Styled Output

Styled Output

OutputBuilder collects lines and renders them to ANSI when you emit. Pass it wherever an option takes text (toUser, toClaude):

import { ICONS, OutputBuilder, PostToolUse } from '@aeriondyseti/plugin-kit';

const toUser = new OutputBuilder()
    .appendBox(`${ICONS.check} ${input.tool_name}`, { title: '● PostToolUse', color: 'green' })
    .appendTable(rows, { headers: ['key', 'value'], color: 'green' });

PostToolUse.emitOutput({ toUser });

Methods

All return the builder, so they chain.

Method	Draws
append(text)	text with no newline
appendLine(text?)	a line
appendDivider(char?, { width?, color? })	a rule across the terminal
appendList(items, { bullet?, indent? })	a bulleted list
appendBox(content, { title?, color?, padding? })	content in a unicode box
appendTable(rows, { headers?, color? })	a bordered table, left-aligned
appendWidgets(widgets, { barWidth?, glyphs? })	widgets, one row each (see Widgets)
appendWidget(name, widget, opts?)	one widget

render() (or toString()) returns the final string.

Tags

Any text may carry inline tags:

builder.appendLine('<color:"red"><bold>boom</bold></color> and <dim>a note</dim>');

Tag
<color:"name">…</color>	foreground color
<bg:"name">…</bg>	background color
<bold>, <dim>, <italic>, <underline>	modifiers

Colors: black red green yellow blue magenta cyan white gray. Unknown tags pass through as text, so a typo shows. renderTags, stripTags and visualWidth (cell width, ignoring tags) are exported for your own layout.

Known limit: nesting the same tag (<color> inside <color>) doesn't restore the outer color when the inner one closes.

Icons

Constants, not tags, so a typo is a compile error:

builder.appendLine(`${ICONS.check} build passed`);

check ✓ cross ✗ warn ⚠ info ℹ arrow ▸ bullet • dot · star ★

Colors on or off

Colors are on by default, even though a hook's stdout isn't a terminal: Claude Code renders the ANSI. They turn off when NO_COLOR is set or FORCE_COLOR=0, and you can force either way with setTheme({ colors: false }). With colors off, tags are stripped and the text kept.