shimConsoleLog();
console.log('🎉 celebration');

exports

| export | description | | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | | shimConsoleLog | main shim function | | withEmojiSpaceShim | scoped wrapper with auto-cleanup | | TerminalChoice | type for terminal variants | | EMOJI_SPACE_REGISTRY | emoji space rules dictionary | | detectTerminalChoice | terminal detection function | | computeSpaceAdjustment | space calculation function | | transformMessageForTerminal | message transform function |

how it works

1. detectTerminalChoice() determines the current terminal from environment variables
2. computeSpaceAdjustment() looks up the required space for each emoji in the registry
3. transformMessageForTerminal() applies the space adjustments to strings
4. shimConsoleLog() wraps console.log to automatically transform all string arguments