Terminal Stylist Report: Console Output Analysis

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🎨 Console Output Analysis for gh-aw

Analysis Date: 2026-01-08
Analyzed Files: 416 non-test Go files
Console Output Patterns Found: 164 files
Overall Grade: A (92/100)

---

📊 Executive Summary

The gh-aw codebase demonstrates excellent adherence to modern terminal UI best practices using the Charmbracelet ecosystem (Lipgloss and Huh). The analysis reveals a well-architected console output system with strong patterns and minimal anti-patterns.

Key Strengths

• ✅ Centralized adaptive color system with light/dark terminal support
• ✅ Strong adoption of console formatting (1,047 uses)
• ✅ Proper TTY detection throughout
• ✅ Zero inline style creation (all styles centralized)
• ✅ Proper stderr usage for all console output
• ✅ Structured error rendering with IDE integration

Improvement Opportunities

• ⚠️ Underutilized lipgloss/table (only 14 uses, could expand)
• ⚠️ Underutilized lipgloss/tree (0 uses in non-test code)
• ⚠️ Limited huh usage beyond confirmations
• ⚠️ Some raw fmt.Fprintf for separators (minor)

---

🏗️ Architecture Analysis

Console Package Structure

pkg/console/
├── console.go          # Core formatting, error handling, TTY detection
├── format.go           # Utility formatters (FormatFileSize, etc.)
├── render.go           # Struct rendering with reflection
├── layout.go           # Composition helpers for layouts
├── confirm.go          # Interactive prompts with huh
├── banner.go           # Banner rendering
├── spinner.go          # Spinner UI elements
├── progress.go         # Progress indicators
├── list.go             # Interactive lists (Bubble Tea)
└── accessibility.go    # Accessibility mode support

pkg/styles/
└── theme.go            # Centralized adaptive color system

Pattern Distribution

Pattern	Count	Notes
fmt.Fprint* calls	1,601	Mostly wrapping console.Format* ✅
console.Format* calls	1,047	Strong adoption ✅
Inline lipgloss.NewStyle()	0	Perfect centralization ✅
RenderTable usage	14	Good, but could expand
tree.New() usage	0	Opportunity for hierarchical data

---

✅ Excellent Patterns Found

1. Centralized Adaptive Color System

Location: pkg/styles/theme.go

The codebase implements a comprehensive adaptive color system that automatically adjusts for light/dark terminal backgrounds:

// Adaptive colors for both light and dark terminals
ColorError = lipgloss.AdaptiveColor{
    Light: "#D73737",  // Darker red for light backgrounds
    Dark:  "#FF5555",  // Bright red (Dracula theme)
}

Features:

• ✅ Dracula theme-inspired colors for dark mode
• ✅ Optimized darker colors for light mode
• ✅ Pre-configured styles: Error, Warning, Success, Info, FilePath, etc.
• ✅ Semantic color constants with documentation
• ✅ Border definitions: RoundedBorder, NormalBorder, ThickBorder

2. TTY Detection and Conditional Styling

Location: pkg/console/console.go

All styling respects TTY detection to avoid ANSI codes in pipes/redirects:

func applyStyle(style lipgloss.Style, text string) string {
    if isTTY() {
        return style.Render(text)
    }
    return text  // Plain text for pipes/redirects
}

Benefits:

• ✅ Styled output in terminals
• ✅ Plain text in CI/CD logs
• ✅ Parseable output when piped

3. Layout Composition Helpers

Location: pkg/console/layout.go

Reusable layout helpers for common patterns:

title := console.LayoutTitleBox("Trial Execution Plan", 60)
info := console.LayoutInfoSection("Workflow", "test-workflow")
warning := console.LayoutEmphasisBox("⚠️ WARNING", styles.ColorWarning)
output := console.LayoutJoinVertical(title, "", info, "", warning)
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, output)

Available Helpers:

• LayoutTitleBox - Centered titles with double borders
• LayoutInfoSection - Info sections with left border emphasis
• LayoutEmphasisBox - Thick-bordered boxes with custom colors
• LayoutJoinVertical - Vertical composition with automatic spacing

