unicode-animatio

Lightweight Unicode and ASCII terminal animations for Python.

GitHub · Install · What Ships · Website · X

• 58 terminal animation families as raw frame data
• 10 categories for browsing and selection
• typed Python API with JS-style compatibility aliases
• built-in terminal preview CLI and local browser demo
• no runtime dependencies

unicode-animatio is the public package and repo name. The Python import root remains unicode_animations, while the public CLI entrypoints use unicode-animatio and unicode-animatio-web.

Official project links

• GitHub: https://github.com/openminion/unicode-animatio
• Issues: https://github.com/openminion/unicode-animatio/issues

What the package provides

unicode-animatio provides:

• immutable spinner frame data via unicode_animations.spinners
• canonical names and categories via SPINNER_NAMES, CATEGORY_NAMES, and SPINNER_CATEGORIES
• braille-grid helpers: make_grid and grid_to_braille
• compatibility aliases: makeGrid and gridToBraille
• a structural animation provider entry point for consumers such as OpenMinion
• a terminal preview CLI: unicode-animatio
• a local web preview CLI: unicode-animatio-web

What the package does not provide

This package does not provide:

• async terminal rendering frameworks
• progress bars, task orchestration, or job-state tracking
• ANSI styling, background colors, or status text in frame data
• hosted demo infrastructure or remote APIs
• framework-specific adapters for Rich, Textual, or Typer

Install

Install from PyPI:

python3 -m pip install unicode-animatio

Editable install during local development:

python3 -m pip install -e ".[dev]"

Quick start

from unicode_animations import spinners

spinner = spinners["braille"]
print(spinner.frames)
print(spinner.interval)

Grid helpers:

from unicode_animations import grid_to_braille, make_grid

grid = make_grid(4, 4)
grid[0][0] = True
grid[1][1] = True
grid[2][2] = True
grid[3][3] = True

print(grid_to_braille(grid))

Provider boundary:

from unicode_animations import get_provider

provider = get_provider()
spec = provider.get("helix")
print(provider.provider_id)
print(spec.frames)
print(spec.interval_ms)

The provider returns raw frame strings and timing only. Foreground colors, backgrounds, reduced-motion behavior, labels, and layout remain owned by the rendering application.

CLI and demos

Terminal preview:

unicode-animatio --list
unicode-animatio --categories
unicode-animatio --list --category graph
unicode-animatio
unicode-animatio helix
unicode-animatio edgepulse
unicode-animatio helix --color auto --foreground gray

Local browser demo:

unicode-animatio --web
unicode-animatio-web --port 8765
unicode-animatio-web --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8765 --no-open

Python API terminal demo:

python examples/terminal_demo.py
python examples/terminal_demo.py --seconds-per-spinner 2 --loops 2
python examples/terminal_demo.py helix
python examples/terminal_demo.py --list

Available animations

The package ships 58 deterministic animations across 10 categories:

Selected first-frame examples:

Choosing a preset

• Use subtle for calm background activity.
• Use scan or data for indexing and retrieval work.
• Use thinking for model activity and tool for command execution.
• Use graph for relation traversal and knowledge-graph work.
• Use progress when steady forward motion matters.
• Use alert sparingly for attention states.

For a live preview:

unicode-animatio --list
unicode-animatio --categories
unicode-animatio --list --category graph
unicode-animatio edgepulse --foreground gray
unicode-animatio --web

Development

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install -e ".[dev]"
python3 -m pytest -q
python3 -m ruff check .
python3 -m build

Package docs

• Getting started
• Package docs index
• API compatibility
• Release guide
• Source tree owner map

Trust and Brand Safety

• Official GitHub: https://github.com/openminion/unicode-animatio
• Official website: https://www.openminion.com
• Official X account: https://x.com/OpenMinion

unicode-animatio has no official token, coin, NFT, airdrop, staking program, treasury product, or investment offering. Any claim otherwise is unauthorized and should be treated as a scam.

License and brand-use boundary

• Source code license: MIT
• Brand/trademark grant: none

The software license grants rights to use, modify, and redistribute the code. It does not grant rights to use the unicode-animatio or OpenMinion names, logos, branding, website identity, or social identity except for truthful attribution. Forks, clones, and derivative distributions must not present themselves as the official unicode-animatio package or imply affiliation, endorsement, or maintenance by unicode-animatio or OpenMinion contributors unless that is actually true.

Community

• Contributing
• Code of Conduct
• License (MIT)