Output Formats

Council commands support multiple output formats for different use cases: human-readable terminal output, machine-readable JSON, and structured exports like ADR.

Export Formats

council export

Export panel transcripts to various formats.

council export <panel> --format <format> [--output <path>]

Format	Description	Use Case
markdown	(Default) Readable transcript with H1 header and expert attribution.	Documentation, PR descriptions, sharing with teams.
json	NDJSON stream (newline-delimited JSON). One message per line.	Programmatic processing, archival, analytics.
adr	Architecture Decision Record markdown. Includes Status, Context, Decision, Consequences.	Decision logging, RFC workflows, documentation.

Examples:

# Markdown to stdout
council export my-panel

# NDJSON to file
council export my-panel --format json --output transcript.ndjson

# ADR format
council export my-panel --format adr --output decision.md

Command-Specific Formats

council convene / council resume / council ask

Renderer format for live debate output.

council convene <panel> --format <format>

Format	Description
auto	(Default) Ink (interactive TUI) if TTY detected, plain otherwise.
ink	Interactive terminal UI with live updates, spinners, and rich formatting.
plain	Non-interactive line-by-line output. Respects NO_COLOR and COUNCIL_ASCII.
json	NDJSON stream for programmatic consumption.

Examples:

# Auto-detect
council convene "Review this architecture" --panel tech-review

# Force plain (useful in CI or for logging)
council convene "Review this architecture" --panel tech-review --format plain

# JSON stream
council convene "Review this architecture" --panel tech-review --format json > debate.ndjson

For completed council convene --format json runs, the stream ends with a conclusion event after the debate.end event:

{"kind":"conclusion","conclusion":{...}}

The conclusion object matches council conclude --format json: panelName, topic, debateId, startedAt, consensus, tensions, decisionMatrix, recommendation, confidence, and optional warnings.

This automatic conclusion is generated by default and costs one additional premium synthesis request. Pass --no-conclude to omit the final conclusion event.

council panel list / council expert list

Tabular or JSON output for listing resources.

council panel list --format <format>
council expert list --format <format>

Format	Description
table	(Default) Human-readable table.
json	JSON array of objects.

Examples:

# Table view
council panel list

# JSON for scripting
council panel list --format json | jq '.[] | select(.name == "code-review")'

council sessions list

council sessions list --format <format>

Format	Description
plain	(Default) Human-readable list.
json	NDJSON (one session per line).

Examples:

# Plain list
council sessions list

# JSON stream
council sessions list --format json

council memory list / council memory show

council memory list --format <format>
council memory show <key> --format <format>

Format	Description
plain	(Default) Human-readable output.
json	JSON object or array.

Programmatic JSON Output

All JSON formats are machine-readable and suitable for:

• CI/CD pipelines
• Log aggregation
• Custom analytics dashboards
• Scripting and automation

Tip: Combine with jq for powerful querying:

council panel list --format json | jq '.[] | select(.experts | length > 3)'

Related

• Environment Variables — NO_COLOR, COUNCIL_ASCII
• Commands Reference — Full command syntax