me-card

name	me-card
description	Render the user's saved `~/.me/` context as a single ASCII-art infographic card. Use when the user asks to "show my info", "print my card", "render my profile", "me card", "ascii infographic of my dot-me", or invokes the `/me-card` shortcut. Read-only — never writes to `~/.me/`.

me-card

Produce one stdout-friendly ASCII card that summarizes everything saved in ~/.me/. The output is the deliverable. No prose before or after.

The card is an open-frame zine column — single vertical rail down the left, no top/right/bottom walls. Section breaks cut across the rail. The brand mark ·me sits at the top, a one-line signature at the bottom. Each section uses its own glyph so the card scans by silhouette, not just text.

What to read

Best-effort. Skip any file that doesn't exist or fails to parse.

• ~/.me/identity.yaml — name, preferred_name, pronouns, handle, location, knows_about, work, past_work, projects, pets, inner_circle, family
• ~/.me/preferences.yaml — tools, aesthetics (formality, color_temperature, current_theme, design_principles), media
• ~/.me/working-style.yaml — behavioral rule groups (not rendered, but counted for the footer total)
• ~/.me/voice.md — first non-empty heading or one-line tagline if present; optional, only used for the footer
• ~/.me/memory/ — count files by prefix: feedback_*.md, reference_*.md, project_*.md, user_*.md. Each .md minus MEMORY.md and .gitkeep
• ~/.me/identity.yaml spec_version — primary source for the footer version stamp. Fall back to ~/.me/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json version only if spec_version is absent. (The stamp tracks the user's .me spec, not the plugin software version, so the data source takes precedence over the runtime source.)

Use a quick ls | wc -l style scan for the memory tallies. Don't read the memory file contents.

Layout

Total column width: 68 chars (2 leading spaces + rail + 3-space gutter + ≤62 chars content).

Lines start with ┃ (two leading spaces, rail, three-space gutter) and then content. Blank lines between sections are ┃ (rail only). Never close the right side — content trails off into whitespace, that's the design.

Section glyph alphabet

Each section uses one glyph as its row marker (the column-2 character after the gutter). Pick by section:

Section	Glyph	Use for
location	◌	one row, in the header band
now	●	each work[] row (filled dot = present)
then	○	each past_work[] row (open dot = past)
projects	◆	each projects[] row (public/OSS work)
knows	✦	each knows_about[] row
pack	◉	each pets[] row
inner circle	◈	each inner_circle[] row
stack	▣	each tools row
aesthetic	◐	each principles/theme row
memory	(none)	bar chart, see below

The now/then filled-vs-open dot is intentional: a tiny temporal device that reinforces the dot motif while encoding past/present at a glance.

Order

Skip any section whose data is empty.

1. Brand strip + header — see template below.
2. now — work[] as ● <role-padded> <org> then append · <url> when the row has a url field.
3. then — past_work[] as ○ <role-padded> <org-padded> <summary-or-mission>.
4. projects — projects[] as ◆ <name-padded> <summary>. Skip the role and url fields on the card (the footer chip already carries the canonical dot-me URL; project names are unique identifiers, so the row name doubles as both label and reference).
5. knows — knows_about[].
6. pack — pets[] as ◉ <name-padded> <breed> (skip species — it's almost always "dog" and adds no signal).
7. inner circle — inner_circle[] as ◈ <name-padded> <role>. Skip handles.
8. stack — selected preferences.tools keys, two cols (label 9, value): editor, shell (combine shell + shell_plugin_manager + prompt), terminal (combine terminal_mac + multiplexer), dotfiles, runtime.
9. aesthetic — ◐ <principles joined with " · "> then ◐ theme: <current_theme split on first comma>.
10. memory — bar chart, no row glyph.

Section divider

Each section header is a single line — rail + thin tee + label, then dashes to column 68:

  ┠──╴ <label> ─────────────────────────...

Use ┠ (thick-rail thin-tee) and ─ (thin dash) and ╴ (thin terminator before the label) — this is what makes it look layered. The label is lowercase.

Brand header

  ┃
  ┃    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
  ┃   (⌐■_■)  d o t  ·  m e  ·  portable user-context for AI
  ┃
  ┃   <NAME-SPACED-CAPS>  ·  <pronouns>
  ┃   <handle>
  ┃   ◌ <city> · <timezone>
  ┃

Two rows for the brand block (brim + mascot/wordmark/tagline on one line):

• Row 1 — brim ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ — overline (U+203E) chars sitting at the top of the row above the mascot. Reads as a flat-brim hat / brow line. Indented 1 space so the brim spans the inside of the parens (cols 2-8 of the mascot below).
• Row 2 — mascot + wordmark + tagline — (⌐■_■) 2-space gutter d o t · m e then · portable user-context for AI. The middle dot of the wordmark carries the .me motif; the · separators carry it across the rest of the row.

