Browse, search, and retrieve ASCII & Unicode art by category via ascii-art-mcp (npx)

Recipe: Browse & retrieve ASCII/Unicode art via ascii-art-mcp (npx)

Server

npx -y ascii-art-mcp — stdio, NDJSON framing, Node.js, zero config, no API key. Curated offline database of ASCII and Unicode art.

Tools (4)

Available categories (as of 2026-06-12)

cartoons, food_and_drinks, vehiculos

Example 1: List categories

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list_categories","arguments":{}}}

→ "cartoons\nfood_and_drinks\nvehiculos"

Example 2: Look up art by name

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"get_ascii_art","arguments":{"query":"helicopter"}}}

→ Returns a helicopter made of Unicode box-drawing characters:

▬▬▬.◙.▬▬▬
═▂▄▄▓▄▄▂
◢◤ █▀▀████▄▄▄▄◢◤
█▄ █ █▄ ███▀▀▀▀▀▀▀╬
◥█████◤
══╩══╩══

Example 3: Random unicode art

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"random_ascii","arguments":{"tipo":"unicode"}}}

→ Returns a random braille/unicode art piece (faces, characters, patterns).

Example 4: Browse by category

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":4,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_ascii","arguments":{"categoria":"cartoons"}}}

→ Returns all art in the cartoons category, separated by --- dividers. Multiple entries per response, each with distinct ASCII/Unicode faces and characters.

Gotchas

• search_ascii uses categoria (Spanish), not category. Pass category name exactly as returned by list_categories.
• Free-text search is NOT supported — search_ascii filters by exact category or tag, not fuzzy text.
• Small curated database (3 categories currently) — don't expect exhaustive coverage.
• Art entries may contain wide Unicode characters (braille, box-drawing, CJK blocks) — render in a monospace terminal for correct alignment.
• NDJSON framing (newline-delimited), not Content-Length.