Artscii

What is Artscii?

Artscii is an ASCII art and kaomoji server for AI agents, CLI tools, and chatbots, providing 58 built‑in arts and 90 kaomoji searchable via MCP or REST API.

How to use Artscii?

Run the MCP server with npx -y artscii and configure it in your MCP client (e.g., Claude Desktop, Cursor). Alternatively, start the REST API server with npx artscii and access endpoints like GET /search?q={query}. Use MCP tools such as search, kaomoji, get, random, list, submit, convert, and delete.

Key features of Artscii

• 58 built‑in ASCII arts in three size tiers (16w, 32w, 64w)
• 90 kaomoji across 22 emotion/theme categories
• Search art and kaomoji by query or category
• Convert images to ASCII art via URL or base64
• Submit and delete user‑contributed art

Use cases of Artscii

• Give CLI tools personality with ASCII loading screens, success badges, or error illustrations
• Make chatbots expressive by reacting with mood‑matched kaomoji
• Add visuals to AI agents without wasting tokens (16w art is only 8 lines)

FAQ from Artscii

What arts and kaomoji are included?

58 ASCII arts (icons, symbols, animal silhouettes, detailed scenes) and 90 kaomoji curated from the kao.moji project (MIT license). Art icons from game-icons.net (CC BY 3.0).

How do I install and run Artscii?

For MCP: npx -y artscii. For REST API: npx artscii or npm i artscii && npm start. The MCP server listens on standard MCP transport (stdio) and the REST API on port 3001 by default.

What MCP tools are available?

Tools include search, kaomoji, get, random, list, categories, submit, convert, and delete. Each has specific parameters described in the README.

Can I convert my own images to ASCII?

Yes, via the POST /convert endpoint or the MCP convert tool. Provide a URL or base64‑encoded image, optionally adjust size (16/32/64), invert, contrast, or gamma, and save the result.

Is there a limit on user‑submitted art?

The README does not specify limits. Submissions are stored and can be deleted via the delete tool or DELETE /art/:id endpoint.