ascii-ansi-colorizer

name	ascii-ansi-colorizer
description	Add an ANSI color layer to existing ASCII/plain-text output (gradient/rainbow/highlights) with alignment-safe rules and a required no-color fallback. Use when the user wants to colorize terminal output, add rainbow effects to CLI text, or style ASCII art with ANSI colors.
license	Complete terms in LICENSE.txt
dependencies	["python>=3.8"]

When to use this skill

CRITICAL TRIGGER RULE

• Use this skill ONLY when the user explicitly mentions the exact skill name: ascii-ansi-colorizer.

Trigger phrases include:

• "ascii-ansi-colorizer"
• "use ascii-ansi-colorizer"
• "用 ascii-ansi-colorizer 给 ASCII 上色"
• "使用 ascii-ansi-colorizer 做 ANSI 渐变/彩虹"

Boundary

• This skill only adds color to existing text. It does not generate the ASCII art itself (pair with ascii-cli-logo-banner if needed).
• Required outputs: coloredText + plainTextFallback.
• ANSI must not break alignment: do not colorize spaces by default; colorize visible characters only.

How to use this skill

Inputs

• textOrAscii (required)
• palette (rainbow | gradient | brandColors)
• direction (leftToRight | topToBottom, default leftToRight)
• colorDepth (ansi16 | ansi256 | truecolor, default ansi256)
• scope (logoOnly | highlightsOnly | fullText, default logoOnly)

Outputs (required)

• coloredText: ANSI-colored output
• plainTextFallback: no-color fallback (identical content, no ANSI)
• compatNotes: copy/paste and redirection guidance (NO_COLOR / --no-color suggestions)

Steps

1. Pick colorDepth (default: ansi256).
2. Choose a stable coloring strategy:
   • Column-wise gradients (leftToRight) are usually the safest
   • Colorize non-space characters only
3. Output both coloredText and plainTextFallback.
4. Provide no-color guidance (semantic suggestions): NO_COLOR / --no-color.

Output Format

Outputs should be structured as three distinct text blocks:

coloredText:
  \033[38;5;33mH\033[38;5;34me\033[38;5;35ml\033[38;5;36ml\033[38;5;37mo\033[0m

plainTextFallback:
  Hello

compatNotes:
  - Respect NO_COLOR env var: if set, output plainTextFallback only
  - Support --no-color flag for CLI tools
  - Pipe/redirect: detect non-TTY and fall back to plain text

Workflow

1. Receive text input and validate it is non-empty
2. Select colorDepth (default ansi256) and palette
3. Apply coloring to visible characters only (skip spaces to preserve alignment)
4. Generate both coloredText and plainTextFallback
5. Validate: Strip ANSI codes from coloredText and compare with plainTextFallback — they must match

Script

• scripts/colorize.py: apply ANSI 256 gradient or rainbow to stdin

Examples

• examples/gradient.md

Quality checklist

1. Removing ANSI keeps the same readable content (plainTextFallback).
2. Alignment does not change after coloring.
3. Colors should not overpower the informational lines.

Keywords

English: ascii-ansi-colorizer, ansi, color, gradient, rainbow, terminal, no-color, plain text, ascii 中文: ascii-ansi-colorizer, ANSI, 上色, 渐变, 彩虹, 终端, 无色回退, 纯文本, ASCII