Output Formats

Every fsuite tool supports four output modes, selected via -o <format> or format-specific flags.

pretty (default)

Human-readable terminal output, colored when stdout is a TTY.

fs "authenticate" --scope '*.py'

Use this when you’re reading output yourself. Don’t pipe it.

json

Structured JSON, one line per record (JSONL) or a single envelope depending on the tool.

fs "authenticate" --scope '*.py' -o json

Use this for programmatic parsing, automation, and piping into jq. Every tool guarantees a stable schema here.

paths

Plain list of file paths, one per line. Pipe-friendly.

fsearch '*.py' src -o paths | xargs wc -l

Use this when the next tool in your pipeline only needs the file paths — not the content, not the metadata.

quiet (-q)

No stdout output. Exit code only: 0 = matches found, non-zero = no matches.

if fsearch '*.py' src -q; then
  echo "Python files found"
fi

Use this for existence checks, guards, and silent control flow.

Stream conventions

• Results go to stdout
• Errors go to stderr
• Progress goes to stderr (only in pretty mode)

This means fs ... -o json > results.json captures clean JSON with no noise, even if the tool prints warnings.