ansimotd

ansimotd

Display random ANSI art as your message of the day. For a browser version, visit ansimotd.com.

Selects a random ANSI art file with valid SAUCE metadata, ensures it fits your terminal width, and renders it with accurate VGA colors using 24-bit true-color escape sequences.

Art is sourced from 16colo.rs.

Color accuracy

ANSI art was designed for the DOS/VGA 16-color palette. Modern terminals remap these colors to their own theme, which can significantly distort the artwork. ansimotd converts standard ANSI color codes to 24-bit true-color escape sequences using the exact VGA RGB values, so art displays accurately regardless of your terminal's color scheme.

Installation

macOS

brew tap retlehs/tap
brew install retlehs/tap/ansimotd

Ubuntu/Debian

curl -fsSL https://apt.ansimotd.com/install.sh | sudo sh

Go

go install github.com/retlehs/ansimotd@latest

Download art

ansimotd ships without any art — you need to download at least one pack before it can display anything. A good starting point:

ansimotd download 1996
ansimotd download 1997
ansimotd download 1998
ansimotd download 1999

Shell integration

Add to your shell RC file (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.) to display a random piece of art each time you open a terminal:

ansimotd

Usage

# Display a random ANSI art file
ansimotd

# Display a specific file
ansimotd display --file /path/to/art.ans

Targeted downloads

# Filter by group
ansimotd download 1996 --group ice

# Download a specific pack
ansimotd download 1999 --pack bmbook20

Other commands

# Print the path of the last displayed file
ansimotd last

# Print version
ansimotd --version

Configuration

All paths derive from the root:

Credits

Based on zsh-ansimotd by yuhonas, with significant modifications including accurate VGA color rendering, SAUCE-aware line wrapping, and the 16colo.rs download client.