NOTE· 2026-07-31· 4 min
All Claude Code Spinner Verbs
Claude Code picks a random word every time it's thinking. I pulled all 186 of them out of the binary, and here's how to add your own.
Claude Code picks a random word every time it's working on something, "Marinating," "Gitifying," whatever else it lands on. You've almost certainly watched a few of these scroll by without reading them closely, because the spinner sits there for half a second and then the answer shows up. I finally sat down and pulled the whole list out of the binary.
What a spinner verb actually is
It's the word next to the spinner while Claude Code is thinking. Nothing more than that. There's no status logic behind it, no mapping from "reading a file" to "Perusing" and "writing code" to "Architecting." The tool grabs one at random from a fixed list and shows it while it works.
That randomness is the whole point. A progress bar tells you something concrete. A random word from a list that includes both "Photosynthesizing" and "Whatchamacalliting" tells you nothing except that whoever wrote this list had fun doing it. It's decoration.
Where the list lives, and how I counted it
The 186 words below aren't documented anywhere I could find, so I read them straight out of the installed binary at /opt/homebrew/bin/claude, version 2.1.220. They sit as a plain string array, and Claude Code picks one at random each time it starts a turn.
186, not 185, because the list contains "Channeling" and "Channelling" as two separate entries, the American and the British spelling of the same word sitting next to each other. Count by hand and land on 185, and you probably merged those two without meaning to.
This is a snapshot. Version numbers change, and so, apparently, does this list. The count depends on the version you're running, and I have no reason to think 186 is the final number.
Adding your own
You don't have to accept the built-in set. Claude Code reads a spinnerVerbs setting out of ~/.claude/settings.json, with two modes: append adds your words to the defaults, replace swaps the defaults out for yours entirely.
{
"spinnerVerbs": {
"mode": "append",
"verbs": ["Yak-shaving", "Rubber-ducking", "Bikeshedding"]
}
}
Set mode to replace and leave verbs empty, and Claude Code falls back to the built-in list instead of showing nothing at all. That's a deliberate branch in the code, so an empty replace config doubles as a safe way to reset back to defaults without deleting the setting.
Two related settings sit next to this one, if you want to go further. spinnerTipsEnabled turns the tips shown alongside the spinner on or off, and spinnerTipsOverride replaces or extends those tips the same way, with an excludeDefault flag and its own tips array, same append/replace pattern, different content.
If you've already been through the getting started guide, you have a settings.json sitting on disk. This is one more block to drop into it.
The full list
Some of these are plain verbs. A lot of them are jokes. There's a long run of cooking verbs, Baking through Zesting, and a smaller cluster of mid-century dance moves, Boogieing and Moonwalking, that read like someone on the team enjoyed themselves.
A few are in-jokes for anyone who's played SimCity or read a dictionary cover to cover. "Reticulating" is the old SimCity loading-screen joke about splines, and "Combobulating" and "Recombobulating" are both back-formations from "Discombobulating," invented as if the negative came first. "Whatchamacalliting" and "Flibbertigibbeting" sound made up and aren't, both have real dictionary entries. "Clauding" and "Gitifying" are the tool naming itself and its own toolchain.
Reference · Spinner Verbs186 built in
- Accomplishing
- Finishing something, no metaphor attached.
- Actioning
- A noun someone turned into a verb in a meeting.
- Actualizing
- Turning a plan into something real.
- Architecting
- Designing the structure before anyone builds it.
- Baking
- Bread, cake, and the first of a dozen cooking verbs here.
- Beaming
- Glowing with pride, or transporting like on Star Trek.
- Beboppin'
- Bebop jazz, missing a G and carrying an apostrophe.
- Befuddling
- Leaving someone thoroughly confused.
- Billowing
- Swelling outward, like smoke catching wind.
- Blanching
- Dunking vegetables in boiling water, then straight into ice.
- Bloviating
- Talking a lot while saying very little.
- Boogieing
- Dancing to a beat, first of several dance verbs on this list.
- Boondoggling
- Wasting effort on something that goes nowhere.
- Booping
- Tapping someone's nose, straight out of internet slang.
