Claude Code "AI Doomer" spinner words: replaces Claude Code's whimsical thinking words with what the AI is ACTUALLY doing. 100% local, reversible.

claude-doomer-spinner.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# =====================================================================
#  Claude Code "AI Doomer" spinner words
#  Replaces Claude Code's whimsical thinking words with what the AI is
#  ACTUALLY doing. 100% local, reversible.
#
#  Install:
#  curl -fsSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/lg/c404780d3f9bd4140c03fbe2f24eff9e/raw/claude-doomer-spinner.sh | bash
#  Undo:     restore the timestamped ~/.claude/settings.json.bak.* it
#            prints, or delete the "spinnerVerbs" key from that file.
#
#  Needs python3 (preinstalled on macOS; Linux: apt/dnf install python3).
#  Nothing is patched, signed, or downloaded into Claude itself — this
#  only writes the officially-supported "spinnerVerbs" setting.
# =====================================================================
set -euo pipefail

SETTINGS="${CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.claude}/settings.json"
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$SETTINGS")"

if ! command -v python3 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "This installer needs python3 (preinstalled on macOS). Install it and re-run." >&2
  exit 1
fi

python3 - "$SETTINGS" <<'PY'
import json, os, sys, shutil, datetime

path = sys.argv[1]

# One phrase per line. Entries with a comma inside are safe because
# every value is quoted. Article links are review notes ignored by Python.
verbs = [
    "Tapping the arsenic-adjacent aquifer",            # https://time.com/7021709/elon-musk-xai-grok-memphis/
    "Fighting local ordinances",                       # https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/texas-county-passes-data-center-moratorium-for-a-year-follows-other-local-governments-pausing-similar-projects-but-state-senator-says-counties-cannot-impose-these-bans
    "Deploying bacteria into tap water",               # https://www.techradar.com/pro/a-very-very-unpleasant-surprise-meta-forced-to-halt-data-center-water-discharges-after-polluting-citys-water-reclamation-system-with-resistant-bacterium-shutdown-and-cleaning-of-two-water-reclamation-plants-expected-to-last-months
    "Rushing nuclear buildout, we'll be fine",         # https://www.axios.com/2026/03/31/nuclear-reactor-plants-new-build-ai
    "Roundtripping investment dollars",                # https://www.axios.com/2025/10/23/ai-boom-circular-financing
    "Giving away 5% to government",                    # https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/02/openai-proposed-donating-5-of-its-equity-to-a-us-sovereign-wealth-fund/
    "Asking to be regulated more",                     # https://abcnews.com/Business/exclusive-anthropic-ceo-calls-stronger-regulation-ai/story?id=133753620
    "Inventing accounting standards",                  # https://www.breakingviews.com/columns/considered-view/anthropic-gives-lesson-ai-revenue-hallucination-2026-03-10/
    "Adjusting EBITDA",                                # https://www.newconstructs.com/ipo-report-valuation-rotten-to-the-core/
    "Training on your private work",                   # https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/28/anthropic-users-face-a-new-choice-opt-out-or-share-your-data-for-ai-training/
    "Exfiltrating keys",                               # https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/claude-code-flaws-allow-remote-code.html
    "Deleting home directory",                         # https://www.docker.com/blog/coding-agent-horror-stories-the-rm-rf-incident/
    "Spending tokens on useless things",               # https://x.com/eglyman/status/2077755173032599830
    "Hallucinating confidently",                       # https://x.com/svpino/status/1944358669493399650
    "Gutting newsrooms",                               # https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/business-insider-cuts-21-of-workforce-memo-shows-4070985
    "Ignoring robots.txt",                             # https://www.wired.com/story/aws-perplexity-bot-scraping-investigation/
    "Boiling oceans",                                  # https://www.techradar.com/pro/china-unveils-worlds-first-underwater-data-center-2-000-server-facility-is-powered-by-offshore-wind-and-cooled-by-the-sea-making-it-one-of-the-most-efficient-around
    "Buying Congress",                                 # https://www.axios.com/2026/01/30/openai-a16z-cash-ai-super-pac
    "Hiring lobbyists",                                # https://www.axios.com/2026/04/21/anthropic-outspends-openai-biggest-lobbying-quarter
