ColorScripts-Enhanced 2026.8.4.412

ColorScripts-Enhanced PowerShell Module

Credits: Built upon shell-color-scripts by Derek Taylor and ps-color-scripts by Scott McKendry. Enhanced with selective output caching, configuration management, and cross-platform support.

Discover and display ANSI colorscripts in PowerShell. Deterministic bundled scripts render in-process, while policy-selected computational renderers can reuse validated output.

Features

• 🎨 24822+ Colorscripts — Fractals, patterns, characters, nature scenes, and more

• ⚡ Selective Caching — Reuses output for the 15 expensive renderers listed in CachePolicy.psd1

• 🌐 Cross-Platform — Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux

• ⚙️ Configurable — Persist cache location, startup behavior, and defaults

• Rich Metadata — Filter by name, category, and tag or export structured catalog data

• 🐾 Thousands of Pokémon ColorScripts — Pokémon and shiny-Pokémon collections participate in normal selection

  To opt out, use -ExcludeCategory Pokemon,ShinyPokemon with Show-ColorScript.

• 🌍 10 Languages — English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese

• 🗄️ Platform-Aware Storage — Query or configure the effective cache path

• 🔄 Auto-Update — Cache invalidates automatically when scripts change

Quick Start

Install-Module ColorScripts-Enhanced -Scope CurrentUser

Import-Module ColorScripts-Enhanced
Show-ColorScript # Shows a random colorscript
scs -ExcludeCategory Pokemon,ShinyPokemon # Alias: exclude Pokémon art

Add-ColorScriptProfile
Add-ColorScriptProfile -SkipStartupScript

Basic Usage

Show-ColorScript  # or alias: scs

Show-ColorScript -Name hearts
scs mandelbrot-zoom

Get-ColorScriptList

Get-ColorScriptList -Category Geometric

New-ColorScriptCache

Show-ColorScript -ExcludeCategory Pokemon,ShinyPokemon

Clear-ColorScriptCache -All

All Commands

Getting Help

PowerShell uses Get-Help for detailed help. Every exported command also accepts -h (alias -help) for a concise view:

# Get detailed help with examples
Get-Help Show-ColorScript -Full

# View just the examples
Get-Help Show-ColorScript -Examples

# Get help for a specific parameter
Get-Help Show-ColorScript -Parameter Name

# View the about topic for module overview
Get-Help about_ColorScripts-Enhanced

Performance

Caching is deliberately narrow:

• Deterministic bundled scripts render in-process without creating cache files.
• The 15 renderers in CachePolicy.psd1 are eligible for output caching.
• Cache entries are invalidated when relevant source or policy metadata changes.
• Performance depends on the renderer, host, filesystem, and terminal; no fixed multiplier is guaranteed.
• Query (Get-ColorScriptConfiguration).Cache.EffectivePath for the effective cache location.

Profile Integration

Add colorscripts to your PowerShell profile:

# Add with automatic random colorscript on startup
Add-ColorScriptProfile

# Import only (no automatic display)
Add-ColorScriptProfile -SkipStartupScript

# Target a specific profile file
Add-ColorScriptProfile -ProfilePath $PROFILE.CurrentUserCurrentHost

# Use custom profile path
Add-ColorScriptProfile -Path $PROFILE.CurrentUserAllHosts

Advanced Features

Export Metadata

# Export all metadata with file and cache info
Export-ColorScriptMetadata -IncludeFileInfo -IncludeCacheInfo

# Save to file for external automation
Export-ColorScriptMetadata -Path ./metadata.json

Create Custom Colorscripts

# Scaffold a new colorscript with metadata
$scaffold = New-ColorScript -Name 'my-art' -OutputPath ./Scripts -Category 'Custom' -GenerateMetadataSnippet

# Open in your editor
code $scaffold.Path

Force Fresh Execution

# Bypass cache for testing
Show-ColorScript -Name hearts -NoCache

Requirements

• PowerShell: 5.1+ (Desktop) or 7.0+ (Core)
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
• Terminal: Any terminal with ANSI escape code support
• Optional: Nerd Font for icon-heavy scripts (nerd-font-test, dev-workspace)

Links & Resources

Full Documentation: https://github.com/Nick2bad4u/ps-color-scripts-enhanced

• Quick Reference Guide
• ANSI Conversion Guide
• Development Guide
• Issue Tracker

Contributing

Submit colorscripts, report bugs, or suggest features.

CONTRIBUTING.md

License

Project-authored code uses the Unlicense. Incorporated third-party art remains subject to its original authors' rights and source terms. See the repository's artwork-source and provenance notes for reviewed sources, per-file records, and preserved notices.