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)

cd /data/clawd/skills/table-image/scripts && npm install

Quick Usage

⚠️ BEST PRACTICE: Use heredoc or --data-file to avoid shell quoting errors!

# 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

node table.mjs \
  --data '[{"Name":"Alice","Age":30,"City":"NYC"},{"Name":"Bob","Age":25,"City":"LA"}]' \
  --output people.png

Custom Columns & Headers

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

node table.mjs \
  --data '[{"Item":"Coffee","Price":4.50},{"Item":"Tea","Price":3.00}]' \
  --align "l,r" \
  --output prices.png

Dark Mode for Discord

node table.mjs \
  --data '[{"Symbol":"AAPL","Change":"+2.5%"},{"Symbol":"GOOGL","Change":"-1.2%"}]' \
  --title "Market Watch" \
  --dark \
  --output stocks.png

Compact Mode

node table.mjs \
  --data '[...]' \
  --compact \
  --font-size 12 \
  --output small-table.png

Input Formats

JSON Array (default)

--data '[{"col1":"a","col2":"b"},{"col1":"c","col2":"d"}]'

Pipe from stdin

echo '[{"Name":"Test"}]' | node table.mjs --output out.png

From file

cat data.json | node table.mjs --output out.png

Tips

Use --dark for Discord - Matches the dark theme, looks native
Auto-alignment - Numbers are right-aligned by default
Column order - Use --columns to reorder or subset
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

Table Image