Arcana

A tarot reading CLI built with Ink. Full 78-card deck with authored interpretations for every card, six spread types, elemental dignities, animated terminal output, and an MCP server for LLM integration.

Getting started

npm install
npm run build

To make arcana available globally:

npm link

Usage

arcana                    # three-card spread (defaults to OS username)
arcana kelly              # reading for "kelly"
arcana kelly --new        # force a fresh draw
arcana card               # single daily card
arcana yes-no             # yes/no oracle (upright = yes)
arcana five-card          # five-card cross
arcana horseshoe          # seven-card horseshoe
arcana celtic-cross       # ten-card celtic cross
arcana history            # browse past readings

Each person gets one reading per day per spread type. Running again shows the same cards. --new forces a fresh draw.

Spreads

Spread	Cards	Positions
Three-Card (default)	3	past, present, future
Daily Card	1	present
Five-Card Cross	5	above, past, present, future, below
Horseshoe	7	past, present, future, self, environment, obstacle, outcome
Celtic Cross	10	present, challenge, past, future, above, below, self, environment, hopes & fears, outcome
Yes or No	1	upright = yes, reversed = no

Interactive mode

Pick your own cards from a shuffled pool. Arrow keys to navigate, Enter to select.

arcana -i
arcana kelly --interactive

Reversal modes

Five ways to read reversed cards:

arcana --reversals opposite   # authored reversed passage (default)
arcana --reversals blocked    # upright meaning, blocked energy
arcana --reversals shadow     # upright meaning, shadow/unconscious framing
arcana --reversals weakened   # upright meaning, diminished intensity
arcana --reversals none       # ignore reversals entirely

Color themes

arcana --theme default    # magenta/green palette
arcana --theme classic    # yellow/cyan palette
arcana --no-color         # disable color output

Reading history

arcana history            # your history
arcana history kelly      # kelly's history

Shows past readings in reverse chronological order. With five or more readings, includes pattern analysis: most drawn card, suit dominance, and reversal rate.

JSON output

For scripts and LLM integrations:

arcana kelly --json
arcana celtic-cross kelly --json --new

Returns the full reading as structured JSON: spread data, per-card interpretations, narrative text, and relational analysis.

Interpretation engine

Every card has authored passages for each position and orientation. The engine layers three things on top of the individual card readings:

• Elemental dignities — adjacent cards interact through their elements. Fire and air strengthen each other; fire and water create tension.
• Relational analysis — suit dominance, arcana weight, court card clusters, numerical sequences, reversal patterns, and elemental balance across the spread.
• Narrative synthesis — a prose reading that ties the cards together with cross-position insights (past/future echoes, above/below tension, self/environment contrast).

MCP server

An MCP server for LLM tool integration. Four tools over stdio:

Tool	Description
draw_reading	Draw a spread for a person. Supports all six spread types and reversal modes.
get_card	Look up a card by ID or name with all interpretation passages.
list_cards	Browse the deck, filtered by arcana or suit.
reading_history	Retrieve recent readings for a person.

Running the MCP server

node dist/mcp.js

Claude Code integration

The project includes a .mcp.json that Claude Code auto-discovers when working in this directory.

For global access, add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arcana": {
      "command": "arcana-mcp"
    }
  }
}

(Requires npm link so arcana-mcp is on your PATH.)

Tool schemas

draw_reading

Input:  { name: string, spread_type?: string, force_new?: boolean, reversal_mode?: string }
Output: { name, spread, reading: { cards, narrative, relational } }

get_card

Input:  { query: string }  // "major-00", "fool", "ten of cups"
Output: { card, interpretations: { upright: { past, present, future, ... }, reversed: { ... } } }

list_cards

Input:  { arcana?: "major" | "minor", suit?: "cups" | "pentacles" | "swords" | "wands" }
Output: TarotCard[]

reading_history

Input:  { name: string, limit?: number }
Output: Reading[]

Data

Readings are stored in $XDG_DATA_HOME/arcana/ (defaults to ~/.local/share/arcana/), one JSON file per person per spread type, keyed by date. History is stored separately in {name}.history.json.

Development

npm run dev     # watch mode
npm run build   # compile to dist/
npm start       # run the CLI
npm run lint    # eslint
npm run format  # prettier

Stack

• Ink — React for CLIs
• React 19
• MCP SDK — Model Context Protocol server
• TypeScript (ESM, NodeNext resolution)