Axon

CLI tool that generates images from text prompts using Google Gemini and renders them directly in your terminal using ANSI 256 colors and Unicode half block characters.

Features

• Text to image generation via Google Gemini API
• 256 color terminal rendering with half block characters
• Interactive mode with animated logo and live settings
• Real time filter, texture, posterize and palette controls
• Custom palettes via PNG LUT files (create your own in Photoshop)
• Polaroid style border with optional caption
• Save original image, 256 color preview and JSON export

Requirements

• macOS or Linux
• Python 3.9+
• A terminal with 256-color support
• A Google Gemini API key (get one here)

Installation

git clone git@github.com:hooop/axon.git
cd axon
pip install -e .

Set your API key:

export GOOGLE_API_KEY=your_key_here

Usage

Interactive mode

axon

Launches the full interface: animated logo, configuration prompts (size, polaroid border), then a text prompt. After generation, navigate the settings menu with arrow keys to adjust the rendering in real time.

Direct mode

axon "a picnic on the grass, impressionist style, pixel art"

Options:

--width N     Terminal columns for rendering (default: auto-detect)
--size N      Generated image resolution: 512, 768, 1024 (default: 768)
--pola        Add a polaroid-style white border
--caption TXT Caption text on the polaroid border

Settings menu

After image generation, use arrow keys to tweak the rendering:

Filter:   Silk (Lanczos) / Soft (Bilinear) / Crisp (Bicubic) / Raw (Nearest)
Texture:  Clean (none) / Grain (Floyd-Steinberg) / Grid (Bayer ordered)
Poster:   Off / Light (4 levels) / Heavy (2 levels)
Palette:  None / custom LUTs from palettes/ folder

Press Enter to confirm, then choose to save and/or export.

Custom palettes

1. Open axon_palette_256.png in Photoshop (16x16 grid of all 256 ANSI colors)
2. Apply any adjustments (curves, hue/saturation, color balance...)
3. Save as PNG in the palettes/ folder
4. The palette appears automatically in the menu next time you run Axon