What is mcp-ascii-charts CLAUDE.md?

Repository instructions for an MCP server that generates text-based charts for terminals. They document development, building, testing, linting, type checking, health checks, and the project's modular structure.

Use them to run the development server, build the TypeScript code, run tests or a specific test file, check code quality, verify the health endpoint, and understand where chart generators live.

They give developers the commands and checks needed to work on the project consistently before committing changes.

How gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts configures Claude Code

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts/main/CLAUDE.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts/claude-md/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts/claude-md)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts/claude-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts/claude-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 832 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 832 The same file — it is already loaded in full.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00832	$0.00832
Opus 5.5	$0.00333	$0.00333
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00166	$0.00166
Haiku 4.5	$0.00083	$0.00083

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 405d11a26ea4, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

mcp-ascii-charts CLAUDE.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2mo ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

CLAUDE.md · 95 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 95 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Essential Commands

Development

npm run dev - Run the MCP server in development mode with hot reloading
npm run build - Compile TypeScript to JavaScript
npm start - Run the compiled server (builds automatically)

Testing & Quality

npm test - Run the full Jest test suite
npm test -- --coverage - Run tests with coverage report
npm test -- src/__tests__/charts/bar-chart.test.ts - Run a specific test file
npm run lint - Run ESLint on TypeScript files
npm run typecheck - Type check without emitting files
npm run health - Test the health check endpoint

Before Committing

Always run these commands to ensure code quality:

npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm test

Architecture Overview

This is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that generates ASCII charts for terminal environments. The codebase follows a modular architecture:

Core Structure

Entry Point: src/index.ts implements the MCP server using @modelcontextprotocol/sdk
Chart Generators: Each chart type (line, bar, scatter, histogram, sparkline) has its own module in src/charts/
Shared Utilities: Common functionality in src/utils/ including ASCII rendering, validation, logging, and monitoring
Type Safety: All types defined in src/types/index.ts

Key Architectural Patterns

Tool Registration: The MCP server registers 5 tools (create_line_chart, create_bar_chart, etc.) that clients can invoke
Request Flow: Tool request → Validation → Progress reporting → Chart generation → ASCII rendering → Color application → Response
Error Handling: MCP-compliant error codes with user-friendly messages and error pattern tracking
Monitoring: Built-in request tracking, performance metrics, and health status reporting
Grid-Based Rendering: All charts use a common grid system with Unicode box-drawing characters

Read the full file on GitHub · 95 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

2mo ago First seen · 95 lines · 832 tokens per session scan A 405d11a26ea4

Subscribe to this mod's changes

mcp-ascii-charts CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository gianlucamazza/mcp-ascii-charts (9 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 832 tokens to every session, about $0.0033 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

ASCII charts claude mcp terminal

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mcp-ascii-charts: Instructions file for Claude Code