# Plain output for agents and CI

> Wire --json and --no-color through the runtime so an agent, a CI log and a user who opts out all get plain text, from one fly() at startup.

Source: https://roundel.interlace.tools/docs/recipes/plain-output-for-agents

An agent reading your CLI's output, a CI log and a user who typed `--no-color` all want the
same thing: no escape codes. Hand the policy what it needs — the environment, the arguments and
whether stdout is a terminal — and pass `{ json }` when the run asked for structured output.
Nothing else in the program has to check.

```js title="status.mjs"
import process from 'node:process';

import { fly } from 'roundel/theme';
import { error, ok } from 'roundel/tokens';

const argv = process.argv.slice(2);
const json = argv.includes('--json');
fly({}, { env: process.env, argv, isTTY: { stdout: process.stdout.isTTY === true } }, { json });

const results = [
  ['api', true],
  ['web', false],
];

if (json) console.log(JSON.stringify(Object.fromEntries(results)));
else for (const [name, passed] of results) console.log(JSON.stringify(`${name} ${passed ? ok('passed') : error('failed')}`));
```

```text title="FORCE_COLOR=1 node status.mjs"
"api \u001b[32mpassed\u001b[39m"
"web \u001b[91mfailed\u001b[39m"
```

```text title="FORCE_COLOR=1 node status.mjs --no-color"
"api passed"
"web failed"
```

```text title="FORCE_COLOR=1 node status.mjs --json"
{"api":true,"web":false}
```

(`JSON.stringify` around each line only makes the escape codes visible here.)

`--no-color` wins over the `FORCE_COLOR=1` a CI configuration exported, because it was typed
for this run. `--json` would be plain even if a token slipped into the structured output,
because the level under `--json` is always 0.

A program built on [burgee](https://burgee.interlace.tools/docs) gets all of this without the
wiring: burgee hands roundel its runtime and its `--json` flag.