Guitar Chord

Show ASCII guitar chord diagrams using the ascii_chord CLI tool. Use when asked how to play a guitar chord, or to show chord charts/diagrams for any chord name (e.g. E, B7, Am, C, G, Dm, etc.). Requires cargo (Rust toolchain) to be installed. The source code is bundled with this skill — build it with cargo from the skill directory.

Display ASCII guitar chord diagrams using ascii_chord — an open-source Rust CLI (MIT license, authored by the same person as this skill).

The source code is bundled with this skill — no cloning needed.

Required Tools

Tool	Purpose	Check
cargo / Rust	Build and run the CLI	cargo --version

Installing Rust (if not already installed)

bash

# macOS (Homebrew — recommended)
brew install rustup-init && rustup-init

Or download from rustup.rs.

Note: Installing Rust via rustup creates ~/.cargo and ~/.rustup in your home directory and may modify your shell PATH.

Post-Install Setup

After installing, run the init script once:

bash

bash ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord/scripts/init.sh

This will:

1. Create a .gitignore in the skill directory to exclude cargo build artifacts (/target) from git
2. Pre-warm the cargo build cache so the first chord lookup is fast

First Run Warning

If you skip the init script, the first cargo run will take 30–60 seconds while cargo compiles the binary. This is normal — subsequent runs are fast (binary is cached in target/). Do not interrupt the first build.

Diagram Legend

text

✕  = mute this string (don't play)
◯  = open string (play unfretted)
●  = fret this position (filled dot)
═  = nut (top of fretboard)
─  = fret wire
│  = string

Numbers on the left (when shown) indicate the starting fret position for higher-up chords.

Usage

The skill directory contains the full Rust source. Run from there:

Single chord:

bash

cd <skill_dir> && cargo run -- get <CHORD> 2>/dev/null

Multiple chords side by side:

bash

cd <skill_dir> && cargo run -- list <CHORD1> <CHORD2> ... 2>/dev/null

List all supported chords:

bash

cd <skill_dir> && cargo run -- all 2>/dev/null

Replace <skill_dir> with the path where this skill is installed (e.g. ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord).

Examples

bash

# Single chord
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord && cargo run -- get Am 2>/dev/null

# Multiple side by side (great for progressions)
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord && cargo run -- list C G Am F 2>/dev/null

# Full list of all supported chord names
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord && cargo run -- all 2>/dev/null

Discovering Supported Chords

Not all chord voicings are supported. If a user asks for a chord that fails, use all to list every supported chord name and find the closest match:

bash

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord && cargo run -- all 2>/dev/null

Notes

• Suppress build warnings with 2>/dev/null
• Chord names are case-sensitive (Am not am, B7 not b7)
• After first build, subsequent runs are fast (binary cached by cargo in target/)
• Source repo: https://github.com/ascii-music/ascii_chord (MIT licensed)