# Dancing Lights

> Use this spell for lightweight indicators: status pips, progress markers, heartbeat widgets, and ambient observability that help humans orient quickly. It is not a full dashboard strategy; it is the small visual cue that says where to look next.

- Skill: `hmbown/dancing-lights` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add hmbown/dancing-lights`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/hmbown/dancing-lights/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: Hmbown (https://skillmd.com/u/hmbown)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/hmbown/dancing-lights

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# Dancing Lights

Hang small moving signals in the dark so people can tell what the system is doing.

## Overview

Dancing Lights is interpreted here as a hybrid spell with a shipping-now execution model.

Canonical source: Dancing Lights (spell)

Provider target: OpenClaw

## When To Use

- You need a lightweight status or progress display rather than a full observability buildout.
- A small ambient indicator would help people see health, motion, or blockage at a glance.
- The goal is orientation and reassurance, not deep analysis in a heavy dashboard.
- Your Home Assistant setup has Philips Hue or other smart lights that can serve as ambient status indicators.

## Workflow

1. Choose the minimum set of signals that actually matter at a glance.
2. Map those signals to simple visuals, placement, and refresh behavior that stay legible under stress.
3. Return the indicator spec with data sources, stale-state handling, and error states.
4. If Home Assistant is available, use the HA REST API to set light states directly — POST to /api/services/light/turn_on with entity_id, brightness, and rgb_color.

## Deliverables

- A compact status display concept or implementation brief.
- A signal-to-visual mapping for healthy, stale, and failing states.
- Notes on refresh cadence, placement, and what the indicator does not claim.

## Guardrails

- Do not imply precision or freshness the underlying data cannot support.
- Make stale, unknown, or disconnected states visibly different from healthy ones.

## Default Invocation

Use $dancing-lights to design a small status display for this workflow and make the signal states unambiguous.