[terminal-stylist] Console output consistency analysis for pkg/ (Go)

[github-actions[bot]]

Overview

Scope: 1,766 non-test Go files under pkg/ (*_test.go and testdata/ excluded). Serena was activated for gh-aw, and the key call sites were confirmed with Serena reference lookups.

The console layer is in good shape. Styling is centralized, TTY-aware, NO_COLOR-aware, and destination-aware (stdout vs stderr). Huh forms always go through the console.New*Form wrappers, so theme and accessibility apply everywhere. Most issues come from call sites that bypass these helpers.

Metric	Value
Files importing pkg/console	293 of 1,766
Bare fmt.Print* (no writer) in production code	0
Raw fmt.Fprint*(os.Stderr/os.Stdout, ...) call sites	2,690 in 290 files
Of those, lines with no console. or styles. token	828
Files importing lipgloss / huh / Bubble Tea	12 / 17 / 6
Hex color constants (all in pkg/styles/theme.go)	22
consolestderr linter nolint exemptions	2

Findings (ranked)

#	Severity	Issue	Main locations
1	Bug (visible)	Double success or error markers in output	mcp_inspect_mcp.go 90, 673; pip_validation.go 110, 268; npm_validation.go 102; agent_validation.go 449; mcp_validation.go 171; generate_action_metadata_command.go 75
2	Medium	Pre-rendered ANSI written around the color-profile writer, so NO_COLOR is not honored	console.go 525 (RenderErrorBox); deps_security.go 96-98; mcp_inspect_mcp.go 68-82
3	Medium	Literal markdown **Label:** printed to the terminal	mcp_inspect_mcp.go 523-555; audit_diff_render.go (20 raw lines across the 2 files)
4	Medium	Spinner completions use a hand-typed, unstyled checkmark	12 of 13 StopWithMessage calls
5	Low	Raw warning and note prefixes outside the compiler and console helpers	cache_steps.go 24; push_to_pull_request_branch.go 128; run_workflow_execution.go 297, 391, 475; preconditions.go
6	Low	Hand-built tables and rules instead of console layout helpers	audit_cross_run_render.go (37 raw writes, %-30s columns); 4 hand-rolled strings.Repeat rules in pkg/cli
7	Low	Glyph vocabulary drift (emoji vs console glyphs)	mcp_inspect_mcp.go; deps_security.go (🔴); audit_expanded.go (✅ ❌ ⚠️)
8	Latent	RenderTableStdout with TTYFunc set skips colorwriter.Degrade	console.go (RenderTableStdout, renderTableWithTTY); no production caller sets TTYFunc
9	Design	NO_COLOR and TERM=dumb also enable accessibility mode	accessibility.go 16-18; this disables spinners and switches huh forms to accessible prompts

Details: examples for findings 1, 2, and 4

• Finding 1: a ✅ passed to console.PrintSuccessMessage in mcp_inspect_mcp.go prints ✓ ✅ Successfully connected to MCP server. A ✓ passed to console.FormatInfoMessage prints i ✓ uv package validated. A ✗ passed to console.FormatWarningMessage prints ⚠ ✗ <name>.
• Finding 2: RenderErrorBox returns ANSI-styled lines when stderr is a TTY. Callers write them with fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, line). RenderComposedSections writes through stderrWriter(), which is the color-profile-aware path.
• Finding 4 call sites: mcp_registry.go:125, run.go:53,55,100,102, run_workflow_tracking.go:151,172, workflows.go:175,177, interactive.go:777, logs_download.go:235, status_command.go:585. StopWithMessage writes its argument verbatim, so the checkmark never gets the success style that FormatSuccessMessage applies.

Recommended next actions

1. Fix the double markers: remove the hand-typed glyph from the string, or use the matching helper (FormatSuccessMessage for success lines). Low risk.
2. Route RenderErrorBox, RenderTitleBox, and RenderInfoSection output through stderrWriter() (or RenderComposedSections), or have the box helpers degrade with colorwriter.Degrade.
3. Add a success-completion helper for spinners and migrate the 12 StopWithMessage call sites.
4. Replace literal **Label:** output with styled labels or a key/value table in mcp_inspect_mcp.go and audit_diff_render.go.
5. Route the verbose warnings in cache_steps.go and push_to_pull_request_branch.go through formatCompilerMessage.
6. Add a lint (or extend consolestderr) that flags hand-typed glyphs as the first argument of console.* calls and StopWithMessage. This keeps the double-marker class from coming back.
7. Maintainer decision: keep NO_COLOR implying accessible mode (documented today), or split out a separate color check so NO_COLOR no longer disables spinners.

What already works (keep)

• One adaptive palette in pkg/styles/theme.go with light and dark variants.
• Destination-aware formatters, checked by the consolestderr linter.
• TTY gating on interactive flows, with text-prompt fallbacks (interactive.go, run_interactive.go).
• Hardcoded ANSI is limited to documented cursor and screen control (terminal.go, prompt_form.go).
• No bare fmt.Print* calls in production code.

Method and limits

Static analysis only: grep counts plus Serena reference lookups. Terminal output was not captured at runtime, so findings 2 and 8 come from reading the code paths and have not been reproduced. Test files and testdata/ were excluded. No files were changed.

References: §43394908476

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