azure.ai.agents - reduce noisy logs in azd ai agent init and redirect log output when --debug is used

[JeffreyCA]

Resolves #7595

azd ai agent init was printing many internal/debug messages to the terminal that cluttered the user experience. This PR cleans up the output by:

1. Silencing Go log package output by default — The command runner (pkg/exec) and GitHub CLI wrapper (pkg/tools/github) write exec details and version info via Go's standard log package, which defaults to stderr. The extension now redirects log.SetOutput(io.Discard) unless --debug is enabled, matching the behavior of the core azd process.

   When --debug is passed, log statements from the extension should get written to the generated debug .log file.

2. Moving internal messages to debug-only — Verbose messages about manifest parsing strategies, branch resolution, naive URL fallback logic, and validation internals are now log.Printf calls that only appear in debug mode.

3. Switching color.Faint to output.WithGrayFormat — All uses of color.New(color.Faint) have been replaced with output.WithGrayFormat to follow the azd style guide.

4. Improving user-facing download output — The download progress block has been simplified from verbose full-path lines to a clean, scannable format.

Before

After

Verbose logs are available in the .log file generated when --debug is used:

2026/04/08 23:51:20 Downloading manifest from GitHub: https://github.com/<redacted>/blob/main/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/agent.manifest.yaml
2026/04/08 23:51:20 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh --version' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:20 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh --version' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:20 github cli version: 2.89.0
2026/04/08 23:51:20 Attempting to download manifest from 'samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/agent.manifest.yaml' in repository '<redacted>', branch 'main'
2026/04/08 23:51:20 Naive GitHub URL parsing failed to download manifest
2026/04/08 23:51:20 Proceeding with full parsing and download logic...
2026/04/08 23:51:21 Downloaded manifest from branch: main
2026/04/08 23:51:21 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/agent.manifest.yaml?ref=<redacted> -H Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:21 The manifest does not contain parameters that need to be configured.
2026/04/08 23:51:21 Downloading full directory for container agent
2026/04/08 23:51:21 Downloading parent directory 'samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming' from repository '<redacted>', branch 'main'
2026/04/08 23:51:21 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming?ref=<redacted>' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:21 Downloading file: samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/.dockerignore
2026/04/08 23:51:21 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/.dockerignore?ref=<redacted> -H Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:21 Downloading file: samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/Dockerfile
2026/04/08 23:51:22 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/Dockerfile?ref=<redacted> -H Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:22 Downloading file: samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/README.md
2026/04/08 23:51:22 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/README.md?ref=<redacted> -H Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:22 Downloading file: samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/agent.manifest.yaml
2026/04/08 23:51:22 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/agent.manifest.yaml?ref=<redacted> -H Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:22 Downloading file: samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/agent.yaml
2026/04/08 23:51:23 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/agent.yaml?ref=<redacted> -H Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:23 Downloading file: samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/main.py
2026/04/08 23:51:23 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/main.py?ref=<redacted> -H Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' , exit code: 0
2026/04/08 23:51:23 Downloading file: samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/requirements.txt
2026/04/08 23:51:23 Run exec: '/home/vscode/.azd/bin/gh api https://api.github.com/repos/<redacted>/contents/samples/python/agentserver-responses/echo-agent-streaming/requirements.txt?ref=<redacted> -H Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' , exit code: 0

Changes

• internal/cmd/debug.go — Redirect log.SetOutput to io.Discard by default; route to log file when --debug is active.
• internal/cmd/init.go — Convert ~20 verbose fmt.Printf calls to log.Printf; simplify user-facing messages; use output.WithGrayFormat; show indented filenames instead of full paths.
• internal/cmd/banner.go — Replace color.Faint with output.WithGrayFormat.
• internal/cmd/init_from_templates_helpers.go — Replace color.Faint with output.WithGrayFormat.
• internal/pkg/agents/registry_api/helpers.go — Move "no parameters" info message to debug log.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Reduces noisy user-facing terminal output from the azd ai agent init flow in the azure.ai.agents extension by defaulting internal/exec logging to debug-only output, and aligning de-emphasized text styling with azd’s output helpers.

Changes:

• Silences Go log output by default (unless --debug is enabled), and routes debug logs to a file.
• Converts verbose init-time fmt.Printf messages to log.Printf (debug-only) while keeping a smaller set of user-facing progress messages.
• Replaces color.Faint usage with output.WithGrayFormat and simplifies download progress output.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/cmd/debug.go	Redirects stdlib log output to a log file in debug mode; discards it otherwise; continues Azure SDK log listener setup.
cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/cmd/init.go	Moves verbose init messaging to debug logs; updates gray output formatting; simplifies download progress display.
cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/cmd/banner.go	Switches faint styling to output.WithGrayFormat for version/docs lines.
cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/cmd/init_from_templates_helpers.go	Switches “Retrieving agent templates…” to output.WithGrayFormat.
cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/pkg/agents/registry_api/helpers.go	Moves “no parameters to configure” message to debug log output.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 11 out of 11 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

[jongio]

Clean cleanup of noisy init output. One edge case to consider:

• internal/cmd/debug.go:35 - when log file creation fails in debug mode, Azure SDK events are silently lost (old code fell back to stderr)

Cleanup function pattern, output.WithGrayFormat migration, and rootDirPath threading for relative paths all look correct.