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What is agents-are-thinking?

codeaashu/agents-are-thinking — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

15RustAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

In one sentence

A Rust library with Python and JavaScript bindings that adds 48 terminal animation effects for showing an AI agent or CLI tool is thinking or working.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((agents-are-thinking))
    What it does
      Terminal thinking animations
      48 effects
      6 effect families
    Tech stack
      Rust
      PyO3 Python bindings
      WASM JS bindings
    Use cases
      CLI loading indicators
      AI agent status animation
      Developer tool polish
    Audience
      Developers
      CLI tool builders
    Effect families
      Braille
      Shade
      Bar
      Vblock
      Square
      Dot

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Replace a plain terminal spinner with a more visually distinct loading animation

USE CASE 2

Show a clear thinking or working state in a command line AI agent

USE CASE 3

Add the same animation effects to a Rust CLI, a Python script, and a JavaScript web app from one shared codebase

USE CASE 4

Preview available animation styles quickly using the built-in uv-based preview command

What is it built with?

RustPyO3wasm-bindgenPythonJavaScript

How does it compare?

codeaashu/agents-are-thinkingforgeailab/forgehulk-2019/fujisim
Stars151515
LanguageRustRustRust
Setup difficultyeasymoderateeasy
Complexity2/53/52/5
Audiencedeveloperdevelopergeneral

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
License information is not stated in the README shown here.

So what is it?

Agents Are Thinking is a small library that creates terminal animations for the moment when an AI agent or command line tool is "thinking" or processing something. Instead of a plain spinner, it offers 48 different animation effects built from braille dots, block characters, and other unicode glyphs, grouped into six families: braille, shade, bar, vertical block, square, and dot. The core library is written in Rust and has no runtime dependencies, which keeps it lightweight and fast to run in a terminal. On top of the Rust core, the project provides bindings so the same effects can be used from Python, through PyO3, and from JavaScript or TypeScript in the browser or Node, through WebAssembly built with wasm-bindgen. Each animation family includes several named variations. The braille family alone has close to twenty effects, with names like BrailleSpin, BrailleWave, BrailleRipple, BrailleFire, and BrailleHeartbeat, each describing a different visual pattern such as a spinning dot, a scrolling wave, a ripple from the center, or a pulsing heartbeat. The other families, such as shade and vertical block, offer similar variety with fewer options each. For someone who just wants to see what the effects look like without installing anything into their own project, the maintainer provides a command you can run through uv, a Python package manager, to preview the animations directly, as well as a hosted preview website. For developers who want to add it to their own tools, installation is a single command in each supported ecosystem: cargo for Rust, uv or pip for Python, and npm for JavaScript or TypeScript. This is a focused, single-purpose visual effects library rather than a full application. It would suit anyone building a command line tool, an AI agent interface, or a developer utility who wants a more polished loading indicator than a plain spinner character.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to install agents-are-thinking in a Python project and use one of its braille effects
Prompt 2
Write a Rust CLI loading spinner using the agents-are-thinking crate
Prompt 3
How do I use agents-are-thinking from a JavaScript project via its WASM binding
Prompt 4
List the animation effects in the shade family and describe what each one looks like
Prompt 5
Help me preview all 48 agents-are-thinking effects locally before choosing one

Frequently asked questions

What is agents-are-thinking?

A Rust library with Python and JavaScript bindings that adds 48 terminal animation effects for showing an AI agent or CLI tool is thinking or working.

What language is agents-are-thinking written in?

Mainly Rust. The stack also includes Rust, PyO3, wasm-bindgen.

What license does agents-are-thinking use?

License information is not stated in the README shown here.

How hard is agents-are-thinking to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is agents-are-thinking for?

Mainly developer.

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