# tholman/cursor-effects

Old-school cursor effects for your browser built with modern JavaScript

Repository: https://github.com/tholman/cursor-effects
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cursor-effects
Homepage: https://tholman.com/cursor-effects
Language: JavaScript
License Family: other
Topics: javascript, 90s, library, canvas
Last push: 2026-02-26T12:24:18+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 61/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 69, release rhythm 28, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3883, "days_push": 188, "days_rel": 268, "gap_med": 354, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4052, forks 274 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:33.846012+00:00)

## What it is
A JavaScript library that recreates nostalgic 90s cursor effects (rainbow trails, fairy dust, emoji rain, ghost cursors, and more) using modern, efficient canvas-based code. It ships as an npm package and browser script, letting developers add playful mouse effects to any webpage with a few lines of code.

## Use cases
- add a rainbow trailing cursor to my website
- make emoji follow the mouse on a page
- recreate 90s fairy dust cursor effect
- add snowflake or bubble particle effects to a landing page
- make a ghost cursor trail in the browser
- add fun mouse effects to a personal blog

## When to choose
- you want lightweight, dependency-free cursor effects for a modern website
- you want a nostalgic or playful touch on a personal site or landing page
- you need effects that work via npm, ESM, or a plain script tag
- you want effects scoped to a specific element with easy destroy/cleanup

## When to avoid
- you need serious UI/UX polish for a professional or enterprise product
- you need accessibility-compliant motion (distracting cursor effects can hurt usability)
- you need effects beyond cursors, like full particle systems or game animations
- you require a project with a formal license file or long-term enterprise support

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: animation, ui-components, graphics
- domain: web-development, frontend, web-design, entertainment
- platform: browser
- tags: cursor-effects, canvas, retro, 90s-web, npm-package, mouse-effects, web-server

## Member repositories
- tholman/cursor-effects (main) score 61

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:33.846012+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:23:40.232053+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/tholman/cursor-effects (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:33.846012+00:00, sha 3204aedb1ebc)
  - homepage: https://tholman.com/cursor-effects (fetched 2026-08-29T09:16:15.395834+00:00, sha c98b7abf4081)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/cursor-effects (fetched 2026-08-29T09:16:15.398387+00:00, sha 44a9ec335a79)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.