Output Formats

dtctl supports multiple output formats to suit different workflows – from human-readable tables for interactive use to structured JSON for scripting and AI agents.

Table (Default)

The default output format is a compact, human-readable table:

dtctl get workflows

ID            NAME                     STATE    TRIGGER     LAST RUN
wf-abc123     Daily Health Check       enabled  Schedule    2025-01-15 08:00
wf-def456     Incident Remediation     enabled  Event       2025-01-15 12:34
wf-ghi789     Weekly Report            enabled  Schedule    2025-01-13 06:00

JSON

Output as JSON for scripting and piping to tools like jq:

dtctl get workflow wf-123 -o json

# Pipe to jq for field extraction
dtctl get workflows -o json | jq '.[].name'

YAML

Output as YAML, useful for round-tripping with dtctl apply:

dtctl get workflow wf-123 -o yaml

Wide

The wide format adds additional columns that are hidden in the default table view:

dtctl get workflows -o wide

ID            NAME                     STATE    TRIGGER     OWNER            LAST RUN            LAST STATUS
wf-abc123     Daily Health Check       enabled  Schedule    user@example.com 2025-01-15 08:00    SUCCESS
wf-def456     Incident Remediation     enabled  Event       user@example.com 2025-01-15 12:34    FAILED

Describe

The describe command renders a vertical key-value view with full detail:

dtctl describe workflow wf-123

ID:          wf-abc123
Name:        Daily Health Check
State:       enabled
Trigger:     Schedule (0 8 * * *)
Owner:       user@example.com
Created:     2025-01-01 10:00:00
Modified:    2025-01-14 15:30:00
Tasks:       3

CSV

Export as CSV for spreadsheets and data pipelines:

# Export workflows to a CSV file
dtctl get workflows -o csv > workflows.csv

# Export DQL query results as CSV
dtctl query 'fetch logs | filter status == "ERROR" | limit 100' -o csv > errors.csv

Plain Mode

The --plain flag disables colors, progress indicators, and interactive prompts. This is useful for piping output or running in non-interactive environments:

dtctl get workflows --plain

Color output follows the no-color.org standard:

• --plain flag disables color
• NO_COLOR environment variable disables color
• Non-TTY output (piped) disables color automatically
• FORCE_COLOR=1 overrides TTY detection to force color on

Command Catalog

dtctl can describe its own commands in machine-readable form:

# Full command catalog as JSON
dtctl commands -o json

# Brief catalog (compact, ideal for AI agent bootstrap)
dtctl commands --brief -o json

# Human-readable how-to guide in Markdown
dtctl commands howto

Agent Mode

The --agent (or -A) flag wraps all output in a structured JSON envelope designed for AI agent consumption:

dtctl get workflows --agent

{
  "ok": true,
  "result": [...],
  "context": {
    "verb": "get",
    "resource": "workflow",
    "suggestions": [...]
  }
}

Agent mode is auto-detected when running inside AI agent environments (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, and others). To opt out of auto-detection:

dtctl get workflows --no-agent

Agent mode implies --plain – no colors and no interactive prompts. See AI Agent Mode for full details.

Pagination

List commands support server-side pagination with the --chunk-size flag:

# Fetch in chunks of 200
dtctl get workflows --chunk-size 200

# Default chunk size is 500
dtctl get workflows

# Disable chunking (fetch all at once)
dtctl get workflows --chunk-size=0

All pages are fetched automatically and combined into a single result set.