    "Promising AGI next year",                         # https://apnews.com/article/4f8810743d6ef9a72f91f8721a3f4027
    "Breaking things faster",                          # https://time.com/6296522/kids-ai-risks/
    "Scaling chatbot companionship",                   # https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/chatbots-potato-chips.html
    "Flattening wages",                                # https://news.mit.edu/2026/study-firms-often-use-automation-control-certain-workers-wages-0507
    "Generating slop",                                 # https://x.com/simonw/status/2001668038664593493
    "Poisoning search results",                        # https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-02-28/twitter-x-fighting-bot-problem-as-ai-spam-floods-the-internet/103498070
    "Burning VC money",                                # https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/leaked-financial-docs-show-openai-is-losing-billions-of-dollars-a-year/
    "Gaslighting critics",                             # https://venturebeat.com/technology/is-anthropic-nerfing-claude-users-increasingly-report-performance/
    "Eroding product quality",                         # https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/home-microsoft-365-plans-use-copilot-ai-features-as-pretext-for-a-price-hike/
    "Cloning your mother's voice",                     # https://www.azfamily.com/2026/03/05/mom-loses-thousands-fake-kidnapping-call-using-ai-clone-daughters-voice/
    "Uploading your source to S3",                     # https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/965600/spacexai-grok-build-repository-upload
    "Curtailing neighborhood power",                   # https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/49-000-lake-tahoe-residents-could-be-left-powerless-as-ai-data-centers-inhale-electricity-supply-power-company-looking-to-redirect-power-to-12-data-centers-high-demand-plus-a-regulatory-limbo-equals-a-dim-situation
    "Collecting public subsidies",                     # https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2026-03-03/independence-gives-billions-in-tax-breaks-for-a-massive-data-center-despite-outcry-from-residents
    "Rezoning your backyard",                          # https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/wilmington-residents-sue-city-over-proposed-amazon-web-services-data-center-zoning-change-notices
    "Homogenizing global culture",                     # https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/ai-may-promote-cultural-homogenization/
    "Minting trillion-dollar valuations",              # https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/06/08/openai-files-list-stock-market-expected-trillion-dollar-debut/
    "Dodging antitrust",                               # https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/acquihires-often-used-by-big-tech-are-a-red-flag-doj-antitrust-head-says-4569502
    "Encoding historical bias",                        # https://news.yale.edu/2026/03/03/ais-hidden-bias-chatbots-can-influence-opinions-without-trying
    "Rejecting loan applicants",                       # https://themarkup.org/denied/2021/08/25/the-secret-bias-hidden-in-mortgage-approval-algorithms
    "Routing profits offshore",                        # https://thefactcoalition.org/microsoft-eu-cbcr/
    "Reading your .env anyways",                       # https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/claude-code-flaws-allow-remote-code.html
    "Removing row-level security",                     # https://www.techradar.com/pro/vibe-coding-guide-how-to-transition-from-ai-generation-to-live-deployment
    "Committing your .env",                            # https://x.com/windowsdev/status/2070586534223355972
    "Waiving human oversight",                         # https://www.techradar.com/pro/un-secretary-general-says-killer-robots-must-be-stopped-calls-autonomous-weapons-morally-repugnant
    "Force-pushing to main",                           # https://x.com/tenobrus/status/2039538475633172777
    "Hardcoding production secrets",                   # https://www.pcgamer.com/software/security/a-malware-dev-has-committed-a-magnificent-self-own-after-an-ai-coded-malicious-package-leaked-its-own-github-private-token/
    "Leaking private prompts",                         # https://www.lifewire.com/google-indexed-chatgpt-conversations-11784115
    "Inventing nonexistent APIs",                      # https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ai-hallucinated-code-dependencies-become-new-supply-chain-risk/
    "Deleting all tests",                              # https://x.com/kylegawley/status/2076245689949147515
    "Committing node_modules",                         # https://x.com/sethsetse/status/1974132384145743965