4. Structured Error Rendering

Location: pkg/console/console.go

Rust-like compiler error rendering with IDE integration:

// IDE-parseable format: file:line:column: type: message
workflow.md:15:3: error: Invalid engine configuration
  13 | engine: copilot
  14 | tools:
  15 |   invalid:
     |   ^^^^^^^^ unknown tool type
  16 |     mode: remote
  17 |
hint: Valid tool types are: github, playwright, fetch, bash

Features:

• ✅ IDE-parseable format for clickable errors
• ✅ Context lines with syntax highlighting
• ✅ Hints for fixing errors
• ✅ Proper styling with adaptive colors

5. Interactive Forms with Accessibility

Location: pkg/console/confirm.go

Using Huh library for interactive prompts:

confirmed, err := console.ConfirmAction(
    "Delete this workflow?",
    "Yes, delete",
    "No, cancel",
)

Features:

• ✅ Bubble Tea integration
• ✅ Accessibility mode support via IsAccessibleMode()
• ✅ Clean keyboard navigation

6. Consistent Console API

The codebase provides a comprehensive set of formatting functions:

// Message types
FormatSuccessMessage()   // ✓ Success
FormatErrorMessage()     // Error
FormatWarningMessage()   // ⚠ Warning
FormatInfoMessage()      // ℹ Info
FormatCommandMessage()   // Command execution
FormatProgressMessage()  // Progress/activity
FormatPromptMessage()    // User prompts
FormatCountMessage()     // Count/statistics
FormatVerboseMessage()   // Debug/verbose output

Usage Pattern:

// ✅ CORRECT - All output to stderr with formatting
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, console.FormatSuccessMessage("Compiled successfully"))
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, console.FormatErrorMessage(err.Error()))

7. Table Rendering with Lipgloss

Location: pkg/console/console.go

The RenderTable function provides consistent table rendering:

table := console.RenderTable(console.TableConfig{
    Title: "Workflow Statistics",
    Headers: []string{"Name", "Status", "Duration"},
    Rows: [][]string{
        {"test-workflow", "✓ Success", "2.5s"},
        {"audit-workflow", "✓ Success", "1.2s"},
    },
    ShowTotal: true,
    TotalRow: []string{"Total", "2 workflows", "3.7s"},
})

Features:

• ✅ Zebra striping (alternating row colors)
• ✅ Total row styling
• ✅ Consistent borders via styles.NormalBorder
• ✅ TTY-aware rendering

Current Usage: 14 instances (good, but could expand)

---

🎯 Improvement Opportunities

HIGH PRIORITY

1. Expand Table Rendering with lipgloss/table

Current State: Manual table formatting still exists in some places
Opportunity: Standardize on console.RenderTable

Affected Files:

• pkg/cli/audit_report_render.go - Workflow statistics
• pkg/cli/mcp_registry_list.go - MCP server listings
• pkg/cli/deps_report.go - Dependency reports

Benefits:

• Consistent borders and alignment
• Automatic column width calculation
• Responsive width handling
• Zebra striping for readability

Example Improvement:

// ❌ BEFORE - Manual formatting
fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Name        Status     Duration\n")
fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "----        ------     --------\n")
for _, item := range items {
    fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "%-12s %-10s %s\n", item.Name, item.Status, item.Duration)
}

// ✅ AFTER - Using RenderTable
table := console.RenderTable(console.TableConfig{
    Headers: []string{"Name", "Status", "Duration"},
    Rows: itemsToRows(items),
})
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, table)

2. Use Tree Rendering for Hierarchical Data

Current State: 0 uses of lipgloss/tree in non-test code
Opportunity: Visualize hierarchical data with tree structures

Affected Files:

• pkg/cli/mcp_inspect.go - MCP server toolsets
• pkg/cli/tool_graph.go - Tool dependency graphs
• pkg/cli/deps_report.go - Dependency trees

Benefits:

• Clean hierarchical display
• Automatic indentation
• Consistent tree characters (├── └──)
• Professional appearance

