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Running Your First Command

The quickest way to experience bofa is with uvx: 
uvx bofa
If you haven’t installed bofa yet, check out the Installation guide.

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What to Expect

When you run bofa, you’ll see an animated sequence that includes:
1

Introduction Animation

The command starts with an animated intro displaying:
✦✧❖✺✹✷✸✶✱✲✳✴✵✼✽❇❈❉❊*+x~^@...
      ✦ HAVE YOU HEARD OF BOFA? ✦
✦✧❖✺✹✷✸✶✱✲✳✴✵✼✽❇❈❉❊*+x~^@...
The intro uses one of three randomly selected effects:
  • ColorShift (33% chance) - Rainbow colors cycling horizontally across the text
  • Spotlights (33% chance) - Dramatic spotlight effects searching the screen
  • Spray (33% chance) - Particles spraying from various directions
The confetti border is randomly generated each time using decorative Unicode characters (or ASCII fallback).
2

Optional Interlude (75% chance)

Most of the time, you’ll see a glitchy interlude sequence:
✦✧❖✺✹✷✸✶✱✲✳✴✵✼✽❇❈❉❊*+x~^@...
      ✧ ...Bofa Bofa Bofa... ✧
✦✧❖✺✹✷✸✶✱✲✳✴✵✼✽❇❈❉❊*+x~^@...
This uses the VHSTape effect with:
  • Glitch line effects with rainbow colors
  • Random noise patterns
  • Retro VHS tape aesthetic
3

Grand Finale

The sequence culminates in a spectacular finale:
✦✧❖✺✹✷✸✶✱✲✳✴✵✼✽❇❈❉❊*+x~^@...
     ❇ BOFA DEEZ NUTS!!! ❇
✦✧❖✺✹✷✸✶✱✲✳✴✵✼✽❇❈❉❊*+x~^@...
The finale includes:
  1. Fireworks - Explosive particle effects with rainbow colors
  2. Spotlights - 5 spotlights searching and illuminating the text
  3. Highlight - Diagonal glitter effects sweeping across
All effects use a rainbow gradient with colors:
  • Red (#e81416)
  • Orange (#ffa500)
  • Yellow (#faeb36)
  • Green (#79c314)
  • Blue (#487de7)
  • Indigo (#4b369d)
  • Violet (#70369d)

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Alternative: Moon Mode

Try the alternative ASCII art mode: 
bofa --moon
This displays an ASCII art moon with the message hidden inside: 
              ########              
          ##            ##          
        #                  #        
      #        o  ()         #      
     #    .   o   Bofa deez nuts  #    
    #     .        o    .      o   #   
    #  o            .               #   
   #      ()   o         .     ()   #  
   #    .           o          o     #  
  #              o       .            # 
  #    o    .              ()    .    # 
  #       o          .         o      # 
   #   ()      .        o       .   #  
   #      o        .       ()        #  
    #   .    o             o   .    #   
    #       .     o    .      ()   #    
     #  o      .          o       #     
      #    ()         o    .     #      
        #      o   .            #       
          ##      ()        ##          
              ########
The moon’s craters are randomly placed but use a fixed seed (42) so the output is consistent.

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Keyboard Controls

While animations are playing:
  • Ctrl+C - Interrupt the animation and display plain text output
    • Shows “Bofa deez nuts” without further animation
    • Allows quick exit during longer sequences
The tool respects terminal interrupts and will gracefully exit when you press Ctrl+C.

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Usage in Scripts

When used in non-interactive environments: 
# Piped output
bofa | cat
# Output: Bofa deez nuts

# TERM=dumb environment
TERM=dumb bofa
# Output: Bofa deez nuts

# Redirect to file
bofa > output.txt
# File contains: Bofa deez nuts
bofa automatically detects non-TTY environments and outputs plain text without animations.

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Configuration

The tool uses these built-in settings:
  • Frame rate: 90 FPS for smooth animations
  • Canvas sizing: Automatically adapts to terminal size
    • Minimum width: 34 characters
    • Maximum width: 120 characters
    • Leaves 2 character margins when possible
  • Text anchoring: Center-aligned for all effects
  • Canvas reuse: Enabled for seamless transitions between effects
bofa is designed to work out of the box with no configuration needed. All settings are optimized for the best visual experience.

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Next Steps

  • Run bofa multiple times to see different random effect combinations
  • Try bofa --moon to see the ASCII art alternative
  • Use bofa in your shell profile or scripts for a fun surprise
  • Share the joke with friends who ask “what’s bofa?”

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