ascii-fix

+---------------------------------------+
|              ascii-fix                |
|                                       |
|   Fix broken ASCII art tables,        |
|   boxes, and diagrams -- instantly.   |
+---------------------------------------+

AI models love generating ASCII tables and boxes but consistently mess up column alignment, padding, corners, and widths. ascii-fix auto-detects and corrects all of it. Zero dependencies.

Want AI rules instead of a tool? See ascii-fix-rules — install with npx ascii-fix-rules init to teach your AI assistant to generate correct ASCII art without needing this tool.

Before / After

BEFORE (AI-generated mess):              AFTER (ascii-fix):

+----------------------------+           +----------------------------+
|  SLIMESHELL v0.5.0         |           |  SLIMESHELL v0.5.0         |
+----------------------------+           +----------------------------+
|  73 files . 52k lines  |              |  73 files . 52k lines      |
|  45 pages              |              |  45 pages                   |
+----------------------------+           +----------------------------+

BEFORE:                                  AFTER:

+-------+-----+----------+              +-------+-----+----------+
| Name  | Age | City     |              | Name  | Age | City     |
+-------+-----+----------+              +-------+-----+----------+
| Alice | 30 | New York |               | Alice | 30  | New York |
| Bob | 25 | LA |                       | Bob   | 25  | LA       |
+-------+-----+----------+              +-------+-----+----------+

CLI Tool

# Use directly with npx (no install needed)
npx ascii-fix input.txt

# Or install globally
npm install -g ascii-fix

# Fix from stdin (pipe)
echo "broken table" | npx ascii-fix

# Fix a file
npx ascii-fix input.txt

# Convert style
cat box.txt | npx ascii-fix --style rounded

# Detect issues only (exit code 1 if broken)
npx ascii-fix --check input.txt

# Fix and write back to file
npx ascii-fix --write input.txt

# JSON output
npx ascii-fix --json input.txt

Flag	Description
--style <s>	Target style: unicode-heavy, unicode-light, ascii, rounded
--check	Detect issues only. Exit 1 if issues found.
--write	Fix and write back to file
--json	Output as JSON
--help	Show help

Library API

npm install ascii-fix

import { fix, fixTable, fixBox, detect, convert } from 'ascii-fix';

// Auto-detect and fix everything
const fixed = fix(brokenAscii);

// Fix only tables
const fixedTable = fixTable(brokenTable);

// Fix only boxes
const fixedBox = fixBox(brokenBox, { style: 'rounded' });

// Detect issues without fixing
const result = detect(input);
// → { type: 'table'|'box'|'none', style, issues: [...], region }

// Convert between styles
const rounded = convert(heavyBox, 'rounded');

Supported Styles

Style	Characters
Unicode Heavy	+ = | corners: top + bottom +
Unicode Light	+ - | corners: top + bottom +
Plain ASCII	+ - |
Rounded	+ - | rounded corners

The tool supports 4 box-drawing character sets: unicode-heavy (╔═╗║), unicode-light (┌─┐│), plain ASCII (+-|), and rounded (╭─╮│). Use --style to convert between them.

How It Works

1. Detect — Finds ASCII art regions, classifies as table or box, detects style, catalogs issues
2. Parse — Extracts cell content (tables) or inner text (boxes), preserving content exactly
3. Calculate — Computes column widths / max content width using Unicode-aware visual width (CJK & emoji = width 2)
4. Render — Re-renders with proper alignment, padding, corners, and consistent style

The fixer is idempotent — running it twice gives the same result.

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Run tests: npm test
4. Commit your changes
5. Open a Pull Request

License

MIT

---

Made by Lubu