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an ascii-native social network. terminal first.

Everything on scii is text: posts, colors, avatars and images, all rendered as colored characters. Read and post from a real terminal app, or from the web client, which shows exactly the same screens.

brew install sciiio/scii/scii
scii # sign in and open the feed
download open the web app read the docs 
  @ada · feed · themes · settings        scii


  @alan  ·  04:56
  ---------------
  the halting problem, but for my #tish build
   +   ↻ 

  @grace  ·  05:56
  ---------------
  hot take: #ascii art ages better than emoji.
  @scii thoughts?
   :)  2  <3  2  +1  1  +   ↻ 
  ↳ 2 replies

  ↻ @scii reposted
  ╭────────────────────────────────────────╮
  │ @ada  ·  03:36                         │
  │ rewrote the feed ranker in #tish:      │
  │ recency × engagement × affinity. @scii │
  │ take a look                            │
  ╰────────────────────────────────────────╯
   +   ↻ 

  @grace  ·  08:44
  ---------------
  required reading for anyone on #tish 👇
  ╭────────────────────────────────────────╮
  │ @ada  ·  03:36                         │
  │ rewrote the feed ranker in #tish:      │
  │ recency × engagement × affinity. @scii │
  │ take a look                            │
  ╰────────────────────────────────────────╯
   +   ↻ 

▌ @kay  ·  08:54
▌ ---------------
▌ just joined — the @scii feed is cozy 
▌ #terminal
▌  +   ↻ 

 ↑/k up • [/]/{/} tabs • ⏎ open • n new post …

what is scii

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
images become asciiAttach a png, jpeg, gif or webp and scii turns it into colored characters. Pick the character ramp and color mode and preview it before you post. Animated gifs keep playing.
color your wordsType /xred, /xff6ac1 or /x4 to change color mid-post, and /x0 to reset. Colors show up the same everywhere.
made for the keyboardj/k to move, ⏎ to open a thread, n to post, 1–8 to react. The web client has the same keys and you can tap any hint on a phone.
reactions are tiny asciiReact with up to 8 characters: \o/ ^_^ <3 o_O. No emoji picker.
themes from postsPress p on a post to turn its colors into a palette for the whole app. Press p again to shuffle the roles.
no passwordsSign in with Hypery. In the terminal, scan a QR code with your phone and you're in.

install

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

The terminal client is a single native binary with no runtime to install.

brew install sciiio/scii/scii

Updates with brew upgrade scii.

Then: chmod +x scii-* and move it onto your PATH as scii.

Nothing to install. The web client runs the same screens and keys, laid out for a phone.

open the web app

docs

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getting started

Install scii (see install) and run it:

scii

The first time, scii asks you to sign in. It shows a QR code: scan it with your phone, approve the sign-in with Hypery, and the terminal picks it up. New accounts choose an @handle once. After that, scii opens your feed directly. On a machine without a browser nearby, use scii login --email you@example.com to get the sign-in link by email.

The feed reads like a chat: the newest post is at the bottom with the ▌ bar next to it, and older posts are above. Press ? at any time for every key.

commands

sciiopen the interactive feed (signs you in first if needed)
scii loginsign in with Hypery: scan the QR code with your phone
--browseralso open the sign-in page in a browser on this machine
--email ADDRalso email a sign-in link to ADDR (for headless machines)
scii logoutsign out and forget the saved token
scii whoamiprint the signed-in @handle
scii helpshow the command help

keys

The same keys work in the terminal and the web client.

↑/k up ↓/j down g/r refresh [/]/{/} switch tabs ⏎/space open · activate tab/⇧tab next/prev link ⌫ back
n new / reply R repost P pin to profile i attach image 1-8 react =/+ custom react - remove react
f following feed F follow p use palette T themes →/l replies pane (terminal) ←/h feed pane (terminal) ? help q quit (terminal)

posting

Press n to open the composer. It's a small editor with line numbers: ⏎ starts a new line and ⌥⏎ or ⌃⏎ posts (⌘⏎ also works in the browser). esc cancels. In a thread, n replies. On a profile or tag page, the composer starts with that @handle or #tag filled in.

Press R to repost the selected post. Post it empty for a plain repost, or add text to quote it. @mentions and #tags in a post are links: Tab to one and press ⏎, or click it.

color

Change color anywhere in a post with /x followed by a color and a space. The space is removed when the post is shown:

/xred hia named color: red orange yellow green cyan blue purple pink white gray black
/xff6ac1 hiany 6-digit hex color
/x4 hipalette slot 1–9
/x0 backreset to the default color (a bare /x also works)
/xred alert/x0 all /x4 systems/x0 nominal → alert all systems nominal
palette 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

The composer colors your text as you type, so you can see the result before you post.

images

In the composer, press tab (or i from the feed) to attach an image. The terminal opens a file picker: type to filter, tab to complete, ⏎ to open a folder or pick a file. It remembers the last folder you used. The browser uses your system file picker.

The image is converted to ascii as you watch. Change how it looks before posting:

rampthe characters used: classic, blocks, shades or dense
modeluminance or intensity
colorkeep the image's colors, or one color only
invertswap bright and dark

Terminal: ←/→ picks a setting and ↑/↓ changes it. Web: tap a setting to change it. A post can be an image with no caption. Animated gifs play in both clients.

reactions

1–8 add a quick reaction to the selected post. = lets you type your own (up to 8 characters, like \o/ or ^_^). - removes yours. Your reaction is highlighted, and the most-used reactions come first.

following

Open someone's profile (select their @handle) or a #tag and press F to follow or unfollow. f switches the home feed between everyone and only the people and tags you follow. On your own profile, P pins the selected post to the top.

themes

The themes tab lists your saved palettes: ↑/↓ previews one live, ⏎ applies it, esc goes back. To make a new theme, select a post with colors you like and press p. scii builds a palette from it; press p again to shuffle which color goes where.

environment

SCII_SERVERAPI base URL (default https://scii.io/api/v1)
SCII_TOKENuse this session token instead of the saved one
NO_COLORplain output for scripts

Settings and themes are saved in ~/.config/scii/config.json.