Asciify Engine skill

---
name: asciify-engine
description: "Asciify attached or linked images, GIFs, video and 3D models: convert them to ASCII art with the asciify-engine command (text for a reply, ANSI for a terminal, SVG or animated SVG for a README), and build ASCII components and backgrounds for websites. Use when someone says asciify or asks for ASCII, text, braille or block art of a photo, logo, file or URL, a text banner, or ASCII in a terminal; and for interface components in characters (loading, status, toasts, tabs, AI states, charts, transitions, pages), animated backgrounds and heroes inked from the site's theme, live image, video and 3D fields on the GPU, artwork looks and art styles for wallpapers, posters and prints, hover and motion, type layered over media, export, rendering performance, and ASCII on servers and at the edge."
metadata:
  tested-engine: "4.33.0"
  updated: "2026-11-06"
---

# Asciify Engine

Use the published `asciify-engine` npm package. Tested against **4.33.0**. Check the application's installed version and its public types before using newer options; a local checkout can contain unpublished changes.

- Agent entry: https://asciify.org/skill (redirects to this Markdown document).
- Components: https://asciify.org/components · Looks: https://asciify.org/looks · Backgrounds: https://asciify.org/backgrounds
- Playground: https://asciify.org/editor · API documentation: https://asciify.org/docs/api
- Repository: https://github.com/ayangabryl/asciify-engine

```sh
npm install asciify-engine@latest
```

Entries: the `asciify-engine` command for files (a chat reply, a terminal, an SVG for a README); `/kit` for interface components and backgrounds, one call each; `asciify-engine` and `/core` for media and text conversion on a page; `/headless` for pixels to text with no DOM (servers, edge, terminals); `/decode` for image files to pixels with no dependencies; `/model` for 3D models to ASCII; `/hover` for the website hovers and living-image motion; `/studio` for art styles, looks and export; `/field` for raw GPU character fields. Each optional entry loads only when imported. GIF decoding loads `gifuct-js` when a GIF API is called.

## Asciify an attachment

When someone says asciify (or "turn this into ASCII", "make this ASCII art") and attaches or names an image, GIF, video, 3D model or URL, convert it now with the command and hand back the result; ask nothing about flags first. Per-media defaults, their words mapped to flags, READMEs and failures: [convert-attachments.md](references/convert-attachments.md).

1. **Find the file.** A path in the message (Claude Code pastes dropped files as paths); `/mnt/user-data/uploads/` in Claude apps, which expect what you hand back in `/mnt/user-data/outputs/`; the workspace in Cursor and Codex. Pass image, GIF and model URLs straight in; download a video first. A picture pasted with no file behind it: look where this environment keeps uploads, and if there is no file, say in one line that you need the file or its path. Never draw a stand-in by hand.
2. **Check the command.** `npx -y asciify-engine@latest --version` must print 4.33.0 or later (Node 18 or later); a project that depends on 4.33 or later can run its own `npx asciify-engine`. `could not determine executable to run` means npm has no 4.33 yet: say so.
3. **Convert for where it goes.** Text for your reply (`-f text`, and `--still` for a GIF, video or model so nothing plays), and a file worth keeping:

   ```sh
   npx -y asciify-engine@latest photo.jpg -f text -w 80 --cell-aspect 2.4     # the reply (leave out --cell-aspect in a terminal)
   npx -y asciify-engine@latest photo.jpg -o photo.svg --background '#000000'  # the file: in colour, sharp at any size
   npx -y asciify-engine@latest loop.gif -o loop.svg                           # a GIF or video (ffmpeg): an animated SVG
   npx -y asciify-engine@latest helmet.glb --spin -o turn.svg                  # a 3D model: one full turn
   ```

   Logo, line art or a scan, dark on white: add `--light`. A README: `--ink '#24292f' --dark-ink '#e6edf3' --title "…"`. A terminal: ANSI (`-o art.ans`). To post or send it: a picture, `-o art.png`, `.gif` or `.mp4`. Several files: `-o 'ascii/{name}.svg'`. Playback and the 3D viewer run only in the user's own terminal: give them the line, such as `npx asciify-engine helmet.glb`.
4. **Hand it back.** Read the text first; if the subject does not read, try `--light`, `--invert`, a crop or more columns. Then the text in a code block fenced with four backticks, the file and where it is, one line on what you chose, and one alternative (braille, colour blocks, the classic ramp, a wider file), not a menu.
5. **Live on their website instead?** A hero, background, component or turning model on a page is the kit, a field or `modelSource`, not the command: read on.

## For a website: kit first

Most web requests are a feeling ("make the loading state feel alive", "a calm background behind pricing", "like asciify.org") rather than an API. Work in this order: