/glyph

name: glyph
license: MIT
compatibility: "Claude Code 2.1.251+."
description: "Render an answer as ASCII art plus semantic emojis inline, right now, with no setup questions. Use for a fast visual take on status, comparisons, trade-offs, architecture, or any ad-hoc 'show me X visually' ask. Not for definitions, conceptual explanations, or one-sentence and one-paragraph asks; those have no shape to draw. For a full multi-artifact plan playground, use visualize-plan instead."
tags: [ascii, diagrams, visualization, box-drawing, terminal, quick]
version: 2.0.0
author: OrchestKit
user-invocable: true
disable-model-invocation: false
context: inherit
allowed-tools: [Read, Grep, Glob]
argument-hint: "[topic-to-render]"
complexity: low
persuasion-type: reference
effort: low
metadata:
  category: document-asset-creation

Glyph

Render the answer as ASCII art plus semantic emojis, inline, immediately. All output renders in a monospace terminal with no external tools.

**Core principle:** Encode information into structure, not decoration. Every diagram element should communicate something meaningful.

Execution (run this, do not ask first)

**A human asking "how do I use this" gets a URL, not a paraphrase:** https://orchestkit.yonyon.ai/docs/reference/skills/glyph#examples (what it draws, the two picks, three real renders, the exact invocation; generated from this skill's `examples/_featured.md`, so it cannot drift from the skill).

The whole point is speed, so there is no setup phase.

**With no argument, the topic is the current conversation.** Measured over a real 13-prompt session: zero asks supplied a self-contained topic, and the one direct invocation passed nothing at all. `glyph` on its own means "render where we are right now" — the open work, the decision just reached, the state of the thing being discussed. Render that; do not ask what to draw.

Given a topic (or the conversation, when none is given):

1. **Render immediately.** Do NOT call `AskUserQuestion` to pick a format, do NOT call `TaskCreate`, do NOT spawn an `Agent`. Choose the form yourself from the topic shape and draw it. Asking first defeats the skill. 2. **Pick the form from the shape of the data**, using the pattern library below:

| Topic shape | Form | |---|---| | state / progress / health | status box + bar meters | | A vs B, options, trade-offs | comparison table or side-by-side boxes | | steps, pipeline, hand-offs | left-to-right flow with `──▶` | | containment, layers, layout | nested boxes / tree | | ranked list, scores, counts | table + bar meters | | over time | sparkline or milestone track |

3. **Emit inline in the reply.** Never write a file unless the user asked for one. This is a chat answer, not an artifact. 4. **Use the 12-emoji semantic set and box-drawing vocabulary** defined in `rules/visual-style.md` (shipped with this skill). Semantic, never decorative: an emoji must mean something (✅ pass, ❌ fail, ⚠️ risk, 🔴 blocked). 5. **Stay inside the budget: ≤ 12 visual lines, and ≤ 40% of the reply.** Block count within that is free — two 5-line blocks are fine, four 10-line blocks are not. This skill renders on request, it does not render without limit (#3558). Full derivation of the numbers is in `rules/visual-style.md`. 6. **State the point in prose first**, in one or two sentences, then show the visual. The visual supports the answer; it is never the answer. If the reader has to parse a diagram to find out what happened, the reply failed. 7. **Stay honest.** If a number is unknown, print `?` rather than inventing one. A confident-looking chart built on guesses is worse than prose.

**When NOT to use this skill:** if the deliverable is a multi-section HTML playground, a persisted plan artifact, or anything needing file output, use `visualize-plan` instead. Glyph is the cheap inline path; visualize-plan is the full pipeline.

**Over budget is the same signal.** If the honest rendering needs more than ~12 lines, that is not a bigger chat answer, it is a different deliverable: write the playground or file, then hand the human a URL with `/page-serve <path>` (a port-free `https://<name>.localhost/` route, with a stop) instead of a bare file path or a hand-started `python3 -m http.server`. The old escape hatch fired on artifact TYPE only, so a 40-line inline reply never tripped it.

Box-Drawing Character Reference

This block intentionally shows multiple sets together as a key. Authors should use ONE set per real diagram; the `single-set` lint rule enforces this on production diagrams.

<!-- ascii-lint-disable: single-set,single-arrow-style,density-min -->

default:   ┌─┐ │ └─┘  ├─┤ ┬ ┴ ┼
emphasis:  ┏━┓ ┃ ┗━┛  ┣━┫ ┳ ┻ ╋
title:     ╔═╗ ║ ╚═╝  ╠═╣ ╦ ╩ ╬
soft:      ╭─╮ │ ╰─╯
portable:  +-+ | +-+  +-+ + + +
Arrows:    → ← ↑ ↓ ─> <─ ──> <──
Blocks:    █ ▓ ░ ▏▎▍▌▋▊▉
Status:    ● ○ ✓ ✗ ⚠ ◆ ◇ ▶ ▷  ↑↓→ ▓▒░  (closed-set vocab — see rules)

Set Conventions (D8: intent-driven naming)

Tokens live in `tokens.json`. Names describe USE not APPEARANCE.

| Set | Characters | Use For | |-----|-----------|---------| | `default` `─│` | Normal boxes and connectors | Most diagrams | | `emphasis` `━┃` | Headers, focus, draw the eye | Key components, outer frames | | `title` `═║` | Document titles | §0-style banners only | | `soft` `╭╮╰╯ ─│` | Status cards, ambient UI | Diff blocks | | `portable` `+-\|` | NO_COLOR / CI / bare TTY | Fallback |

Rename codemod (D8): old `light/heavy/double/rounded/ascii-fallback` → new names above. Old names accepted with warning for one minor release.

Status Glyph Vocabulary

Closed-set v1 of 11 semantic glyphs (`●○✓✗⚠◆◇▶▷ ↑↓→ ▓▒░`). Single source of truth — see `rules/status-glyph-vocabulary.md`. Add-a-glyph process in `CONTRIBUTING.md`.

Diagram Patterns

Architecture Diagrams

┌────────┐ ┌────────┐
│Frontend│─>│Backend │
│React 19│ │FastAPI │
└────────┘ └───┬────┘
           ┌───┴──────┐
           │PostgreSQL│
           └──────────┘
`