---
title: "Emoji Removal Pattern — Ant Design Icons, Text Labels, and Pre-commit Guard"
date: 2026-07-03
category: conventions
module: cross-cutting
problem_type: convention
component: tooling
severity: low
applies_when:
  - "Adding new UI components, CLI output, or shell scripts that need status markers"
  - "Reviewing PRs for emoji regressions"
  - "Setting up pre-commit hooks for code style enforcement"
tags: [emoji, ant-design, pre-commit, cli, frontend, unicode]
---

# Emoji Removal Pattern — Ant Design Icons, Text Labels, and Pre-commit Guard

## Context

The agentkit project had emoji/glyph characters scattered across frontend components
(`ReviewResultCard.vue`, `useMessageRenderer.ts`), CLI output (`cli/chat.py`), shell scripts
(`deploy.sh`, `dev-start.sh`), CI workflows, and even docstrings. These caused inconsistent
rendering across terminals, OSes, and fonts — on Linux servers without Noto Color Emoji they
display as tofu blocks, and they clash with the project's Ant Design Vue Outlined icon family.

## Guidance

Three replacement strategies based on context (see detailed guide:
[no-emoji-style-guide.md](../style/no-emoji-style-guide.md)):

### KTD1: Ant Design Vue Outlined icons (frontend)

Replace string glyph avatars with Component types. Use `<component :is>` for dynamic rendering:

```vue
<!-- Before -->
<span class="icon">{{ statusIcon }}</span>
const statusIcon = computed(() => {
  if (props.review.passed) return '\u2713'
  return '\u2717'
})

<!-- After -->
<span class="icon"><component :is="statusIcon" /></span>
import { CheckOutlined, CloseOutlined, ReloadOutlined } from '@ant-design/icons-vue'
import { type Component } from 'vue'
const statusIcon = computed<Component>(() => {
  if (props.review.passed) return CheckOutlined
  if (props.review.final_status === 'failed') return CloseOutlined
  return ReloadOutlined
})
```

For `useMessageRenderer.ts` shell avatars, import the Component and assign directly:
`avatar: ApartmentOutlined` instead of `avatar: '◆'`.

### KTD2: Text labels with ANSI colors (CLI/shell)

```python
# Before
"completed": ("OK", "green"),
"in_progress": ("\u25b6", "blue"),  # ▶
icon_map.get(status, ("\u25cb", "dim"))  # ○

# After
"completed": ("OK", "green"),
"in_progress": ("RUN", "blue"),
icon_map.get(status, ("--", "dim"))
```

Shell scripts: `echo "[FAIL] ..."` instead of `echo "\u274c ..."`.

### KTD3: ASCII art (docstrings)

Replace Unicode box-drawing arrows with ASCII equivalents in docstrings:
`->` for `─►`, `|` for `│`, `v` for `▼`.

## Why This Matters

1. **Cross-platform consistency** — ASCII text and Ant Design components render identically
   across macOS, Linux, and Windows terminals/browsers.
2. **Type safety** — Using `Component` types instead of `string` for icon props enables
   TypeScript compile-time checks.
3. **Automated enforcement** — A pre-commit hook (`scripts/check-no-emoji.sh`) prevents
   regression without manual review burden.

## When to Apply

- New UI components needing status icons — use Ant Design Outlined icons
- New CLI output or shell script status markers — use `OK`/`FAIL`/`WARN`/`RUN`/`--`
- New docstring diagrams — use ASCII art (`->`, `|`, `v`)
- Any code review involving visual markers — run `bash scripts/check-no-emoji.sh`

## Examples

### Unicode range exclusions (key learning)

The `check-no-emoji.sh` script excludes two Unicode ranges that are pervasive in
comments/docstrings but are NOT emoji:

| Range | Block | Reason |
|-------|-------|--------|
| `2190-21FF` | Arrows | `->` (U+2192) is a pervasive docstring flow indicator |
| `2500-257F` | Box Drawings | `--` (U+2500) is a pervasive comment section separator |

Without these exclusions, the script flags 200+ files for false positives.

### Escaped unicode detection

The script also detects escaped unicode sequences (`\u2713`, `\u2717`, etc.) in string
literals. The escape pattern is narrowed to emoji-like ranges only — a broad `2[0-5]xxx`
pattern causes false positives in minified JS bundles (`\u2000` en-space, `\u2014` em-dash).

### Pre-commit hook configuration

```yaml
# .pre-commit-config.yaml
repos:
  - repo: local
    hooks:
      - id: agentkit-no-emoji
        name: agentkit-no-emoji
        entry: bash scripts/check-no-emoji.sh
        language: system
        pass_filenames: false
        always_run: true
```

## Related

- [No-Emoji Style Guide](../style/no-emoji-style-guide.md) — detailed KTD1-3 replacement strategies
- Plan: `docs/plans/2026-07-02-001-refactor-remove-all-emoji-plan.md`
- PR #20: `refactor/remove-all-emoji` branch