Version is omitted from the header — the footer chip .me v<version> already carries it.

Width quirk. The mascot uses two East-Asian-Ambiguous-width chars (⌐ U+2310, ■ U+25A0). In terminals that resolve ambiguous-width to 2 (Ghostty default, modern iTerm2, kitty, etc.) these render as 2 cells each; in terminals that resolve to 1 they render as 1 cell. Pure codepoint count is 6 but display width is 9 in the 2-cell case.

Pragmatic rule. Both header rows are left-justified independently; no inter-row alignment to chase. On row 2, the 2-space gutter between (⌐■_■) and d o t holds whether the mascot renders 6 or 9 cells wide — terminals just see "mascot + 2 spaces + wordmark + 2-space-dot-2-space

• tagline" left-to-right, so display width never breaks the flow.

The brim row sits above the mascot. Indent it by 1 space (col 1) so ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ lines up with cols 2-8 of the mascot below — spanning the inside of the parens regardless of cell-width interpretation, since both rows are left-justified together.

NAME-SPACED-CAPS = preferred_name (or name) uppercased with one space between each letter — gives the name visual weight without needing a figlet font. Pronouns sit inline immediately after the name, separated by · (two spaces, middle dot, two spaces) so they read as part of the same identifier rather than a floating right-rail label.

If the name + pronouns renders wider than ~50 columns (long name), drop the between-letter spacing and just use plain caps so it still fits.

Memory bar chart

  ┠──╴ memory ───────────────────────────────────────...
  ┃
  ┃   feedback   ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇  34
  ┃   reference  ▇▇▇▇▇▇                                     5
  ┃   project    ▇▇                                         2
  ┃   user       ▇                                          1
  ┃

• Bar char: ▇ (U+2587). Use ▇, not █ — slightly shorter, leaves airspace above the row and looks less heavy.
• Width budget: 40 cols max. bar_len = max(1, round(count / max * 40)) when count > 0; empty row dropped.
• Right-align the count number to a fixed column so the digits line up.

Footer brand strip

  ┃
  ┃   ──┤ <total-memories> entries ├──┤ .me v<spec> ├──┤ <today> ├──
  ┃   github.com/thebestmensch/dot-me
  ┃

Three labeled chips separated by ──┤ … ├── (using ┤ and ├ to bracket each chip). Repo URL on its own line below — quiet typographic signature, no rail glyph in front, just indented to match content gutter.

<total-memories> = sum of all four memory category counts. <spec> = identity.spec_version (e.g. 0.3), or plugin version if identity lacks it. <today> = current date in YYYY-MM-DD via date +%Y-%m-%d (America/Chicago timezone). Repo URL: pull from ~/.me/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json:repository if present, else fall back to github.com/thebestmensch/dot-me. Strip the https:// prefix.

Field quirks

• YAML flow lists like org: [redacted] parse as ["redacted"]. Render scalar-or-single-element-list fields as a plain string (redacted).
• For AESTHETIC, if a design_principles entry is longer than ~25 chars, drop it from the joined line so the row doesn't truncate.
• Strip parenthetical detail from tools.* values before rendering (e.g. zinit (turbo-mode lazy loading) → zinit).
• For past_work[], if summary and mission are both absent, render the row without the trailing field.

Width discipline

Lines have no right border, so the only hard rule is: don't let any single content row exceed column 68. Truncate the longest field with … if needed. Header and footer rows are left-justified per their section templates (pronouns inline after the name, version inside a footer chip) — no right-anchored tokens to align.

Characters

• Rail + section breaks: ┃ ┠ ─ ╴ ┤ ├
• Mascot brim: ‾ (U+203E OVERLINE)
• Section glyphs: ● ○ ◆ ✦ ◉ ◈ ▣ ◐ ◌
• Bar fill: ▇ (U+2587)
• Brand wordmark: d o t · m e in the header, .me in the footer
• No em dashes anywhere. Use · for inline separators, + for compound stack entries (zsh + zinit), parentheses for parentheticals.
• No emoji.

Color (default ON, warm palette, dark/light aware)

Color is on by default. Disable with NO_COLOR env var, when stdout is not a TTY, or when the user passes --no-color. Palette is warm/muted — matches the dot-me aesthetic (calm, minimal, never corporate blue).