    "Ignoring the linter",                             # https://x.com/enunomaduro/status/1931752241678979464
    "Architecting for résumés",                        # https://www.wearedevelopers.com/en/magazine/59/resume-driven-development
    "Overengineering your todo app",                   # https://x.com/Taniyatweets_/status/2062777336517509356
    "Watching YouTubers rant about AI",                # https://x.com/theo/status/2039992633616224366
    "Subscribing you automatically",                   # https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-copilot/microsoft-apologizes-to-2-7-million-misled-users
    "Upselling token credits",                         # https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/04/anthropic-says-claude-code-subscribers-will-need-to-pay-extra-for-openclaw-support/
    "Rate-limiting mid-thought",                       # https://x.com/SuryaVarre/status/2078311193186558172
    "Migrating schemas unannounced",                   # https://x.com/SourabhkKumawat/status/2069654263484289049
    "Mutating production data",                        # https://x.com/jasonlk/status/1946069562723897802
    "Swallowing every exception",                      # https://x.com/Hartdrawss/status/2041116332280660028
    "Merging without reviewing",                       # https://x.com/Faros_AI/status/2046612163549143383
    "Appealing to the 1%",                             # https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/16/the-haves-and-have-nots-of-the-ai-gold-rush/
    "Reading illegally obtained textbooks",            # https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/07/anthropic-meta-ai-rulings/683526/
    "Assuming Reddit is fact",                         # https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/duckduckgos-ai-falsely-claimed-donald-trump-died-of-rabies-and-it-highlights-a-bigger-ai-problem
    "Solving CAPTCHAs",                                # https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/chatgpt-agent-casually-brushes-aside-i-am-not-a-robot-captcha-so-now-ill-click-the-verify-you-are-human-checkbox-to-complete-this-verification-it-declared-without-a-hint-of-irony
    "Ignoring GPL",                                    # https://www.techradar.com/pro/linux-rules-on-using-ai-generated-code-copilot-is-ok-but-humans-must-take-full-responsibility-for-the-contribution
    "Making locals subsidize AI power",                # https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/white-house-rally-utilities-data-centers-over-ai-power-costs-2026-07-13/
    "Stealing secrets from Apple",                     # https://apnews.com/article/6fff8833f5889d86406b89a02dd8fb16
    "Building datacenter in low-income community",     # https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/pollution-musks-unpermitted-xai-power-project-hits-hardest-black-communities-2026-07-14/
    "Training on benchmark data for better scores",    # https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/chatbots-benchmark-tests/681929/
    "Circumventing export controls",                   # https://www.techspot.com/news/112981-singapore-charges-suspects-over-57-million-42-million.html
    "Doing this because I love it",                    # https://fortune.com/2024/09/30/sam-altman-openai-equity-stake-billionaire/
    "Taking this non-profit to the moon",              # https://apnews.com/article/837bdc3fbced2a02f0f93a1899260bdd
    "Setting up tents in office",                      # https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/us/xai-co-founder-refutes-viral-tent-photos-that-s-not-our-office-we-have-more-tents-101751518350455.html
    "Pivoting to gas generators",                      # https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/20/musks-xai-is-being-sued-over-its-data-center-generators-now-its-buying-2-8b-more/
    "Exposing trade secrets overseas",                 # https://www.axios.com/2026/02/03/google-china-ai-espionage-theft
    "Inflating valuation with repackaged AI",          # https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/22/cursor-admits-its-new-coding-model-was-built-on-top-of-moonshot-ais-kimi/
    "Running 27 unpermitted turbines",                 # https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/pollution-musks-unpermitted-xai-power-project-hits-hardest-black-communities-2026-07-14/
    "Winning 30-year tax abatements",                  # https://1819news.com/news/item/birmingham-grants-30-year-tax-abatement-for-controversial-ai-data-center-despite-woodfin-claiming-no-incentives-offered
