Did You Know — Spinner Fact Generator

Did You Know — Spinner Fact Generator

Your job: turn the chosen topic into a batch of short, true, genuinely-fun "Did You Know" facts, then install them as the user's Claude Code loading-spinner text by writing to their settings.json (spinnerVerbs).

The topic the user chose is: $ARGUMENTS

Step 0 — Validate the topic

If $ARGUMENTS is empty, do NOT proceed. Tell the user the usage: /dyk <topic> (e.g. /dyk basketball, /dyk roman empire, /dyk space) and stop.

Step 1 — Generate the facts

Produce exactly 40 "Did You Know" facts about the topic. Rules — follow ALL of them, because these strings render in a narrow one-line spinner:

1. Length is sacred. Each fact MUST be ≤ 50 characters including spaces. The spinner truncates anything longer with "…", which ruins the effect. Count characters. If a fact is too long, tighten it or pick a different one.
2. SPICY, not surface-level. This is the most important rule. Each fact must make the reader go "wait, WHAT?" — surprising, counterintuitive, obscure, scandalous, record-breaking, or delightfully weird. Aim for facts that even a FAN of the topic might not know. Apply this self-test to EVERY fact before including it:

   "Would someone who already likes this topic be surprised by this?" If the answer is no, CUT IT and find a juicier one.

   • ❌ BLAND (cut these): definitions, totals, dates, "X is the biggest/most popular", "the tournament has 48 teams" — anyone could guess these.
   • ✅ SPICY (ship these): hidden histories, bizarre records, near-disasters, weird rules, surprising numbers, "firsts" nobody remembers, scandals, behind-the-scenes oddities, things that sound made-up but are true.
   • Example (topic = basketball):
     • ❌ Bland: The NBA has 30 teams
     • ✅ Spicy: An NBA game was once won with -0 points 🤯 (real oddities like this)
3. True. Verify the spicy ones. Spicy facts are easy to get wrong. If a surprising stat, date, or claim isn't something you are CERTAIN of, use the WebSearch tool to confirm it before including it. We ship surprises, never fabrications. A wrong "fact" is worse than a boring one.
4. No "Did you know" prefix inside the string. It eats your 50 characters and the spinner context already implies it. Lead with the fact itself.
   • Good: Hakeem averaged a near quadruple-double 🏀
   • Bad: Did you know that Hakeem Olajuwon once... (too long, wasted prefix)
5. Variety of spice. Mix the angles: bizarre records, scandals, origins nobody knows, weird rules, shocking numbers, forgotten "firsts", behind-the-scenes oddities. No two facts should feel like the same fact reworded.
6. One tasteful emoji related to the topic is allowed at the end (optional). Keep it to one.
7. No duplicates. 40 distinct facts.

If the user has run this before and asks to regenerate because it "feels repetitive", go even DEEPER into the obscure — the stuff only superfans and trivia nerds know.

Step 2 — Back up current settings (safety first)

Before touching anything, if ~/.claude/settings.json exists, copy it to ~/.claude/settings.json.bak so the user can always roll back. Use Bash: cp ~/.claude/settings.json ~/.claude/settings.json.bak

Step 3 — Install the facts into settings.json

1. Read ~/.claude/settings.json. If it does not exist, you will create a minimal one containing only the spinnerVerbs key.
2. Set the spinnerVerbs key to:

   "spinnerVerbs": {
     "mode": "replace",
     "verbs": [ ...your 40 facts... ]
   }
   

3. Preserve every other key in the file exactly as-is (permissions, statusLine, enabledPlugins, theme, etc.). Only spinnerVerbs changes. Prefer editing just that key. The final file MUST be valid JSON — you are responsible for correct escaping.
4. Write the file back.

Step 4 — Confirm

Tell the user:

• ✅ that their spinner now serves up <topic> facts,
• show 5 sample facts from the batch so they get a taste,
• note: new facts take effect in a fresh Claude Code session — they may need to restart to see them,
• remind them they can run /dyk <topic> again any time to regenerate or switch topics, and that a backup of their previous settings is at ~/.claude/settings.json.bak.

Keep the confirmation short and upbeat.