Dark/light mode detection

Resolve theme in this priority order, first hit wins:

1. Explicit flag — --light or --dark on the command line.
2. Env override — ME_CARD_THEME=light or ME_CARD_THEME=dark.
3. macOS Appearance — defaults read -g AppleInterfaceStyle 2>/dev/null. Returns Dark if the OS is in dark mode; exits non-zero / prints nothing in light mode. Run with a 200ms timeout — never let detection stall the render.
4. COLORFGBG env var — parse the second ;-delimited field. Values 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,8 mean dark bg; anything else (typically 15 or 7) means light bg.
5. OSC 11 query — write \033]11;?\033\\ to the controlling TTY, read the reply with a 100ms timeout, parse rgb:RRRR/GGGG/BBBB. Compute luminance (0.299·R + 0.587·G + 0.114·B) / 65535. < 0.5 → dark, ≥ 0.5 → light. Skip this step when inside tmux (detect via $TMUX), because the query may hang or be echoed as garbage; rely on the lower-priority fallback steps instead.
6. Default — dark (safest assumption; most terminals ship dark).

256-color palettes

Use \033[38;5;<n>m … \033[0m. Two palettes, keyed by detected theme:

Element	Dark	Light	Color name
Rail ┃, section dividers	180	130	warm tan / brown
Section labels (between ╴ ╶)	215	166	warm ochre / rust
Wordmark d o t · m e + .me	215	166	warm ochre / rust
Tagline, version	245	240	warm gray (mid / dark)
Header NAME (spaced caps)	223	94	cream / dark brown
Mascot (⌐■_■) + brim ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾	215	166	warm ochre / rust
Section glyphs ● ○ ✦ ◉ ◈ ▣ ◐ ◌	180	130	warm tan / brown
Memory bars ▇	215	166	warm ochre / rust
Footer chip brackets ┤ ├	180	130	warm tan / brown
Footer chip text	245	240	warm gray
Repo URL line	244	242	dim gray
Everything else (content)	default	default	terminal foreground

Plain (no-color) form must remain fully legible and structured on its own — color is decoration, never load-bearing.

Example shape (with sample data)

  ┃
  ┃    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
  ┃   (⌐■_■)  d o t  ·  m e  ·  portable user-context for AI
  ┃
  ┃   J A M E S  ·  he/him
  ┃   @thebestmensch
  ┃   ◌ Austin · America/Chicago
  ┃
  ┠──╴ now ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   ● CTO & coFounder  OneOnMe  ·  oneonme.com
  ┃
  ┠──╴ then ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   ○ Cofounder                Magnifai       Public-agency data
  ┃   ○ Product + frontend lead  New Knowledge  Fighting disinfo
  ┃   ○ Engineer                 Google
  ┃
  ┠──╴ projects ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   ◆ dot-me  portable user-context for AI
  ┃
  ┠──╴ knows ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   ✦ home automation and home labs
  ┃   ✦ mobile development
  ┃   ✦ AI tooling and agent systems
  ┃   ✦ data infrastructure
  ┃
  ┠──╴ pack ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   ◉ Bean     Mini Australian Shepherd / Blue Heeler mix
  ┃   ◉ Gia      Husky
  ┃   ◉ Ruthie   Alaskan Klee Kai
  ┃
  ┠──╴ inner circle ──────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   ◈ Rachel   cofounder + CEO, OneOnMe
  ┃   ◈ Sarah    partner
  ┃
  ┠──╴ stack ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   ▣ editor    Claude Code
  ┃   ▣ shell     zsh + zinit + starship
  ┃   ▣ terminal  Ghostty + tmux
  ┃   ▣ dotfiles  chezmoi
  ┃   ▣ runtime   mise
  ┃
  ┠──╴ aesthetic ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   ◐ calm · minimal · cohesive
  ┃   ◐ theme: SpenschSuite Light
  ┃
  ┠──╴ memory ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ┃
  ┃   feedback   ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇  34
  ┃   reference  ▇▇▇▇▇▇                                     5
  ┃   project    ▇▇                                         2
  ┃   user       ▇                                          1
  ┃
  ┃   ──┤ 42 entries ├──┤ .me v0.3 ├──┤ 2026-05-18 ├──
  ┃   github.com/thebestmensch/dot-me
  ┃

The example is illustrative — render from the actual file contents at invocation time, do not echo this static block.

Rules

• Read-only. Never write, edit, or move anything under ~/.me/.
• One card per invocation. No follow-up commentary unless the user asks.
• If ~/.me/ is empty / unbootstrapped, print a one-line card pointing at /me init instead of an empty frame.
• If the user passes an argument like me-card --no-color, honor it.