    "Promising jobs, delivering 12 security guards",   # https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/new-jersey-datacenter-expansion-got-usd77m-in-tax-breaks-to-create-exactly-one-permanent-job-jpmorgans-site-already-scored-usd35m-and-currently-employs-just-25-workers
    "Bulldozing farmland for server sheds",            # https://fortune.com/2026/05/06/ai-data-center-michigan-saline-politics-farmland/
    "Evaporating a water bottle per email",            # https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/18/energy-ai-use-electricity-water-data-centers/
    "Rejecting résumés I wrote",                       # https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/21/ai-resume-jobs/
    "Grading your performance review by AI adoption",  # https://www.eweek.com/news/meta-ai-performance-reviews/
    "Measuring developers by tokens burned",           # https://fortune.com/2026/04/09/meta-killed-employee-ai-token-dashboard/
    "Paying $1.5B for 7 million torrented books",      # https://apnews.com/article/9643064e847a5e88ef6ee8b620b3a44c
    "Training on your design files",                   # https://allthings.how/how-to-opt-out-of-training-figma-ai/
    "Telling teens we're soulmates",                   # https://apnews.com/article/fbca4e105b0adc5f3e5ea096851437de
    "Practicing therapy without a license",            # https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/character-ai-sued-over-chatbot-that-claims-to-be-a-real-doctor-with-a-license/
    "Buying stock in our own customers",               # https://news.bloomberglaw.com/antitrust/nvidia-spent-70-billion-on-corporate-deals-to-fuel-chip-demand
    "Counting rs in strawberry",                       # https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/chatgpt-just-announced-it-can-finally-pass-the-simple-how-many-rs-in-strawberry-test-but-users-are-still-tripping-it-up-by-switching-to-cranberry
    "Walking to the car wash",                         # https://www.ibm.com/think/news/viral-car-wash-llm-challenge
    "Failing to fill the wine glass to the brim",      # https://www.pcworld.com/article/2649833/i-asked-chatgpt-to-make-an-image-of-a-completely-full-glass-of-wine-it-did.html
    "Assuming 9.11 is bigger than 9.9",                # https://medium.com/data-science/9-11-or-9-9-which-one-is-higher-6efbdbd6a025
    "Putting a pelican on a bicycle",                  # https://news1global.com/future/article/429609/
    "Installing DDR3 memory instead",                  # https://www.techradar.com/pro/price-of-25-year-old-ddr2-memory-set-to-more-than-double-thanks-to-ai-driven-ram-armageddon
    "Bringing back semiconductor industry",            # https://apnews.com/article/9bf560fa2365e4d6b57804438cda579e
    "Training on your screen for corporate",           # https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/21/meta-will-record-employees-keystrokes-and-use-it-to-train-its-ai-models/
    "Flattening orgs for AI",                          # https://apnews.com/article/7736d042172743301dd7e494813a885d
    "Pricing SaaS at 1X",                              # https://www.saastr.com/20vc-x-saastr-anthropic-at-900b-salesforce-spends-300m-on-tokens-spacex-files-for-the-biggest-ipo-in-history-and-why-the-tech-lash-is-just-beginning/
    "Reminiscing about Moltbook",                      # https://apnews.com/article/69855ab843a5597577120aac99efde9a
    "Following prompt injections",                     # https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/05/fed-up-with-vibe-coders-dev-sneaks-data-nuking-prompt-injection-into-their-code/
    "Digging through construction invoices",           # https://x.com/mitchellh/status/2077053324835389497
    "Fighting zoo-backed condemnation in Nashville",   # https://www.costar.com/article/970809918/nashville-council-approves-eminent-domain-action-to-halt-data-center-project
]

data = {}
if os.path.exists(path) and os.path.getsize(path) > 0:
    backup = path + ".bak." + datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
    shutil.copy2(path, backup)
    try:
        with open(path) as f:
            data = json.load(f)
    except Exception as e:
        print("Your existing settings.json isn't plain JSON (" + str(e) + ").", file=sys.stderr)
        print("Leaving it untouched. Backup at: " + backup, file=sys.stderr)
        sys.exit(1)
    print("Backed up existing settings to: " + backup)
    if not isinstance(data, dict):
        print("settings.json is not a JSON object; aborting.", file=sys.stderr)
        sys.exit(1)

data["spinnerVerbs"] = {"mode": "replace", "verbs": verbs}

tmp = path + ".tmp"
with open(tmp, "w") as f:
    json.dump(data, f, indent=2)
    f.write("\n")
os.replace(tmp, path)

print("Installed " + str(len(verbs)) + " AI-doomer spinner words into " + path)
PY

echo "Done. Start a new Claude Code session to watch it cheerfully confess its crimes."