Spinner Verbs

"Thinking..." is the most boring thing a genius could say.

A pi extension that customizes the spinner text while the LLM is working. Replace the default spinner verbs with something that has a little more personality.

Before: "Thinking...", "Processing...", "Working..." 🥱

After: "Paying the iron price...", "With fire and blood..." ⚔️🐉

Installation

Install directly from npm:

pi install npm:@robhowley/spinner-verbs

That's it. The extension registers automatically and on the next session start will randomly pick a theme for you.

Switching Themes with /verbs

Change your verb list at any time during a session:

/verbs game-of-thrones
/verbs doc-emrick
/verbs random
/verbs (default)

Run /verbs with no argument to get an interactive picker. Use random to pick a new random theme, or (default) to restore the default spinner.

Checking Status with /verb-status

Check the current session spinner settings at any time:

/verb-status

Auto-configure via settings.json

Set your preferred theme once and forget about it. Pi checks both project-local (.pi/settings.json) and global (~/.pi/agent/settings.json) settings on session start.

Randomly pick a theme each session (default):

{
  "spinnerVerbs": "random"
}

Use a specific built-in theme by name:

{
  "spinnerVerbs": "game-of-thrones"
}

Point to your own custom verbs file:

{
  "spinnerVerbsFile": "~/my-verbs.json"
}

The path supports three forms and is resolved relative to the settings.json file that contains it — not relative to your working directory:

Form	Example	Resolved as
~/...	~/my-verbs.json	Expanded from your home directory
/absolute/...	/etc/my-verbs.json	Used as-is
relative/...	../my-verbs.json	Relative to the settings.json file's directory

So if your .pi/settings.json contains "spinnerVerbsFile": "../my-verbs.json", it resolves to my-verbs.json in the project root — not wherever you launched pi from.

Your custom file can be a plain JSON array:

["Brewing coffee...", "Asking the oracle...", "Consulting the void..."]

Priority order: --verbs CLI flag → project .pi/settings.json → global ~/.pi/agent/settings.json

---

Available Themes

Theme	Sample
game-of-thrones	Taking the black..., Winter is coming..., By your leave...
lord-of-the-rings	One does not simply..., You shall not pass..." So it begins...
action-movie	Yippee-ki-yay..., I'll be back..., I know kung fu...
game-show	Come on down..., Survey says..., Is that your final answer...
corporate-jargon	Double clicking..., Pressure testing..., Closing the loop...
doc-emrick	Shunting..., Sliding..., Fiddling...
momentum	Making moves..., Spinning up..., Getting traction...

Use "spinnerVerbs": "random" to have a theme randomly selected from the list above at each session start.