09 Output Formats

Output Formats

nitpik supports ten output formats for different environments — from styled terminal output for local development to structured formats and real PR/MR reviews for CI platforms.

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Formats Overview

Format	--format value	Use case
Styled terminal	terminal	Local development (default)
JSON	json	Custom tooling, dashboards, scripts
GitHub annotations	github	GitHub Actions
GitHub PR review	github-pr-review	Real inline PR review on GitHub
GitLab Code Quality	gitlab	GitLab CI merge request widgets
GitLab MR review	gitlab-mr-review	Real inline merge-request review on GitLab
Bitbucket Code Insights	bitbucket	Bitbucket Pipelines
Bitbucket PR review	bitbucket-pr-review	Real inline pull-request review on Bitbucket
Checkstyle XML	checkstyle	Any CI platform with checkstyle support
Forgejo/Gitea PR review	forgejo	Woodpecker CI, Forgejo, Gitea

Terminal (Default)

nitpik review --diff-base main

Styled, human-readable output with color-coded severities. Includes a banner, progress display, and findings summary. Use --quiet to suppress everything except findings and errors.

JSON

nitpik review --diff-base main --format json

Outputs a JSON object with a findings array. Each finding contains file, line, end_line, severity, title, message, suggestion, and agent. Suitable for piping into jq, custom dashboards, or downstream tools.

GitHub Actions

nitpik review --diff-base main --format github

Outputs findings as GitHub Actions workflow commands (::error::, ::warning::, ::notice::). These appear as inline annotations on pull requests.

See CI/CD Integration — GitHub Actions for full pipeline setup.

GitLab Code Quality

nitpik review --diff-base main --format gitlab > gl-code-quality-report.json

Outputs a GitLab Code Quality report. Upload it as a CI artifact to see findings in the merge request Code Quality widget.

See CI/CD Integration — GitLab for full pipeline setup.

GitLab MR Review

nitpik review --diff-base "$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_DIFF_BASE_SHA" --format gitlab-mr-review

Posts a real inline merge-request review — a summary note plus a positioned discussion on each finding's line — instead of a Code Quality artifact. Like github-pr-review, it is dedup-aware (a re-run only posts findings not already raised) and can request changes via --request-changes.

Runs in a merge-request pipeline (CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID set) and authenticates with GITLAB_TOKEN (a project/personal token with api scope) or the pipeline's CI_JOB_TOKEN. Choose this over gitlab when you want conversational inline review comments rather than the Code Quality widget.

Bitbucket Code Insights

nitpik review --diff-base main --format bitbucket

Posts findings as Code Insights annotations via the Bitbucket API. Inside Bitbucket Pipelines, authentication is handled automatically through the built-in proxy — no token required. Outside Pipelines, set the BITBUCKET_TOKEN environment variable with pullrequest and repository:write scopes.

See CI/CD Integration — Bitbucket for pipeline config.

Bitbucket PR Review

nitpik review --diff-base origin/main --format bitbucket-pr-review

Posts a real inline pull-request review — a summary comment plus a comment on each finding's line — instead of commit-level Code Insights annotations. Like github-pr-review, it is dedup-aware (a re-run only posts findings not already raised) and supports --request-changes.

Runs on a PR-triggered pipeline (BITBUCKET_PR_ID set) and authenticates with a BITBUCKET_TOKEN access token that has pull-request write scope (the in-Pipelines proxy used by bitbucket Code Insights does not cover PR comments). Choose this over bitbucket when you want conversational inline review comments rather than the Code Insights panel.

Checkstyle XML

nitpik review --diff-base main --format checkstyle > checkstyle-report.xml

Outputs findings in the standard Checkstyle XML format. Each finding maps to a <error> element with severity, message, and source attributes.

Checkstyle XML is a universal interchange format supported across the CI ecosystem. Use it when your platform doesn't have a dedicated nitpik output format, or when you want a file-based approach without API calls:

Platform	How to consume checkstyle XML
Bitbucket Pipelines	Use the Checkstyle Code Insight Report pipe to display findings as Code Insights annotations
Jenkins	The Warnings Next Generation plugin natively ingests checkstyle XML
Any platform	reviewdog accepts checkstyle XML via -f=checkstyle and posts annotations to GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea, and more

Tip: If your CI platform already has a dedicated nitpik format (github, gitlab, bitbucket, forgejo), prefer that — it provides tighter integration. Use checkstyle for platforms without a dedicated format, for local tooling, or when you want a portable file you can process downstream.

Forgejo / Gitea

nitpik review --diff-base main --format forgejo

Posts findings as inline PR review comments via the Forgejo/Gitea API. Requires a FORGEJO_TOKEN environment variable with write:repository scope.

See CI/CD Integration — Woodpecker/Forgejo for token setup and pipeline config.

Cross-Lens Corroboration

The PR-native review formats (github-pr-review, gitlab-mr-review, bitbucket-pr-review) badge findings that multiple independent reviewer lenses raised separately. When two or more reviewers (e.g. the correctness and security lenses) flag the same issue, nitpik collapses them into one comment and appends a note to the attribution line:

_— agent: security · corroborated by 3 independent reviewers_

The review summary also counts them (e.g. "2 corroborated by multiple reviewers"). Independent agreement is a strong signal a finding is real, so corroborated findings are worth prioritizing. Findings a single lens raised carry no badge — they are the normal case, not a weaker one.

Failing on Findings

By default, nitpik exits with a non-zero status code when any finding has severity error — matching the behavior of standard testing and linting tools like PHPUnit, Vitest, and ESLint.

Override the threshold with --fail-on:

nitpik review --diff-base main --format github --fail-on warning

--fail-on value	Exits non-zero when
error (default)	Any finding has severity error
warning	Any finding has severity warning or error
info	Any finding exists (any severity)

To disable failure entirely (always exit 0), use --no-fail:

nitpik review --diff-base main --no-fail

Related Pages

• CI/CD Integration — full pipeline setup for each platform
• Configuration — --format and --fail-on in config
• CLI Reference — all output flags