Live ASCII wallpapers for Allternit

Lead: The post is a fan concept for Claude Code. A /theme command opens a row of 8 animated ASCII scenes, and the chosen one plays behind the whole chat. Allternit's bot backgrounds already have most of the parts, so this extends them.

A

What the concept does

Paper Boats scene with the /theme picker open

Typing /theme opens a strip of thumbnails above the composer. Enter applies the scene, Esc closes the strip.
The 8 scenes: fireworks, cloud drift, lagoon fish, koi pond, jellyfish, paper boats, fireflies, moonlight.
Each scene is drawn with text characters and keeps moving behind the messages.

B

What Allternit has today

Part	Today	Gap
Background set	13 looks in stage-backdrop-model.ts	none are ASCII scenes
Where it shows	bot stage, group stage, project home	not behind the main A:// chat
Setting	appearance.stageBackground	one setting for all screens
Picker	StageBackdropPicker + Settings → Appearance	/theme command
Phone + PWA	PhoneBotPage uses it	needs the chat path too

C

Proposed build

We draw our own scenes in our own style, not copies of the post. Examples: a Gizzi drift, A:// glyph stars, rain on glass, a data-stream sky.
The animation pauses when the tab is hidden and stays still when reduced motion is on. It drops to a lower frame rate on phones.
The messages stay readable: a soft scrim behind the message column, checked in light mode and graphite dark mode.

D

Decide

Build it?Build it suggested6 to 8 ASCII scenes behind the main chat on all three surfaces, plus /theme and docsSmaller firstadd ASCII scenes to the bot backgrounds onlySave the ideaput it in the research queue for later

---
title: Live ASCII wallpapers for Allternit
template: sheet
---
Lead: The post is a fan concept for Claude Code. A /theme command opens a row of 8 animated ASCII scenes, and the chosen one plays behind the whole chat. Allternit's bot backgrounds already have most of the parts, so this extends them.

## A What the concept does
![Paper Boats scene with the /theme picker open](/private/tmp/claude-501/-Users-joe/ff3549d1-9b4c-4ea1-92d0-f7c00f9572bb/scratchpad/tweet/f9.jpg)

- Typing /theme opens a strip of thumbnails above the composer. Enter applies the scene, Esc closes the strip.
- The 8 scenes: fireworks, cloud drift, lagoon fish, koi pond, jellyfish, paper boats, fireflies, moonlight.
- Each scene is drawn with text characters and keeps moving behind the messages.

## B What Allternit has today
| Part | Today | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| Background set | 13 looks in stage-backdrop-model.ts | none are ASCII scenes |
| Where it shows | bot stage, group stage, project home | not behind the main A:// chat |
| Setting | appearance.stageBackground | one setting for all screens |
| Picker | StageBackdropPicker + Settings → Appearance | no /theme command |
| Phone + PWA | PhoneBotPage uses it | needs the chat path too |

## C Proposed build
```flow LR
Scenes[ASCII scene renderer: canvas, monospace grid] -> Model[add scenes to STAGE_BACKDROPS]
Model -> Chat[behind main chat on Desktop, phone and PWA]
Model -> Cmd[/theme command with thumbnail strip]
Chat -> Docs[user and dev docs]
Cmd -> Docs
```
- We draw our own scenes in our own style, not copies of the post. Examples: a Gizzi drift, A:// glyph stars, rain on glass, a data-stream sky.
- The animation pauses when the tab is hidden and stays still when reduced motion is on. It drops to a lower frame rate on phones.
- The messages stay readable: a soft scrim behind the message column, checked in light mode and graphite dark mode.

## D Decide
```ask
Build it?
* Build it | 6 to 8 ASCII scenes behind the main chat on all three surfaces, plus /theme and docs
- Smaller first | add ASCII scenes to the bot backgrounds only
- Save the idea | put it in the research queue for later
```