From 77b9d943e42c04e4d26a29932c5099695406d992 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: sneak <sneak@sneak.berlin>
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2026 04:35:28 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?Use=20=F0=9F=9B=91=20(red=20octagonal=20stop=20?=
 =?UTF-8?q?sign)=20for=20ERROR=20prefix?=
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

❌ is a thin black-and-white cross that gets lost against terminal
backgrounds and the ANSI red text. 🛑 is a solid red octagon that
reads unmistakably as 'stop/error' at a glance, even when the user
isn't reading the line carefully.
---
 README.md              | 2 +-
 internal/ui/ui.go      | 4 ++--
 internal/ui/ui_test.go | 2 +-
 3 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1e6b23e..bce272e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -405,7 +405,7 @@ Message classes:
 | Info | `》` (white) | column 0 | Neutral status update |
 | Notice | `》` (cyan) | column 0 | Important note that is not a warning |
 | Warning | `⚠️  Warning:` (orange/yellow) | column 0 | Recoverable problem |
-| Error | `❌ ERROR:` (red) | column 0 | Operation aborted |
+| Error | `🛑 ERROR:` (red) | column 0 | Operation aborted |
 | Progress | `  》` (white) | column 2 | Heartbeat or per-item status during a long-running operation |
 
 Conventions:
diff --git a/internal/ui/ui.go b/internal/ui/ui.go
index dc7f374..354949b 100644
--- a/internal/ui/ui.go
+++ b/internal/ui/ui.go
@@ -119,11 +119,11 @@ func (w *Writer) Warning(format string, args ...any) {
 	_, _ = fmt.Fprintln(w.out, prefix+fmt.Sprintf(format, args...))
 }
 
-// Error prints "❌ ERROR: " in red followed by the message. Goes to the
+// Error prints "🛑 ERROR: " in red followed by the message. Goes to the
 // same writer as everything else; callers that want stderr should
 // construct a separate Writer for it.
 func (w *Writer) Error(format string, args ...any) {
-	prefix := "❌ " + w.paint(ansiRed+ansiBold, "ERROR: ")
+	prefix := "🛑 " + w.paint(ansiRed+ansiBold, "ERROR: ")
 	_, _ = fmt.Fprintln(w.out, prefix+fmt.Sprintf(format, args...))
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/ui/ui_test.go b/internal/ui/ui_test.go
index 28860a1..08999df 100644
--- a/internal/ui/ui_test.go
+++ b/internal/ui/ui_test.go
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ func TestMessageMethodsPlain(t *testing.T) {
 		{"Info", func(w *Writer) { w.Info("status") }, "》 status\n"},
 		{"Notice", func(w *Writer) { w.Notice("note") }, "》 note\n"},
 		{"Warning", func(w *Writer) { w.Warning("oops") }, "⚠️  Warning: oops\n"},
-		{"Error", func(w *Writer) { w.Error("boom") }, "❌ ERROR: boom\n"},
+		{"Error", func(w *Writer) { w.Error("boom") }, "🛑 ERROR: boom\n"},
 		{"Progress", func(w *Writer) { w.Progress("p") }, "  》 p\n"},
 		{"Banner", func(w *Writer) { w.Banner("hello") }, "hello\n"},
 	}