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Use Structured Output

Goal

Move from human inspection to scriptable behavior. Bijux is most useful when you request explicit output formats instead of scraping styled terminal text.

flowchart TD
    A[Command result] --> B{Need automation?}
    B -->|Yes| C[Use --format json or --format yaml]
    B -->|No| D[Use default human-readable output]
    C --> E[Parse a stable envelope]

This flowchart explains the branching rule for output formats. Human-readable text stays appropriate for interactive work, while automation should switch to an explicit structured format before any downstream parsing begins.

sequenceDiagram
    participant U as User
    participant C as CLI
    participant J as JSON consumer
    U->>C: bijux status --format json --no-pretty
    C-->>U: compact JSON
    U->>J: pass JSON to script
    J-->>U: stable machine-readable handling

The sequence diagram shows the handoff that matters in practice: the CLI emits one structured payload, and the consumer handles that payload directly instead of scraping styled terminal output.

First Structured Command

Run:

bijux status --format json --no-pretty

If you prefer YAML for manual inspection:

bijux status --format yaml

Working Rule

For automation:

  • prefer json
  • add --no-pretty when compact output matters
  • rely on exit codes and structured output together

For interactive work:

  • human-readable text is fine
  • YAML can be useful when reading nested structures manually

Honest Limit

Structured output improves reliability, but it does not remove the need to check exit codes. A script that ignores command failure and only parses output is still brittle.

Continue to Troubleshoot Early Problems.