icon-lookup

icon-lookup is a skill for Claude Code from malob/nix-config. It costs 140 tokens per session (666 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A reference and workaround for using Private Use Area Unicode icons, such as Nerd Font symbols, in Claude Code. Some icon characters are filtered, so the guide uses placeholders that can later be converted to the real symbols.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to find icons by name, identify filtered characters, and safely insert Powerline, Font Awesome, Devicons, or other supported Nerd Font icons.
Why use it?
It prevents filtered or corrupted icons when reading and writing source files.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} variable. Also seen: mentions Claude Code.

Runs only inside its plugin — its command needs a path that Claude Code sets for a plugin’s own hooks and for nothing else. Install the plugin, not this.

Part of the pua-unicode plugin — 1 skill, 1 command shipped together

Good fit Use it to find icons by name, identify filtered characters, and safely insert Powerline, Font Awesome, Devicons, or other supported Nerd Font icons.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install

Getting it into your agent

This one installs as part of its plugin. Adding the marketplace and installing the plugin brings it with everything else the plugin ships.

Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add malob/nix-config
Claude Code
/plugin install pua-unicode

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install pua-unicode, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 1 skill, 1 command.

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.

agentmods badge for icon-lookup

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/malob/nix-config/icon-lookup/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/malob/nix-config/icon-lookup)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/malob/nix-config/icon-lookup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/malob/nix-config/icon-lookup/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.

agentmods 80×15 button for icon-lookup

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/malob/nix-config/icon-lookup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/malob/nix-config/icon-lookup.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 140 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 666 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00140 $0.00666
Opus 5 $0.00070 $0.00333
Sonnet 5 $0.00028 $0.00133
Haiku 4.5 $0.00014 $0.00067

Measured 10d ago against content hash 688e0726595c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

icon-lookup 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 10d 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.

configs/claude/plugins/pua-unicode/skills/icon-lookup/SKILL.md · 71 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 71 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

BMP PUA Unicode Workaround

Claude Code filters Unicode characters in the BMP Private Use Area (U+E000-U+F8FF), which includes most Nerd Font icons. This skill provides tools for working with these icons.

Quick Reference

Range Status Examples
U+E000-U+F8FF (BMP PUA) Filtered - use placeholders Powerline, Devicons, Font Awesome, Octicons
U+F0000+ (Supplementary PUA-A) Works directly Material Design Icons (nf-md-*)

Automatic Features

When reading files: A PostToolUse hook automatically identifies all PUA characters, showing icon names, codepoints, and whether they're filtered.

When writing files: A PostToolUse hook automatically converts placeholder syntax to actual Unicode characters.

Placeholder Syntax

When writing icons in the filtered BMP PUA range, use placeholder syntax:

  • By codepoint: {{ U+E0A0 }} (without the spaces)
  • By name: {{ nf-fa-star }} (without the spaces)

Icon Lookup

Search for icons by name:

python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/lookup-icon.py "<search query>"

Example searches:

  • git branch → finds git-related icons
  • folder → finds folder/directory icons
  • wizard → finds wizard icons

Character Identification

Identify a specific character:

# Direct argument (this is nf-md-battery, a Supplementary PUA icon)
python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/identify-icons.py -c "󰁹"

# From stdin
echo "󰁹" | python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/identify-icons.py -

Workflow

  1. Reading files - Hook automatically shows icon info; use this to understand what icons are present
  2. Writing icons - Search with lookup script, then use placeholder syntax for filtered icons
  3. Comparing icons - Use identify script to check if two characters are the same icon
  4. Material Design Icons (U+F0000+) can be written directly without placeholders

Read the full file on GitHub · 71 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.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 71 lines · 140 tokens per session scan A 688e0726595c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

icon-lookup is a skill published in the GitHub repository malob/nix-config (462 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 140 tokens to every session and 666 once invoked, about $0.0007 per session on Opus 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 2026-08-30.