feat(cli): add global --output persistent flag by nvanthao · Pull Request #740 · replicatedhq/replicated

nvanthao · 2026-05-21T06:38:38Z

Summary

Introduce a global --output (-o) persistent flag on the root command that all subcommands inherit, replacing ~78 local --output flag registrations. Also adds support for a new REPLICATED_OUTPUT environment variable for setting a default output format.

Resolution Order

Explicit --output flag on the command line
REPLICATED_OUTPUT environment variable
Default: "table"

Changes

Core Infrastructure

Added resolveOutputFormat() to runners with resolution order: explicit flag → env var → "table" default
Registered global persistent flag on root command
Wired resolution into preRunSetupAPIs and prerunCommand
Added Proxy: http.ProxyFromEnvironment to the platform HTTP client transport so the CLI now respects HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, and NO_PROXY environment variables

Command Refactoring

Migrated version command from --json bool flag to global --output (legacy --json preserved but deprecated)
Refactored 17 commands that declared local outputFormat variables to use r.outputFormat directly:
- app (ls, create, rm, hostname ls)
- customer (ls, create, inspect)
- policy (ls, get, create, update)
- default (show, set)
- enterprise-portal (status get/update, invite, user ls)
Removed redundant local flags from ~50 commands already binding to r.outputFormat
Refactored notification.go — all 10 subcommands now use r.outputFormat
Refactored cluster addon commands — cluster_addon_ls.go and cluster_addon_create_objectstore.go
Added JSON output support to previously table-only commands:
- channel adoption — full JSON marshaling of ChannelAdoption struct
- channel counts — full JSON marshaling of LicenseCounts struct
- release promote — structured JSON output with channel, release_sequence, and version_label
- release image ls — print.ChannelImages now supports JSON format
Added SilenceUsage: true to hidden commands channel adoption and channel counts

Clean Up

Removed clusterAddonCreateObjectStoreOutput from runnerArgs

Tests

Added cli/cmd/output_test.go with 3 unit tests verifying resolution priority
Added cli/print/channel_adoption_test.go (5 tests)
Added cli/print/channel_images_test.go (4 tests)
Added cli/print/channel_license_counts_test.go (5 tests)

Documentation

Added docs/plans/global-output-flag.md containing the full design and implementation plan

Exclusions (Intentionally Left Unchanged)

customer download-license --output — still a file path flag
login, logout, completion, config — no output formatting

Verification

go build ./... — zero errors
go test ./cli/cmd/... — all pass
Global --output appears in replicated --help
REPLICATED_OUTPUT=json works without explicit --output json
Explicit --output wide still overrides env var
customer download-license --output still works as a file path flag

Introduce a global --output (-o) persistent flag on the root command that all subcommands inherit, replacing ~78 local --output flag registrations. Also adds support for a new REPLICATED_OUTPUT environment variable for setting a default output format. Key changes: - Added resolveOutputFormat() with resolution order: explicit flag, REPLICATED_OUTPUT env var, then 'table' default - Migrated version command from --json bool to global --output - Refactored 17 commands that used local outputFormat variables - Removed redundant local --output flag registrations from ~50 commands - Added unit tests for output format resolution - Cleaned up runnerArgs by removing clusterAddonCreateObjectStoreOutput

- add JSON output for release promote - hide usage text for channel adoption and counts

marccampbell · 2026-05-22T03:36:20Z

this file is likely accidentally committed, lets not commit it

xavpaice

Clean consolidation of output formatting logic. Using r.outputFormat everywhere and resolving it via resolveOutputFormat() in the two persistent pre-run hooks is the right approach.
Explicit flag correctly wins over env var, and env var correctly wins over default. Tests cover this.
JSON support added for channel adoption, channel counts, release image ls, and release promote is consistent with the rest of the CLI.
version --json deprecation path is handled gracefully.
Good test coverage for the new print functions.

