unicode-animations

Unicode spinner animations as raw frame data — no dependencies, works everywhere.

Demo

See all 18 spinners animating live:

npx unicode-animations --web     # open browser demo
npx unicode-animations           # cycle through all in terminal
npx unicode-animations helix     # preview a specific spinner
npx unicode-animations --list    # list all spinners

Install

npm install unicode-animations

Quick start

// ESM
import spinners from 'unicode-animations';

// CJS
const spinners = require('unicode-animations');

Each spinner is a { frames: string[], interval: number } object.

Examples

CLI tool — spinner during async work

import spinners from 'unicode-animations';

const { frames, interval } = spinners.braille;
let i = 0;

const spinner = setInterval(() => {
  process.stdout.write(`\r\x1B[2K  ${frames[i++ % frames.length]} Deploying to production...`);
}, interval);

await deploy();

clearInterval(spinner);
process.stdout.write('\r\x1B[2K  ✔ Deployed.\n');

Reusable spinner helper

import spinners from 'unicode-animations';

function createSpinner(msg, name = 'braille') {
  const { frames, interval } = spinners[name];
  let i = 0, text = msg;
  const timer = setInterval(() => {
    process.stdout.write(`\r\x1B[2K  ${frames[i++ % frames.length]} ${text}`);
  }, interval);

  return {
    update(msg) { text = msg; },
    stop(msg) { clearInterval(timer); process.stdout.write(`\r\x1B[2K  ✔ ${msg}\n`); },
  };
}

const s = createSpinner('Connecting to database...');
const db = await connect();
s.update(`Running ${migrations.length} migrations...`);
await db.migrate(migrations);
s.stop('Database ready.');

Multi-step pipeline

import spinners from 'unicode-animations';

async function runWithSpinner(label, fn, name = 'braille') {
  const { frames, interval } = spinners[name];
  let i = 0;
  const timer = setInterval(() => {
    process.stdout.write(`\r\x1B[2K  ${frames[i++ % frames.length]} ${label}`);
  }, interval);
  const result = await fn();
  clearInterval(timer);
  process.stdout.write(`\r\x1B[2K  ✔ ${label}\n`);
  return result;
}

await runWithSpinner('Linting...', lint, 'scan');
await runWithSpinner('Running tests...', test, 'helix');
await runWithSpinner('Building...', build, 'cascade');
await runWithSpinner('Publishing...', publish, 'braille');

React component

import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import spinners from 'unicode-animations';

function Spinner({ name = 'braille', children }) {
  const [frame, setFrame] = useState(0);
  const s = spinners[name];

  useEffect(() => {
    const timer = setInterval(
      () => setFrame(f => (f + 1) % s.frames.length),
      s.interval
    );
    return () => clearInterval(timer);
  }, [name]);

  return <span style={{ fontFamily: 'monospace' }}>{s.frames[frame]} {children}</span>;
}

// Usage: <Spinner name="helix">Generating response...</Spinner>

Browser — status indicator

import spinners from 'unicode-animations';

const el = document.getElementById('status');
const { frames, interval } = spinners.orbit;
let i = 0;

const spinner = setInterval(() => {
  el.textContent = `${frames[i++ % frames.length]} Syncing...`;
}, interval);

await sync();
clearInterval(spinner);
el.textContent = '✔ Synced';

All spinners

Classic braille

| Name | Preview | Interval | |------|---------|----------| | braille | ⠋ ⠙ ⠹ ⠸ ⠼ ⠴ ⠦ ⠧ ⠇ ⠏ | 80ms | | braillewave | ⠁⠂⠄⡀ → ⠂⠄⡀⢀ | 100ms | | dna | ⠋⠉⠙⠚ → ⠉⠙⠚⠒ | 80ms |

Grid animations (braille)

| Name | Frames | Interval | |------|--------|----------| | scan | 10 | 70ms | | rain | 12 | 100ms | | scanline | 6 | 120ms | | pulse | 5 | 180ms | | snake | 16 | 80ms | | sparkle | 6 | 150ms | | cascade | 12 | 60ms | | columns | 26 | 60ms | | orbit | 8 | 100ms | | breathe | 17 | 100ms | | waverows | 16 | 90ms | | checkerboard | 4 | 250ms | | helix | 16 | 80ms | | fillsweep | 11 | 100ms | | diagswipe | 16 | 60ms |

Custom spinners

Create your own braille spinners using the grid utilities:

import { gridToBraille, makeGrid } from 'unicode-animations';

// Create a 4-row × 4-col grid
const grid = makeGrid(4, 4);
grid[0][0] = true;
grid[1][1] = true;
grid[2][2] = true;
grid[3][3] = true;

console.log(gridToBraille(grid)); // diagonal braille pattern

makeGrid(rows, cols) returns a boolean[][]. Set cells to true to raise dots. gridToBraille(grid) converts it to a braille string (2 dot-columns per character).

API

Spinner

interface Spinner {
  readonly frames: readonly string[];
  readonly interval: number;
}

Exports from 'unicode-animations'

| Export | Type | |--------|------| | default / spinners | Record<BrailleSpinnerName, Spinner> | | gridToBraille(grid) | (boolean[][]) => string | | makeGrid(rows, cols) | (number, number) => boolean[][] | | Spinner | TypeScript interface | | BrailleSpinnerName | Union type of all 18 spinner names |

Exports from 'unicode-animations/braille'

Same as above — the main entrypoint re-exports everything from the braille module.

License

MIT