Tokens

roundel/tokens exports nine functions, each (s: string) => string:

The names say what the text is. What it looks like is the theme's business, so every error in a program changes together, and a pipe, NO_COLOR or --json turns them all off at once.

Plain until flownCopy Anchor Link

A token is the identity until fly() has decided a level above 0. A program that never calls fly() — or a library that uses tokens inside a program that did not ask for colour — prints plain text:

import { error, ok } from 'roundel/tokens';

console.log(JSON.stringify(`${error('failed')} ${ok('passed')}`));

"failed passed"

FORCE_COLOR=3 changes nothing there, because nothing asked the policy. Flown, the same tokens paint at the level the policy decides:

import { fly } from 'roundel/theme';
import { error, ok } from 'roundel/tokens';

import { rt } from './rt.mjs';

fly({}, rt);
console.log(JSON.stringify(`${error('failed')} ${ok('passed')}`));

"\u001b[38;2;244;121;74mfailed\u001b[39m \u001b[38;2;13;148;96mpassed\u001b[39m"

"failed passed"

Styling only the argumentCopy Anchor Link

A token wraps its argument in an opening and a closing sequence and touches nothing else, and an empty string stays empty. Nested tokens close in reverse order. Only roundel/tokens emits an escape: roundel/chalk computes parameters and hands them to the same emitter, which a test asserts by reading the façade's source for an ESC character.

Coming from chalkCopy Anchor Link

chalk.red(s) names a colour; error(s) names a meaning. The chalk API is still there, as roundel/chalk, graded by chalk's own suite — Coming from chalk. Both read the same policy, so they never disagree about the terminal.