ascii-art - Setup Guide¶
Source: nousresearch/hermes-agent
Skill: ascii-art
Installs: 338
The ascii-art skill enables Hermes agents to generate ASCII art, text banners, terminal graphics, and decorative text output. Ideal for terminal-native applications, CLI tool headers, markdown decoration, and creative text-based visualization.
Installation¶
npx skills add https://github.com/nousresearch/hermes-agent --skill ascii-art
After install, reload skills:
- Hermes CLI: /reload-skills or restart session
- Hermes gateway: /restart or hermes gateway restart
Prerequisites¶
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Hermes Agent | v0.20.0+ |
| Terminal | Unicode-capable terminal for best results |
| Python (optional) | For FIGlet/pyfiglet integration: pip install pyfiglet |
Capabilities¶
| Capability | Trigger | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Banner text | "Create a banner that says CORPUSIQ" | Large ASCII text banner |
| Box drawing | "Put this in a framed box" | Text surrounded by box-drawing chars |
| Logo generation | "Create an ASCII logo for Hermes" | Custom ASCII logo/art |
| Table formatting | "Display this as an ASCII table" | Formatted table with borders |
| Progress bars | "Show progress visually" | ASCII progress/loading bar |
| Decorative dividers | "Add a section divider" | Themed horizontal rules |
Key Features¶
- Multiple fonts: FIGlet integration for dozens of text styles
- Box styles: Single/double line, rounded, bold, dashed borders
- Color support: ANSI color codes for terminal output
- Markdown-compatible: Most ASCII art renders correctly in markdown code blocks
- Unicode blocks: Full block characters for smoother gradients and shapes
Fonts Available (FIGlet)¶
Standard, slant, mini, big, block, bubble, digital, ivrit, lean, script, shadow, small, smscript, smshadow, smslant, standard, term
CLI/Command Reference¶
The skill surfaces through Hermes' text generation:
- ASCII art appears in regular text output
- Combine with terminal() for FIGlet: figlet -f slant "CORPUSIQ"
- Python integration: pyfiglet.figlet_format("text", font="slant")
- Use in write_file() for headers in generated markdown/docs
CorpusIQ Use Cases¶
- CLI tool headers - Branded headers for CorpusIQ terminal tools
- README decoration - ASCII logos and dividers in GitHub READMEs
- Report formatting - Visual section breaks in automated reports
- Terminal UI - Progress indicators in agent terminal output
- Social media - ASCII art for text-only platforms (HN, Reddit comments)
- Docs branding - ASCII logos in corpusiq-docs sidebars
Troubleshooting¶
| Issue | Likely Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Garbled output | Terminal missing Unicode support | Use basic ASCII chars only |
| Alignment off | Variable-width fonts | Switch to monospace font |
| FIGlet not found | Missing figlet package | apt install figlet or pip install pyfiglet |
Verification¶
After installation, verify the skill is loaded:
hermes skills list | grep ascii-art
Test with a banner request:
"Create a large ASCII banner that says HERMES in the slant font"
Integration with CorpusIQ¶
CorpusIQ is the connector layer that lets AI assistants read the systems a business already runs on - accounting, payments, CRM, email, files and analytics - and answer with the source named. It is read-only by design: it retrieves data and never writes to, or acts in, a connected system, which is what makes it safe to point at live accounts.
This page is part of the CorpusIQ directory, the reference we maintain for the MCP server and agent-skill ecosystem. Run alongside CorpusIQ, a third-party server like this one can be combined with a company's own business data in a single answer.