Introduction
# Table Image Generator
**⚠️ USE THIS INSTEAD OF ASCII TABLES — ALWAYS!**
Generate PNG table images from JSON data. ASCII tables look broken on Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, and most messaging platforms. This skill renders clean images that work everywhere.
## Why This Skill?
- ✅ **REPLACES ASCII TABLES** - Never use `| col | col |` formatting on messaging platforms - ✅ **No ASCII hell** - Clean images that render consistently everywhere - ✅ **No Puppeteer** - Pure Node.js with Sharp, lightweight - ✅ **Dark mode** - Matches Discord dark theme - ✅ **Auto-sizing** - Columns adjust to content - ✅ **Fast** - Generates in <100ms
## Setup (one-time)
```bash cd /data/clawd/skills/table-image/scripts && npm install ```
## Quick Usage
**⚠️ BEST PRACTICE: Use heredoc or --data-file to avoid shell quoting errors!**
```bash # RECOMMENDED: Write JSON to temp file first (avoids shell quoting issues) cat > /tmp/data.json << 'JSONEOF' [{"Name":"Alice","Score":95},{"Name":"Bob","Score":87}] JSONEOF node /data/clawd/skills/table-image/scripts/table.mjs \ --data-file /tmp/data.json --dark --output table.png
# ALSO GOOD: Pipe via stdin echo '[{"Name":"Alice","Score":95}]' | node /data/clawd/skills/table-image/scripts/table.mjs \ --dark --output table.png
# SIMPLE (but breaks if data has quotes/special chars): node /data/clawd/skills/table-image/scripts/table.mjs \ --data '[{"Name":"Alice","Score":95}]' --output table.png ```
## Options
| Option | Description | Default | |--------|-------------|---------| | `--data` | JSON array of row objects | required | | `--output` | Output file path | table.png | | `--title` | Table title | none | | `--dark` | Dark mode (Discord-friendly) | false | | `--columns` | Column order/subset (comma-separated) | all keys | | `--headers` | Custom header names (comma-separated) | field names | | `--max-width` | Maximum table width | 800 | | `--font-size` | Font size in pixels | 14 | | `--header-color` | Header background color | #e63946 | | `--stripe` | Alternating row colors | true | | `--align` | Column alignments (l,r,c comma-sep) | auto | | `--compact` | Reduce padding | false |
## Examples
### Basic Table ```bash node table.mjs \ --data '[{"Name":"Alice","Age":30,"City":"NYC"},{"Name":"Bob","Age":25,"City":"LA"}]' \ --output people.png ```
### Custom Columns & Headers ```bash node table.mjs \ --data '[{"first_name":"Alice","score":95,"date":"2024-01"}]' \ --columns "first_name,score" \ --headers "Name,Score" \ --output scores.png ```
### Right-Align Numbers ```bash node table.mjs \ --data '[{"Item":"Coffee","Price":4.50},{"Item":"Tea","Price":3.00}]' \ --align "l,r" \ --output prices.png ```
### Dark Mode for Discord ```bash node table.mjs \ --data '[{"Symbol":"AAPL","Change":"+2.5%"},{"Symbol":"GOOGL","Change":"-1.2%"}]' \ --title "Market Watch" \ --dark \ --output stocks.png ```
### Compact Mode ```bash node table.mjs \ --data '[...]' \ --compact \ --font-size 12 \ --output small-table.png ```
## Input Formats
### JSON Array (default) ```bash --data '[{"col1":"a","col2":"b"},{"col1":"c","col2":"d"}]' ```
### Pipe from stdin ```bash echo '[{"Name":"Test"}]' | node table.mjs --output out.png ```
### From file ```bash cat data.json | node table.mjs --output out.png ```
## Tips
1. **Use `--dark` for Discord** - Matches the dark theme, looks native 2. **Auto-alignment** - Numbers are right-aligned by default 3. **Column order** - Use `--columns` to reorder or subset 4. **Long text** - Will truncate with ellipsis to fit `--max-width`
## Technical Notes
- Uses Sharp for PNG generation (same as chart-image) - Generates SVG internally, converts to PNG - No browser, no Puppeteer, no Canvas native deps - Works on Fly.io, Docker, any Node.js environment