- Bootstrapping
- Starting from nothing and pulling yourself up anyway.
- Brewing
- Coffee or tea steeping until it's ready.
- Bunning
- Twisting your hair up into a bun.
- Burrowing
- Digging in and staying put.
- Calculating
- Working out the numbers before making a move.
- Canoodling
- An old word for cuddling nobody says seriously anymore.
- Caramelizing
- Sugar browning slowly under heat.
- Cascading
- Falling in stages, one after another.
- Catapulting
- Launching something with a sudden burst of force.
- Cerebrating
- Thinking, but dressed up in Latin.
- Channeling
- Directing energy toward one single purpose.
- Channelling
- The British spelling, which is why the count is 186 and not 185.
- Choreographing
- Planning every step of a dance in advance.
- Churning
- Turning cream into butter, or work into more work.
- Clauding
- The tool named itself after itself. Bold move.
- Coalescing
- Droplets merging into one bigger drop.
- Cogitating
- An old-fashioned word for thinking hard.
- Combobulating
- Invented backward from discombobulating, and somehow it stuck.
- Composing
- Putting the parts together, music or otherwise.
- Computing
- What the machine has done since long before AI.
- Concocting
- Mixing something up, often something a little dubious.
- Considering
- Weighing the options before deciding anything.
- Contemplating
- Sitting with a problem for a while.
- Cooking
- Putting a meal together from raw ingredients.
- Crafting
- Building something with care and attention.
- Creating
- Making something exist that did not before.
- Crunching
- Chewing through a big pile of numbers.
- Crystallizing
- An idea finally taking a clear, fixed shape.
- Cultivating
- Growing something, plants or relationships alike.
- Deciphering
- Working out what bad handwriting or a code actually says.
- Deliberating
- A jury's word, borrowed here for plain thinking.
- Determining
- Settling on an answer for certain.
- Dilly-dallying
- Wasting time, on purpose or not.
- Discombobulating
- The real word behind two invented cousins further down this list.
- Doing
- About as plain as a verb gets.
- Doodling
- Drawing without much of a plan.
- Drizzling
- A light rain falling in a fine mist.
- Ebbing
- Water pulling back from the shore, tide going out.
- Effecting
- Bringing something about, quietly and without fuss.
- Elucidating
- Making something clear that was not before.
- Embellishing
- Adding detail, sometimes more than the story needs.
- Enchanting
- Casting a spell over someone or something.
- Envisioning
- Picturing something before it exists.
- Fermenting
- Yeast breaking down sugar until it turns to alcohol.
- Fiddle-faddling
- Fussing over something that barely matters.
- Finagling
- Getting your way through a bit of cunning.
- Flambéing
- Setting food on fire on purpose, and yet another kitchen verb.
- Flibbertigibbeting
- A real dictionary word for acting scatterbrained.
- Flowing
- Moving smoothly, without any resistance.
- Flummoxing
- Leaving someone completely baffled.
- Fluttering
- Moving with quick, light beats.
- Forging
- Shaping metal into tools under intense heat.
- Forming
- Taking shape, slowly and without much drama.
- Frolicking
- Playing around with no particular purpose.
- Frosting
- Spreading icing over a finished cake.
- Gallivanting
- Wandering off somewhere, usually for fun.
- Galloping
- Running fast, the way a horse does.
- Garnishing
- The last small touch on a finished plate.
- Generating
- Producing output, whatever kind is needed.
- Gesticulating
- Talking with your hands as much as your mouth.
- Germinating
- A seed cracking open and sending out its first root.
- Gitifying
- Turning something into a git repository.
- Grooving
- Settling into a rhythm and staying there.
- Gusting
- Wind picking up suddenly, then dying back down.
- Harmonizing
- Singers landing on the same chord together.
- Hashing
- Working something out, or scrambling data beyond recognition.
- Hatching
- An egg cracking open as the chick emerges.
- Herding
- Moving a group in one direction, more or less.
- Honking
- A car horn blaring in traffic.
- Hullaballooing
- Making a commotion out of very little.
