[FEATURE] It would be fun to get curated spinner words, rather than just the local list, to keep it fresh.

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Provide more behaviors for the spinnerVerbs, using the same architecture and keywords in settings.json

Proposed Solution

Extend spinnerVerbs in setting.json, with a mode field that allows community or curmudgeon behavior. For community a new file spinnerVerbs.json is created.

"spinnerVerbs": {
"mode": "Community"
}

• Results in a spinnerVerbs.json file in which verbs are automatically updated via requests or pushes.

"spinnerVerbs": {
"mode": "Curmudgeon"
}

• Results in only one word, 'working' shown.

"spinnerVerbs": {
"mode": "Silent"
}

• Results in no words shown, only the spinning animation.

Slash commands

/spinner # show current configuration and what it's drawing from
/spinner <behvior> # switch preset, persists to settings.json Default | Custom | Community | Silent | Curmudgeon
/spinner add <verbs (space delimited)> # append to a custom list (auto-switches to custom behavior)
/spinner replace<verbs (space delimited)> # replace the current list with a custom list (auto-switches to custom behavior)
/spinner submit <verbs (space delimited)> # propose for community use

Claude Code files a transcript-free issue against anthropics/claude-code-spinners (or whatever the curation repo is) with just the verb and the submitting user's GitHub handle.

Anthropic curators review on a cadence (weekly?), approved verbs land in the next community list update, and users on mode: "community" see them after their next refresh.

Alternative Solutions

Take spinnerVerbs out of the settings file so that they can be independently curated automatically, via user choices/editing, etc.

Priority

Low - Nice to have

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

User runs:

/spinner Community

Claude Code updates ~/.claude/settings.json:

"spinnerVerbs": {
"mode": "Community"
}

On next startup (or immediately if hot-reload is supported), Claude Code fetches the curated community verb list from Anthropic's CDN and caches it locally at ~/.claude/spinnerVerbs.json:

{
"fetchedAt": "2026-05-20T14:32:00Z",
"verbs": ["Herpaderping", "Cogitating", "Frobnicating", "Ruminating", "Percolating", "..."]
}

The cache refreshes on the next Claude Code update push, or when the user runs /spinner refresh. The spinner now rotates through the community list instead of the built-in defaults.

Example: submitting a verb to the community pool
/spinner submit "Bamboozling"
Claude Code files a transcript-free issue against anthropics/claude-code-spinners, approved verbs land in the next community list update, and users on mode: "community" see them after their next refresh.

Example: curmudgeon mode — opting out for only one word

/spinner minimal "Working"

Updates settings to:

"spinnerVerbs": {
"mode": "replace",
"verbs": ["Working"]
}

Spinner now shows the same word every time. For complete silence (no verb, just animation):

/spinner silent

Updates settings to:

"spinnerVerbs": {
"mode": "replace",
"verbs": []
}
(Empty verbs with mode: "replace" should mean "no

Additional Context

It should be fairly easy to provide those who want fun, a bit of levity during their 12 hour days while allowing others to remove joy from their lives completely.