Issues

cli/cmd/network_update.go:51 still registers its own local --output flag:
cmd.Flags().StringVar(&r.outputFormat, "output", "table", "The output format to use. One of: json|table|wide"), was this one missed?

cli/cmd/customer_download_license.go:42 uses -o / --output for a file path:
cmd.Flags().StringVarP(&output, "output", "o", "-", "Path to output license to. Defaults to stdout")

The local flag shadows the global format flag, so the command still works for its intended purpose. However, this means --output json on this command writes the license to a file literally named json instead of formatting as JSON. Rather than change the command in this PR, let's open a followup issue for this inconsistency. We don't want to make a breaking change here, but a future PR could add a --output-file or --path for the file output and consider if the json output is useful for this command.

I haven't yet run each command to test the look of the json output. When we discuss 'wire format' in the Shortcut, are we suggesting that the entire API json response should be posted? Is that huge and problematic, or deliberate?

xavpaice · 2026-05-24T21:26:10Z

 // This is a singleton that's reused for all requests to avoid leaking connections.
 var httpClient = &http.Client{
 	Transport: &http.Transport{
+		Proxy: http.ProxyFromEnvironment,


nit: is this related to the change? Just want to understand the reason, rather than remove the change.

I saw this during testing the changes, the CLI currently not respecting HTTP proxy env vars (HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, NO_PROXY), adding this here so that the CLI will respect the proxy settings.

cursor

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

^{❌ Bugbot Autofix is OFF. To automatically fix reported issues with cloud agents, enable autofix in the Cursor dashboard.}

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 029b29e. Configure here.}

cursor · 2026-05-25T00:59:18Z

 		log := logger.NewLogger(r.w).SetIsTerminal(r.stdoutIsTTY)
+		if r.outputFormat == "json" {
+			log.Silence()
+		}


JSON promote hides airgap errors

Medium Severity

When release promote runs with JSON output (including via REPLICATED_OUTPUT) and --wait-for-airgap, the waiter logger is silenced before waitForAirgapBuilds. Per-channel failure and warning text only goes through that logger, so users get a generic error without the detailed airgap status that table mode still shows.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 029b29e. Configure here.}

nvanthao · 2026-05-25T01:17:35Z

@xavpaice

I have updated global flag for network_update
Follow-up issue opened for download license cli: customer download-license --output flag shadows global --output format flag #748
Yes I believe the wire format is to print out entire API json with exeception release promote and release image ls, for the other 3 commands channel counts, channel releases, channel adoption, these are for heritage app

nvanthao marked this pull request as draft May 21, 2026 06:40

cursor Bot reviewed May 21, 2026

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Comment thread cli/cmd/root.go

Comment thread cli/cmd/root.go

nvanthao added 6 commits May 21, 2026 16:48

run lint

5b4ccf0

bug bot fix

f06cab0

- respect proxy settings

413c383

- add JSON output for release promote - hide usage text for channel adoption and counts

mark verison --json as deprecated

67454cd

release image ls output

8feb268

channel adoption and channel counts

bdb47a9

nvanthao marked this pull request as ready for review May 22, 2026 02:21

marccampbell reviewed May 22, 2026

View reviewed changes

docs: remove global-output-flag.md plan doc

19169ad

xavpaice reviewed May 24, 2026

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update output flag for network_update

029b29e

cursor Bot reviewed May 25, 2026

View reviewed changes

nvanthao mentioned this pull request May 25, 2026

cli: customer download-license --output flag shadows global --output format flag #748

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xavpaice approved these changes May 25, 2026

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feat(cli): add global --output persistent flag#740

feat(cli): add global --output persistent flag#740
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nvanthao commented May 21, 2026 •

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Summary

Resolution Order

Changes

Core Infrastructure

Command Refactoring

Clean Up

Tests

Documentation

Exclusions (Intentionally Left Unchanged)

Verification

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marccampbell May 22, 2026

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JSON promote hides airgap errors

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nvanthao commented May 25, 2026

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nvanthao commented May 21, 2026 •

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