# Stall To Alert Color Escalation

> Blend spinner or progress colors toward an alert hue as stall intensity rises so stuck work becomes visually obvious without changing layout.

- Skill: `vishuwa2004/stall-to-alert-color-escalation` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vishuwa2004/stall-to-alert-color-escalation`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vishuwa2004/stall-to-alert-color-escalation/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: vishuwa2004 (https://skillmd.com/u/vishuwa2004)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vishuwa2004/stall-to-alert-color-escalation

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# SKILL: Stall-to-Alert Color Escalation
**Domain:** terminal-ui
**Trigger:** Use when a spinner or progress indicator should warn about stalls without replacing itself with a larger warning UI.
**Source Pattern:** Distilled from reviewed stall-sensitive terminal indicator rendering patterns.

## Core Method
Start with the indicator's normal theme color, then interpolate it toward a known alert color as stall intensity rises. If exact color math is unavailable, fall back to a semantic alert token instead of failing. This creates a smooth escalation path that preserves the indicator's footprint while still making degraded states obvious.

## Key Rules
- Drive the escalation from a normalized stall intensity rather than fixed hardcoded time branches inside the renderer.
- Keep a safe fallback path when literal color parsing fails.
- Preserve the same spinner or indicator footprint while only changing color and, if needed, subtle glyph intensity.

## Example Application
For a long-running build spinner, fade the normal accent color toward red as the system detects a likely stall, while keeping the same single-cell spinner slot.

## Anti-Patterns (What NOT to do)
- Do not swap the spinner for a larger banner at the first sign of delay.
- Do not hardcode one threshold and one end-state color without a smooth ramp.
- Do not let stall visuals change the indicator's size or alignment.