Both captures below are real iTerm2 sessions running the demo — the same binary renders at pixel resolution where the terminal speaks the kitty graphics protocol, and as ASCII cells everywhere else.
kitty graphics — aurora-gfx
Several swaying curtains — each a sine-driven height with a soft upward glow — are summed and tinted by height and intensity. Alpha follows the light, so the dark sky is your real terminal background and only the glow is opaque; a toggles a dusting of stars.
aurora — kitty pixel mode
ASCII cells — aurora
Columns of shaded glyphs lit by the same curtains, sparse where the sky is dark.
aurora — ASCII cell mode
Controls
Key
Action
space
pulse the curtains
mouse click
disturb the curtain
a
toggle stars
c
cycle palette
+ / -
activity
q / Esc
quit
Tuning env vars use the AURORA_* prefix — e.g. AURORA_MAXDIM=1024 for sharper frames, AURORA_CELLS=1 to force cell rendering even on kitty terminals. See the overview for the full tuning table.
