ora

What is ora?

The ora npm package is a terminal spinner for Node.js applications. It provides an easy way to display a spinner in the command line interface (CLI) during the execution of long-running tasks, giving users a visual cue that processing is taking place. It is highly customizable and can be used to enhance the user experience in CLI tools.

What are ora's main functionalities?

Basic spinner

This code sample demonstrates how to create a basic spinner that starts with a message, runs for a specified duration, and then marks the operation as successful.

const ora = require('ora');

const spinner = ora('Loading unicorns').start();

setTimeout(() => {
  spinner.succeed('Unicorns loaded');
}, 1000);

Customize spinner color, text, and spinner

This code sample shows how to customize the spinner's appearance by setting the color, text, and spinner design. It also demonstrates how to update these properties while the spinner is running.

const ora = require('ora');

const spinner = ora({
  text: 'Loading rainbows',
  color: 'magenta',
  spinner: 'moon'
}).start();

setTimeout(() => {
  spinner.color = 'yellow';
  spinner.text = 'Loading sun';
}, 1000);

Control spinner success and failure

This code sample illustrates how to control the spinner to indicate success or failure of an operation. In this case, the spinner is stopped with a failure message.

const ora = require('ora');

const spinner = ora('Loading with great anticipation').start();

setTimeout(() => {
  spinner.fail('Something went wrong');
}, 1000);

Other packages similar to ora

cli-spinners

cli-spinners provides a collection of spinners for use in the terminal, similar to ora, but it does not manage the spinner state or provide methods to start, succeed, or fail. It is more of a raw collection of spinner designs.

clui

clui is a collection of Node.js command line UI components, which includes a spinner similar to ora. However, clui offers a broader set of UI components such as gauges, progress bars, and line charts, making it more versatile for building complex CLI interfaces.

log-update

log-update is a package that allows you to log by overwriting the previous output in the terminal. While it doesn't provide a built-in spinner, it can be used to create custom spinners or other dynamic terminal interfaces by manually controlling the output rendering.

README

ora

Elegant terminal spinner

Install

$ npm install ora

Usage

const ora = require('ora');

const spinner = ora('Loading unicorns').start();

setTimeout(() => {
	spinner.color = 'yellow';
	spinner.text = 'Loading rainbows';
}, 1000);

API

ora(text)

ora(options)

If a string is provided, it is treated as a shortcut for options.text.

options

Type: object

text

Type: string

Text to display after the spinner.

prefixText

Type: string | () => string

Text or a function that returns text to display before the spinner. No prefix text will be displayed if set to an empty string.

spinner

Type: string | object
Default: 'dots'

Name of one of the provided spinners. See example.js in this repo if you want to test out different spinners. On Windows, it will always use the line spinner as the Windows command-line doesn't have proper Unicode support.

Or an object like:

{
	interval: 80, // Optional
	frames: ['-', '+', '-']
}

color

Type: string
Default: 'cyan'
Values: 'black' | 'red' | 'green' | 'yellow' | 'blue' | 'magenta' | 'cyan' | 'white' | 'gray'

Color of the spinner.

hideCursor

Type: boolean
Default: true

Set to false to stop Ora from hiding the cursor.

indent

Type: number
Default: 0

Indent the spinner with the given number of spaces.

interval

Type: number
Default: Provided by the spinner or 100

Interval between each frame.

Spinners provide their own recommended interval, so you don't really need to specify this.

stream

Type: stream.Writable
Default: process.stderr

Stream to write the output.

You could for example set this to process.stdout instead.

isEnabled

Type: boolean

Force enable/disable the spinner. If not specified, the spinner will be enabled if the stream is being run inside a TTY context (not spawned or piped) and/or not in a CI environment.

Note that {isEnabled: false} doesn't mean it won't output anything. It just means it won't output the spinner, colors, and other ansi escape codes. It will still log text.

isSilent

Type: boolean
Default: false

Disable the spinner and all log text. All output is suppressed and isEnabled will be considered false.

discardStdin

Type: boolean
Default: true

Discard stdin input (except Ctrl+C) while running if it's TTY. This prevents the spinner from twitching on input, outputting broken lines on Enter key presses, and prevents buffering of input while the spinner is running.

This has no effect on Windows as there's no good way to implement discarding stdin properly there.

Instance

.start(text?)

Start the spinner. Returns the instance. Set the current text if text is provided.

.stop()

Stop and clear the spinner. Returns the instance.

.succeed(text?)

Stop the spinner, change it to a green ✔ and persist the current text, or text if provided. Returns the instance. See the GIF below.

.fail(text?)

Stop the spinner, change it to a red ✖ and persist the current text, or text if provided. Returns the instance. See the GIF below.

.warn(text?)

Stop the spinner, change it to a yellow ⚠ and persist the current text, or text if provided. Returns the instance.

.info(text?)

Stop the spinner, change it to a blue ℹ and persist the current text, or text if provided. Returns the instance.

.isSpinning

A boolean of whether the instance is currently spinning.

.stopAndPersist(options?)

Stop the spinner and change the symbol or text. Returns the instance. See the GIF below.

options

Type: object

symbol

Type: string
Default: ' '

Symbol to replace the spinner with.

text

Type: string
Default: Current 'text'

Text to be persisted after the symbol

prefixText

Type: string
Default: Current prefixText

Text to be persisted before the symbol. No prefix text will be displayed if set to an empty string.

.clear()

Clear the spinner. Returns the instance.

.render()

Manually render a new frame. Returns the instance.

.frame()

Get a new frame.

.text

Change the text after the spinner.

.prefixText

Change the text before the spinner. No prefix text will be displayed if set to an empty string.

.color

Change the spinner color.

.spinner

Change the spinner.

.indent

Change the spinner indent.

ora.promise(action, text)

ora.promise(action, options)

Starts a spinner for a promise. The spinner is stopped with .succeed() if the promise fulfills or with .fail() if it rejects. Returns the spinner instance.

action

Type: Promise

FAQ

How do I change the color of the text?

Use Chalk:

const ora = require('ora');
const chalk = require('chalk');

const spinner = ora(`Loading ${chalk.red('unicorns')}`).start();

Why does the spinner freeze?

JavaScript is single-threaded, so synchronous operations blocks the thread, including the spinner animation. Prefer asynchronous operations whenever possible.

Related

• cli-spinners - Spinners for use in the terminal
• listr - Terminal task list
• CLISpinner - Terminal spinner library for Swift
• halo - Python port
• spinners - Terminal spinners for Rust
• marquee-ora - Scrolling marquee spinner for Ora
• briandowns/spinner - Terminal spinner/progress indicator for Go
• tj/go-spin - Terminal spinner package for Go
• observablehq.com/@victordidenko/ora - Ora port to Observable notebooks
• spinnies - Terminal multi-spinner library for Node.js
• kia - Simple terminal spinners for Deno 🦕