---
name: context-sensitive-cursor
description: Cursor color and styling that adapt to the current text segment being typed — accent color on highlights, dim on placeholders, etc.
metadata:
  tags: cursor, color, context, typewriter, styling, segment
---

# Context-Sensitive Cursor

In a typewriter sequence, the cursor's color (and optionally height / blink behavior) matches the **active text segment** — brand accent while typing the brand name, dim on placeholders, success color on the completion mark. The eye lands on the keyword being typed because the cursor shifts with it; a fixed single-color cursor is visual noise by comparison. Layers on top of [discrete-text-sequence](discrete-text-sequence.md)'s SEQUENCE pattern.

## How It Works

The text is authored as a SEQUENCE of `{ t, text, segment, color }` entries; a linear driver's `onUpdate` reverse-searches for the current entry and writes both the visible text and the cursor's `background` (the cursor is a colored block, so `background`, NOT `color`). A second linear tween sweeps a phase `p` through `2π × BLINK_CYCLES_PER_SCENE` and gates cursor opacity on `sin(p) > 0` — a deterministic square-wave blink on the timeline.

## Recipe

```html
<!-- inside a standard scene clip (hyperframes-core) -->
<div class="terminal">
  <div class="prompt">$</div>
  <div class="text-wrap">
    <span class="text" id="text"></span><span class="cursor" id="cursor">_</span>
  </div>
</div>
```

```css
.terminal {
  font-family: {monoFont}; /* proportional fonts drift the cursor mid-segment */
  display: flex;
  align-items: baseline;
  white-space: pre; /* preserve trailing spaces — cursor sits at segment end */
}
.text {
  white-space: pre;
}
.cursor {
  display: inline-block; /* inline ignores width/height */
  width: {cursorWidth}px;
  height: {cursorHeight}px;
  background: {textColor}; /* default — overridden per segment in onUpdate */
  vertical-align: {cursorBaselineFix}px; /* small negative — anchor to baseline, not line-height */
}
```

```js
// Adjacent entries usually share a text prefix but may differ in `segment` —
// that's what shifts the cursor color mid-line.
const SEQUENCE = [
  { t: 0, text: "", segment: "main", color: "{mainColor}" },
  { t: T_LEADIN_END, text: "{leadInChunk}", segment: "main", color: "{mainColor}" },
  { t: T_BRAND_IN, text: "{leadInBrandPrefix}", segment: "brand", color: "{brandColor}" },
  { t: T_BRAND_OUT, text: "{leadInBrandFull}", segment: "main", color: "{mainColor}" },
  { t: T_CMD_IN, text: "{leadInCmdPrefix}", segment: "cmd", color: "{cmdColor}" },
  { t: T_SUCCESS, text: "{leadInDone}", segment: "success", color: "{successColor}" },
];

function entryAt(time) {
  for (let i = SEQUENCE.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    if (time >= SEQUENCE[i].t) return SEQUENCE[i];
  }
  return SEQUENCE[0];
}

const textEl = document.getElementById("text");
const cursorEl = document.getElementById("cursor");

const driver = { t: 0 };
tl.to(
  driver,
  {
    t: DURATION,
    duration: DURATION,
    ease: "none",
    onUpdate: () => {
      const entry = entryAt(driver.t);
      textEl.textContent = entry.text;
      cursorEl.style.background = entry.color;
    },
  },
  0,
);

// Deterministic square-wave blink
const blink = { p: 0 };
tl.to(
  blink,
  {
    p: Math.PI * 2 * BLINK_CYCLES_PER_SCENE,
    duration: DURATION,
    ease: "none",
    onUpdate: () => {
      cursorEl.style.opacity = Math.sin(blink.p) > 0 ? "1" : "0";
    },
  },
  0,
);
```

## Variations

- **Non-blinking during active typing** — suppress blink while letters are appearing (solid cursor), resume on idle. This MUST be a pure function of the driver's time: tracking a mutable `lastChangeTime` in `onUpdate` is not reverse-seek-safe (scrubbing backwards leaves the stale forward-pass value behind and the cursor blinks — or holds solid — at the wrong frames). Bake the change times from the SEQUENCE instead — every entry whose `text` differs from its predecessor is a typing event:

```js
// Baked once at build time — no runtime state.
const CHANGE_TIMES = SEQUENCE.filter((e, i) => i > 0 && e.text !== SEQUENCE[i - 1].text).map(
  (e) => e.t,
);
// In onUpdate — identical result at any seek, either direction:
const isTyping = CHANGE_TIMES.some((t) => t <= driver.t && driver.t - t < TYPING_GRACE);
cursorEl.style.opacity = isTyping ? "1" : Math.sin(blink.p) > 0 ? "1" : "0";
```

- **Cursor HEIGHT shifts on segment** — larger cursor on the brand segment: `cursorEl.style.height = entry.segment === "brand" ? cursorHeightEmphasis : cursorHeight` (1.1–1.25×; more reads as glitch).
- **Contrast reversal** — a dark-text-on-light segment needs a dark cursor too; keep `entry.color` as the single source of truth and read from it.

## Values

| token                  | range                       | notes                                                                                           |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| DURATION               | 4–8s per typed line         | `≥ SEQUENCE[last].t + closing dwell`                                                            |
| entry `t` spacing      | 0.2–0.5s micro-additions    | ascending, non-uniform — slow down on highlights                                                |
| segment palette        | 3–4 colors max              | more reads as random; brand vs success should differ in saturation/luminance                    |
| cursorWidth / Height   | 8–24px / 0.85–1.0× fontSize | too thin vanishes in render compression; too tall outranks the text                             |
| cursorBaselineFix      | small negative px           | drop the block to the text baseline                                                             |
| BLINK_CYCLES_PER_SCENE | period ≈ 0.6–1.2s           | **whole number** — otherwise the sin sweep ends mid-cycle and the cursor pops on the last frame |
| TYPING_GRACE           | 0.15–0.3s                   | **< shortest dwell between adjacent entries** — otherwise the cursor never blinks               |

## Critical Constraints

- **Cursor color goes on `background`** — it's a colored block, not a glyph.
- **Blink is timeline-driven sin, pure of any mutable tracker** — the typing-grace variation shows the seek-safe form.
- **`white-space: pre` on text and container** — collapsed trailing spaces park the cursor in the wrong column.
- **Monospace font + `display: inline-block` cursor** — proportional faces drift the cursor mid-segment; inline ignores the block geometry.
- **BLINK_CYCLES_PER_SCENE is a whole number** for the fixed DURATION.

## See also

`discrete-text-sequence` (the underlying SEQUENCE pattern) · `camera-cursor-tracking` (camera follows the cursor) · `press-release-spring` (post-typing confirm press).
