@dustydonkey/pi-spinner

Smooth working spinner with shimmering verbs for Pi — inspired by Claude Code.

Replace Pi's default Braille spinner with customizable frame presets, rotating status verbs, and a gentle per-character shimmer effect that pauses when the agent is idle.

Demo

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Install

pi install npm:@dustydonkey/pi-spinner

Or project-local:

pi install npm:@dustydonkey/pi-spinner -l

Then /reload.

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Features

• 6 frame presets — Claude Code's star sequence, Braille, pulse, dot, star, or none
• 5 verb presets — 187 Claude Code verbs, short, technical, fun, or custom
• Shimmer effect — Gentle per-character color sweep across the verb text
• Idle-aware — Automatically pauses shimmer when waiting for sub-agents or user input (no glitchy re-rendering)
• Fully configurable via /spinner and /verbs slash commands
• Settings persist to .pi/settings.json

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Usage

Slash commands

Command	Description
/spinner	Show current preset
/spinner claude	Use Claude Code star frames
/spinner braille	Use Braille dot frames
/spinner pulse	Use pulse animation
/spinner dot	Static dot
/spinner star	Star burst frames
/spinner none	Hide spinner
/spinner frames ·,✢,✳,✶,✻,✽	Custom frames
/spinner interval 150	Set frame interval (ms)
/verbs	Show current verb preset
/verbs claude	187 Claude Code verbs
/verbs short	6 focused verbs
/verbs technical	12 dev verbs
/verbs fun	23 whimsical verbs
/verbs none	Disable verbs
/verbs add reading,typing	Append custom verbs
/verbs replace foo,bar	Replace all verbs

Settings

Saved to .pi/settings.json under the workingSpinner key:

{
  "workingSpinner": {
    "frames": "claude",
    "frameIntervalMs": 150,
    "verbs": "claude",
    "verbRotationIntervalMs": 3000,
    "showCompletionVerb": true,
    "completionVerbDurationMs": 2000
  }
}

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Why this exists

Pi's default Braille spinner is functional but plain. This extension adds:

1. Visual polish — Customizable frames make waiting feel intentional
2. Context — Rotating verbs ("Analyzing...", "Typing...", "Planning...") hint at what the agent is doing
3. Delight — The gentle shimmer gives the terminal life without being distracting
4. Performance — Shimmer pauses during idle states so sub-agent execution doesn't cause terminal flicker

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Gallery

Find it on pi.dev/packages.

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License

MIT