Output formats

Every command that emits records renders through the same formatter. Pick a format with --output (or -o), or let arctic choose: a table when writing to a terminal, JSONL when piped.

Formats

arctic query golang -o table   # aligned columns for reading
arctic query golang -o jsonl   # one JSON object per line, for piping
arctic query golang -o json    # a single JSON array
arctic query golang -o csv     # spreadsheet friendly
arctic query golang -o tsv     # tab-separated

Format	Best for
table	Reading on a terminal
jsonl	Piping into another tool, one object at a time
json	Loading a whole result as an array
csv / tsv	Spreadsheets and quick column math
url	Bare URL per row
raw	The unformatted bytes

The formatter is shared by every command that emits records: query, stats, catalog, process, sub info, user info, info, and version.

Narrowing columns

Keep only the fields you want:

arctic query golang --fields author,score,body
arctic stats --by month --fields month,records

The field names are the record's keys, which match the JSON output, so arctic query golang -o json -n 1 shows you every available name. --fields works the same across every format: table, csv, and tsv keep those columns in that order, and json and jsonl project the same ordered subset.

--no-header drops the header row in table, csv, and tsv output, which is handy when a downstream tool expects bare rows.

Templating records

For full control over each line, apply a Go text/template. The fields are the record's keys:

arctic query golang --template '{{.author}}: {{.body}}'
arctic query golang --kind submissions --template '{{.score}}	{{.title}}'

Why auto-detection helps

Because the default adapts to the destination, the same command reads well by hand and parses cleanly in a pipe:

arctic query golang                  # a table, because this is a terminal
arctic query golang | jq -r .author  # JSONL, because this is a pipe

You only reach for -o when you want something other than that default.

Color

--color is auto by default: arctic colors table output on a terminal and drops color when piped. Force it with --color always or turn it off with --color never.

Progress and stdout

Acquisition and conversion print progress to stderr, while the records render on stdout. That keeps a pipe clean and lets you silence the progress with -q (--quiet) without losing the data.