- Hyperspacing
- Jumping to lightspeed, straight out of science fiction.
- Ideating
- The word product teams use instead of thinking.
- Imagining
- Picturing something that is not actually there.
- Improvising
- Making it up as you go, convincingly.
- Incubating
- Keeping something warm until it is ready.
- Inferring
- Reading between the lines of what was actually said.
- Infusing
- Steeping flavor into something, tea or otherwise.
- Ionizing
- Stripping electrons off atoms.
- Jitterbugging
- A fast swing dance from the 1930s.
- Julienning
- Cutting vegetables into thin, even matchsticks.
- Kneading
- Working dough by hand until it finally holds together.
- Leavening
- What makes bread rise in the first place.
- Levitating
- Floating in place, no strings involved.
- Lollygagging
- Dawdling, an old word that somehow survived.
- Manifesting
- Willing something into existence, allegedly.
- Marinating
- Letting food sit in flavor before it hits the heat.
- Meandering
- Taking the long way round, with no fixed plan.
- Metamorphosing
- Changing form completely, start to finish.
- Misting
- A fine spray of water, barely a rain.
- Moonwalking
- Michael Jackson's walk, backward and smooth.
- Moseying
- Walking slowly, in absolutely no hurry.
- Mulling
- Turning a thought over, or spicing wine on the stove.
- Mustering
- Gathering the effort to actually start.
- Musing
- Thinking out loud, more or less.
- Nebulizing
- Turning liquid into a fine medical mist.
- Nesting
- Settling into a spot and staying put.
- Newspapering
- Flipping through the daily paper, page by page.
- Noodling
- Playing around with an idea, loosely and without pressure.
- Nucleating
- The first speck a crystal starts growing around.
- Orbiting
- Circling something else, at a fixed distance.
- Orchestrating
- A conductor cueing every section at once.
- Osmosing
- Absorbing something without really trying to.
- Perambulating
- A fancier word than the walk it describes.
- Percolating
- Coffee dripping slowly through the grounds and filter.
- Perusing
- Reading closely, despite what most people think it means.
- Philosophising
- Thinking about the big questions, spelled the British way.
- Photosynthesizing
- Turning sunlight into energy, the way plants do.
- Pollinating
- Carrying pollen from one flower to the next.
- Pondering
- Thinking something over, unhurried.
- Pontificating
- Talking with more confidence than the subject deserves.
- Pouncing
- Jumping on something the moment it appears.
- Precipitating
- Rain falling, or one event triggering the next.
- Prestidigitating
- A fancy word for sleight of hand.
- Processing
- Working through data, or working through a feeling.
- Proofing
- Letting dough rest before it goes in the oven.
- Propagating
- Spreading outward from one plant cutting to the next.
- Puttering
- Doing small tasks with absolutely no urgency.
- Puzzling
- Working out something that does not add up yet.
- Quantumizing
- Not a real physics term. Somebody just liked how it sounded.
- Razzle-dazzling
- Putting on a show, all flash and no substance.
- Razzmatazzing
- More flash, basically the same idea as the last one.
- Recombobulating
- Putting yourself back together after being discombobulated.
- Reticulating
- The SimCity joke about splines that never actually finish loading.
- Roosting
- Finding a perch and staying put till morning.
- Ruminating
- A cow chewing cud, or a mind chewing a thought.
- Sautéing
- Cooking quickly in a little hot fat.
- Scampering
- Running with small, quick, nervous steps.
- Schlepping
- Hauling something heavy, with plenty of complaining.
- Scurrying
- Moving fast, low to the ground, in a hurry.
- Seasoning
- Adding salt and whatever else actually matters.
- Shenaniganing
- Mischief, turned into a verb somewhere along the way.
- Shimmying
- A quick shake from side to side.
- Simmering
- Cooking gently, just under a boil.
- Skedaddling
- Leaving in a hurry, no explanation given.
- Sketching
- Drawing the rough shape of an idea first.
- Slithering
- Moving low and sideways, like a snake.
- Smooshing
- Squashing something flat, gently or not so gently.
- Sock-hopping
- A 1950s dance named for dancing in your socks.