Example Implementation:

import "github.com/charmbracelet/lipgloss/tree"

// Create workflow dependency tree
root := tree.Root("Workflows").
    Child("campaign-manager.md").
    Child(
        tree.New().
            Root("trial-workflow.md").
            Child("setup action").
            Child("agent execution").
            Child("push-repo-memory job"),
    ).
    Child("dev.md")

fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, root.String())

// Output:
// Workflows
// ├── campaign-manager.md
// ├── trial-workflow.md
// │   ├── setup action
// │   ├── agent execution
// │   └── push-repo-memory job
// └── dev.md

MEDIUM PRIORITY

3. Enhance Interactive Workflows with Huh Forms

Current State: Only confirmation dialogs
Opportunity: Multi-step forms for complex workflows

Affected Files:

• pkg/cli/init.go - Initial workflow setup
• pkg/cli/mcp_add.go - MCP server configuration
• pkg/cli/secret_set_command.go - Secret management

Example Implementation:

import "github.com/charmbracelet/huh"

// Multi-step workflow setup wizard
var (
    workflowName string
    engine       string
    tools        []string
)

form := huh.NewForm(
    // Step 1: Basic configuration
    huh.NewGroup(
        huh.NewInput().
            Title("Workflow Name").
            Value(&workflowName).
            Validate(validateWorkflowName),
        
        huh.NewSelect[string]().
            Title("AI Engine").
            Options(
                huh.NewOption("GitHub Copilot", "copilot"),
                huh.NewOption("Claude", "claude"),
                huh.NewOption("Codex", "codex"),
            ).
            Value(&engine),
    ),
    
    // Step 2: Tool selection
    huh.NewGroup(
        huh.NewMultiSelect[string]().
            Title("Select Tools").
            Options(
                huh.NewOption("GitHub API", "github"),
                huh.NewOption("Playwright", "playwright"),
                huh.NewOption("Bash", "bash"),
            ).
            Value(&tools),
    ),
).WithAccessible(console.IsAccessibleMode())

if err := form.Run(); err != nil {
    return err
}

// Generate workflow file with collected configuration

Benefits:

• Better user experience
• Built-in validation
• Keyboard navigation
• Accessibility support
• Professional wizard-like flow

4. Standardize Separator/Divider Rendering

Current State: Manual separator creation
Pattern Found: fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "\n%s\n", separator)

Opportunity: Create helper functions

Proposed Addition (pkg/console/layout.go):

// LayoutSeparator renders a horizontal separator line
func LayoutSeparator(width int) string {
    if tty.IsStderrTerminal() {
        return lipgloss.NewStyle().
            Foreground(styles.ColorBorder).
            Render(strings.Repeat("─", width))
    }
    return strings.Repeat("-", width)
}

// LayoutSection renders a section with title and separator
func LayoutSection(title string, width int) string {
    if tty.IsStderrTerminal() {
        return styles.Header.Render(title) + "\n" +
               LayoutSeparator(width)
    }
    return title + "\n" + strings.Repeat("-", width)
}

LOW PRIORITY

5. Add More Layout Helpers

Proposed Additions to pkg/console/layout.go:

// LayoutKeyValue renders styled key-value pairs
func LayoutKeyValue(pairs map[string]string, width int) string

// LayoutBulletList renders bullet point lists
func LayoutBulletList(items []string) string

// LayoutNumberedList renders numbered lists
func LayoutNumberedList(items []string) string

// LayoutProgressBar renders progress indicators
func LayoutProgressBar(current, total int, width int) string

6. Document Console API Best Practices

Proposed File: specs/console-api-patterns.md

Content:

• When to use each Format* function
• How to compose layouts with LayoutJoin*
• Interactive form patterns with Huh
• Table rendering best practices
• Tree structure visualization
• Accessibility considerations

---

🚫 Anti-Patterns NOT Found

The following anti-patterns were NOT found in the codebase (excellent!):

