thinking-orbs review

thinking-orbs is a React library of dotted, animated thought-orb loading indicators for AI and agent user interfaces.

Updated Nov 1, 2026. Review written Oct 22, 2026 from the project's own sources; usage data refreshed every Monday.

TL;DR

thinking-orbs provides nine animated loading states for AI and agent UIs, each tuned at two sizes and drawn on a plain 2D canvas. It suits developers building chat or agent interfaces in React. It picks dark or light mode automatically, respects reduced motion, and pauses offscreen.

3.9kGitHub stars
+61new stars, week of Oct 25
~1.4Mdownloads a week, +44% vs 4-week avg
#1in Model SDKs and gateways this week

thinking-orbs at a glance

Category: Model SDKs and gateways
Maintained by: Jakub Antalik (individual, @Jakubantalik on GitHub)
License: MIT
Language: TypeScript, JavaScript
Repository: github.com/Jakubantalik/thinking-orbs
Website: orbs.jakubantalik.com
npm package: thinking-orbs 0.3.2
Latest release: thinking-orbs 0.3.2 on npm, Sep 22, 2026
First published: Jul 21, 2026

What thinking-orbs does

thinking-orbs offers nine distinct animated states, each representing something an agent can be doing, such as scanning or wiring a constellation.
thinking-orbs ships two separately designed size presets: 64 for chat-avatar scale and 20 for inline-text scale.
thinking-orbs detects dark or light theme from an ancestor data-theme attribute or class, or from prefers-color-scheme, and updates live.
thinking-orbs sets role="img" with a per-state aria-label by default.
thinking-orbs renders a static frame when prefers-reduced-motion is set to reduce.
thinking-orbs pauses instances when scrolled offscreen or when the tab is hidden, and resumes them in phase on a shared clock.
thinking-orbs passes other canvas props such as className, style and data attributes through to the element.

How it works

thinking-orbs is an npm package that exports a ThinkingOrb React component. Each orb draws plain 2D canvas arcs with no WebGL or filters, so output matches across Chrome, Safari and Firefox. Device pixel ratio is capped at 2. The canvas paints only on the client after the theme resolves, which keeps it safe for server-side rendering.

How to install and start using thinking-orbs

With npm

npm install thinking-orbs

Requirements

A React project, since thinking-orbs ships as a React component.

First steps

Install thinking-orbs with npm install thinking-orbs.
Import the ThinkingOrb component from 'thinking-orbs' in your React code.
Render ThinkingOrb in a status component, then choose a state, a size of 64 or 20, and a theme.

Who thinking-orbs is for

Developers building AI chat or agent interfaces who need loading indicators that convey agent activity.
Projects using Tailwind or shadcn dark/light class conventions that want automatic theme matching.
Apps targeting low-end devices or needing identical rendering across browsers.

Limitations to know

thinking-orbs is strictly monochrome, offering only light ink or dark ink with no custom color palettes described.
thinking-orbs has only two size presets, 64 and 20, which are separate designs rather than a scale factor.

Is thinking-orbs growing? Usage data

In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, thinking-orbs ranked #76 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #1 in Model SDKs and gateways, with a momentum score of 69 out of 100. Its main package had about 1.4M downloads that week, +44% against its own 4-week average.

New GitHub stars per week for the last 12 weeks, from GitHub's stargazer history (today's stargazers by the week they starred).

Show the weekly numbers

New GitHub stars per week for thinking-orbs
Week of	New stars
Aug 9, 2026	336
Aug 16, 2026	79
Aug 23, 2026	68
Aug 30, 2026	36
Sep 6, 2026	23
Sep 13, 2026	169
Sep 20, 2026	423
Sep 27, 2026	215
Oct 4, 2026	156
Oct 11, 2026	131
Oct 18, 2026	88
Oct 25, 2026	61

The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.

thinking-orbs alternatives

Other LLM SDKs and gateways on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:

Model SDKs and gateways ranked by momentum, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
Rank	Tool	Stars	Downloads/wk
#2	HeadroomHeadroom compresses tool outputs, logs, files, and RAG chunks locally before they reach the LLM, as a library, proxy, or MCP server.	78.5k	125.8k
#3	LiteLLMLiteLLM is an open source AI gateway and Python SDK that calls 100+ LLM providers through one OpenAI-format interface.	62.5k	23.1M
#4	Honcho Memory library for building stateful agents	7.9k	–
#5	Anthropic SDKAnthropic SDK is the official Python library for calling the Claude API from Python applications.	4k	111M
#6	Hugging Face HubHugging Face Hub is the official CLI and Python client for downloading, uploading and managing models, datasets and Spaces on the…	4k	68.3M
#7	OpenAI SDKOpenAI SDK is the official Python library for the OpenAI API, with typed sync and async clients generated from OpenAI's OpenAPI…	32k	141.3M

All LLM SDKs and gateways, ranked

thinking-orbs FAQ

Is thinking-orbs free and open source?

Yes. thinking-orbs's source code is on GitHub (Jakubantalik/thinking-orbs) under the MIT license, so you can use it for free.

How do I install thinking-orbs?

Run npm install thinking-orbs.

Is thinking-orbs still maintained?

Yes. The Jakubantalik/thinking-orbs repository was last updated on Aug 16, 2026, and the latest release, thinking-orbs 0.3.2 on npm, came out on Sep 22, 2026.

How popular is thinking-orbs?

thinking-orbs has 3.9k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 61 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 149 a week. Its main package had about 1.4M downloads that week, +44% against its own 4-week average. That made it #1 among LLM SDKs and gateways on the Devtoolwatch Board.

What are the best alternatives to thinking-orbs?

Other LLM SDKs and gateways on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: Headroom (#2), LiteLLM (#3), Honcho (#4), Anthropic SDK (#5), Hugging Face Hub (#6). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

Does thinking-orbs use WebGL?

No. thinking-orbs draws plain 2D canvas arcs only, with no WebGL, ctx.filter or SVG filters. The README says the output matches in Chrome, Safari and Firefox and is cheap on low-end devices.

How does thinking-orbs choose dark or light mode?

thinking-orbs defaults to auto mode. It first checks an ancestor data-theme attribute or a dark/light class, then falls back to prefers-color-scheme. It updates live when either changes. You can also pin light or dark ink.

Is thinking-orbs accessible?

Yes. thinking-orbs sets role="img" with a per-state aria-label by default. When prefers-reduced-motion is set to reduce, it shows a static representative frame that still follows the theme.

Does thinking-orbs work with server-side rendering?

Yes. thinking-orbs is SSR-safe because the canvas paints only on the client, after the theme has resolved.

Does thinking-orbs keep animating when off screen?

No. thinking-orbs pauses each instance when it scrolls offscreen or the tab is hidden. It resumes in phase because all instances share one clock.

Sources

thinking-orbs README badge

Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:

[![Devtoolwatch](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/badge/jakubantalik-thinking-orbs.svg)](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/jakubantalik-thinking-orbs/)

How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].