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

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.

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.

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