- Spelunking
- Exploring caves. There is a real word for that.
- Spinning
- Turning in circles, or telling a story your own way.
- Sprouting
- A seed's very first sign of growth.
- Stewing
- Cooking something slowly in liquid over low heat.
- Sublimating
- Going straight from solid to gas, no liquid stage.
- Swirling
- Moving in a slow circular current.
- Swooping
- Diving down fast, the way a hawk does.
- Symbioting
- Two things helping each other out to both survive.
- Synthesizing
- Building one new compound out of separate ingredients.
- Tempering
- Heating and cooling chocolate to give it a glossy snap.
- Thinking
- The one verb the other 185 are all dressed up as.
- Thundering
- Loud and heavy, like an approaching storm.
- Tinkering
- Fiddling with something just to see how it works.
- Tomfoolering
- Foolish behavior with an actual name attached to it.
- Topsy-turvying
- Turning everything upside down, on purpose.
- Transfiguring
- Changing form entirely, a word with religious roots.
- Transmuting
- Turning one substance into another, alchemy's old goal.
- Twisting
- Rotating one end while the other end holds still.
- Undulating
- Moving in a smooth, repeating wave.
- Unfurling
- A flag catching the wind and opening out.
- Unravelling
- Coming apart, thread by thread.
- Vibing
- Being in the mood. That is the whole definition.
- Waddling
- Walking with short, side to side steps.
- Wandering
- Moving with no fixed destination in mind.
- Warping
- Wood curling out of true after it dries.
- Whatchamacalliting
- Standing in for a forgotten word, and it has its own dictionary entry.
- Whirlpooling
- Spinning water pulling everything toward its center.
- Whirring
- The sound a small motor makes.
- Whisking
- Beating something fast with a wire whisk.
- Wibbling
- Wobbling and rambling at roughly the same time.
- Working
- Putting in effort to get something done.
- Wrangling
- Managing something unruly, cattle or otherwise.
- Zesting
- Grating the outer peel of citrus for flavor.
- Zigzagging
- Moving in sharp turns, left then right.
If 186 isn't enough for you
There's a community repo, claude-code-spinner-verbs, that takes this idea much further: 3,330 entries across 110 themed categories, including "1960s Hippie" and "Cybersecurity." Copy the entries you want, then tell Claude Code to add them to your settings.json with mode: "append".
That repo states 185 built-in defaults, where version 2.1.220 has 186. I don't think either number is wrong.
The list moves between releases, and whoever counted the repo's baseline was reading a different version than I was. Count it yourself in six months and expect a different number again.
I keep running into this with Claude Code: the parts of it that are configurable are rarely spelled out in plain English, they're just sitting in a schema, waiting for someone to read it. That's the same territory the skills field report and the cowork field report both come from, poking at what the tool does when nobody's watching closely, mostly for fun. If odd little findings like this are your thing, I keep a running collection of small utilities on the tools page as well.
FAQ
- How many spinner verbs does Claude Code actually have?
- 186, in version 2.1.220, read straight out of the installed binary on 2026-07-31. That number is not fixed. It's a snapshot of one release, and the list has already changed at least once, since a widely used community repo lists 185.
- Why does the count land on 186 and not 185?
- Because the list contains both 'Channeling' and 'Channelling', the American and British spelling, as two separate entries. If you count by hand and land on 185, you likely merged those two without meaning to.
- Can I add my own spinner verbs?
- Yes, through the spinnerVerbs setting in ~/.claude/settings.json. Set mode to append to add your words on top of the defaults, or replace to swap the defaults out entirely.
- What happens if I set mode to replace and leave the verbs array empty?
- Claude Code falls back to the built-in list instead of showing nothing. That's a real branch in the code, so an empty replace config is actually a safe way to reset to defaults.
- Is there a bigger list than the built-in one?
- Yes. The community repo claude-code-spinner-verbs on GitHub collects 3,330 entries across 110 themed categories, including '1960s Hippie' and more work-relevant ones like 'Cybersecurity'. You copy what you want and append it the same way as any custom verb.
