Programmatic API

The CLI is one entry point, but the same machinery is exported as a library. The renderer and the language computation are pure — no I/O, no network, no globals — so they’re trivial to embed, test, and run anywhere. The GitHub, local, and summary data sources are kept in separate modules so network access stays isolated.

import { renderCard, computeLanguages } from "shipcard";

const svg = renderCard({
  name: "shipcard",
  owner: "abdulmunimjemal",
  description: "Generate a beautiful, shareable SVG card for any repository.",
  languages: computeLanguages({ TypeScript: 9200, JavaScript: 600 }),
  stars: 1280,
  forks: 47,
});

renderCard returns a complete, standalone <svg>…</svg> string — write it to a file, embed it in a README, or serve it as a social image.

The renderer

renderCard(data, options?)

function renderCard(data: CardData, options?: RenderOptions): string;

Render a polished, self-contained SVG from normalized repo data. Pure — same input, same output, no side effects.

• options.theme — "dark" (default) or "light".
• options.size — "og" (1200×630, default) or "card" (compact 800×320).

Stars and forks are only drawn when present on data. The language bar shows up to six languages with a legend; the description and long names are truncated to fit.

Building card data

You can hand-build CardData, or use one of the two data sources.

computeLanguages(bytesByLanguage, limit?)

function computeLanguages(
  bytesByLanguage: Record<string, number>,
  limit?: number, // default 6
): CardLanguage[];

Turn a raw { language: bytes } map into ranked, color-tagged CardLanguage slices: sorted largest first, percentages computed against the full total (so a long tail reads as a smaller top bar rather than being inflated), rounded to one decimal, and capped at limit slices. Languages with zero bytes are dropped; an empty or all-zero map returns [].

computeLanguages({ TypeScript: 9200, JavaScript: 600 });
// → [
//     { name: "TypeScript", percent: 93.9, color: "#3178c6" },
//     { name: "JavaScript", percent: 6.1,  color: "#f1e05a" },
//   ]

fetchGitHubCard(slug, token?)

function fetchGitHubCard(slug: string, token?: string): Promise<CardData>;

Fetch and normalize a repository into CardData from the GitHub REST API. slug is owner/repo. An optional token (otherwise process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN) lifts the unauthenticated rate limit. Throws GitHubError on a malformed slug or a non-OK response (with 404/403 hints).

buildLocalCard(dir?)

function buildLocalCard(dir?: string): CardData; // default: process.cwd()

Build CardData for a local directory with no network access — name and description from package.json, owner/name from the git origin remote (falling back to the repository URL, then the directory name), and a language breakdown computed by scanning file extensions (skipping node_modules, .git, build output, etc.). Stars and forks are left unset.

parseSlug(slug) / parseRemote(url)

function parseSlug(slug: string): { owner: string; repo: string };
function parseRemote(url: string): { owner: string; name: string } | null;

parseSlug splits an owner/repo string (throwing GitHubError if malformed). parseRemote extracts owner and name from a git remote URL in either the git@github.com:owner/repo or https://github.com/owner/repo form (with or without a .git suffix), returning null if it can’t.

AI summary

generateSummary(data, options?)

function generateSummary(
  data: CardData,
  options?: SummaryOptions,
): Promise<string>;

interface SummaryOptions {
  baseUrl?: string; // OpenAI-compatible base URL (default OpenAI)
  apiKey?: string;  // defaults to process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY
  model?: string;   // default "gpt-4o-mini"
}

Ask an OpenAI-compatible chat-completions endpoint for a single punchy line describing the repo, and return the trimmed result (surrounding quotes and a trailing period are stripped). Throws SummaryError if no key is configured, the response is empty, or the request fails — so callers can fall back to the repo description. This is the only function that calls a third-party AI endpoint, and only when you invoke it.

Color helpers

import { colorForLanguage, LANGUAGE_COLORS, NEUTRAL_COLOR, EXTENSION_LANGUAGES } from "shipcard";

• colorForLanguage(name) → string — the canonical hex color for a language name, or NEUTRAL_COLOR for anything unknown.
• LANGUAGE_COLORS — the Record<string, string> map of language → hex color (see Customization).
• NEUTRAL_COLOR — "#8b949e", the grey fallback.
• EXTENSION_LANGUAGES — the Record<string, string> map of lowercased file extension (no leading dot) → language name used by local-mode scanning.

Formatting helpers

import { escapeXml, formatCount } from "shipcard";

• escapeXml(value) → string — escape a string for safe inclusion in SVG text/attribute content (&, <, >, ", ').
• formatCount(n) → string — compact a number for the stats line: 1234 → "1.2k", 1_500_000 → "1.5M".

Errors

import { GitHubError, SummaryError } from "shipcard";

• GitHubError — thrown by fetchGitHubCard / parseSlug on a malformed slug or a failed GitHub request.
• SummaryError — thrown by generateSummary when the endpoint is misconfigured (no key), unreachable, or returns an empty/non-OK response.

Both extend Error and set a matching name, so they’re easy to catch and branch on.

Types

The following are all exported for use in your own typed code:

Type	Shape
CardData	{ name; owner; description; languages: CardLanguage[]; stars?; forks? } — normalized repo data the card renders from.
CardLanguage	{ name: string; percent: number; color: string } — one slice of the language bar.
RenderOptions	{ theme?: Theme; size?: Size }.
Theme	"dark" | "light".
Size	"og" | "card".
SummaryOptions	{ baseUrl?; apiKey?; model? }.