• ❌ Direct ANSI escape sequences - NOT FOUND ✅
• ❌ Hardcoded color codes - NOT FOUND ✅
• ❌ Inline lipgloss.NewStyle() - NOT FOUND ✅
• ❌ Output to stdout instead of stderr - NOT FOUND ✅
• ❌ Missing TTY detection - NOT FOUND ✅
• ❌ Inconsistent error formatting - NOT FOUND ✅

---

📚 Examples of Good Patterns

Example 1: Proper Console Formatting

// ✅ GOOD - Uses console formatting with stderr
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, console.FormatSuccessMessage("Compiled successfully"))
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, console.FormatInfoMessage("Processing workflow..."))
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, console.FormatWarningMessage("File has changes"))
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, console.FormatErrorMessage(err.Error()))

Example 2: Layout Composition

// ✅ GOOD - Using layout helpers for composition
title := console.LayoutTitleBox("Trial Execution Plan", 60)
info1 := console.LayoutInfoSection("Workflow", "test-workflow")
info2 := console.LayoutInfoSection("Status", "Ready to execute")
warning := console.LayoutEmphasisBox("⚠️ WARNING: Large workflow file", styles.ColorWarning)

// Compose sections vertically with spacing
output := console.LayoutJoinVertical(title, "", info1, info2, "", warning)
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, output)

Example 3: Centralized Styling

// ✅ GOOD - Using pre-configured styles from pkg/styles
errorMsg := styles.Error.Render("Something went wrong")
filepath := styles.FilePath.Render("/path/to/workflow.md")
count := styles.Count.Render("42 workflows compiled")
command := styles.Command.Render("gh aw compile")

Example 4: Interactive Confirmation

// ✅ GOOD - Using huh with accessibility support
confirmed, err := console.ConfirmAction(
    "Delete this workflow?",
    "Yes, delete",
    "No, cancel",
)
if err != nil {
    return err
}
if confirmed {
    // Proceed with deletion
}

Example 5: Table Rendering

// ✅ GOOD - Using RenderTable for consistent formatting
table := console.RenderTable(console.TableConfig{
    Title: "Workflow Statistics",
    Headers: []string{"Workflow", "Engine", "Duration", "Status"},
    Rows: [][]string{
        {"test-workflow", "copilot", "2.5s", "✓"},
        {"audit-workflow", "claude", "1.2s", "✓"},
        {"campaign-manager", "copilot", "3.8s", "✓"},
    },
    ShowTotal: true,
    TotalRow: []string{"Total", "3 workflows", "7.5s", ""},
})
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, table)

Example 6: Structured Error Rendering

// ✅ GOOD - Using FormatError for structured errors
err := console.CompilerError{
    Position: console.ErrorPosition{
        File:   "workflow.md",
        Line:   15,
        Column: 3,
    },
    Type:    "error",
    Message: "Invalid engine configuration",
    Context: []string{
        "engine: copilot",
        "tools:",
        "  invalid:",
        "    mode: remote",
    },
    Hint: "Valid tool types are: github, playwright, fetch, bash",
}
fmt.Fprint(os.Stderr, console.FormatError(err))

---

📈 Metrics Summary

Metric	Value	Assessment
Total Go Files Analyzed	416	Comprehensive
Files with Console Output	164 (39%)	Reasonable coverage
Console.Format Usage*	1,047	Strong adoption ✅
fmt.Fprint Usage*	1,601	Most wrap console.Format* ✅
Inline lipgloss.NewStyle()	0	Perfect centralization ✅
RenderTable Usage	14	Good, expandable
Tree Rendering	0	Opportunity
Huh Form Usage	1 (confirm only)	Limited
Anti-Patterns Found	0	Excellent ✅

---

🎓 Overall Assessment

Grade: A (92/100)

The gh-aw codebase demonstrates exceptional adherence to modern terminal UI best practices using the Charmbracelet ecosystem. The centralized styling system, consistent TTY detection, and high adoption of console formatting show a well-architected approach to terminal output.

Strengths (What's Working Well)

1. ✅ Comprehensive centralized styling system with adaptive colors
2. ✅ Consistent console formatting adoption (1,047 uses)
3. ✅ Proper TTY detection preventing ANSI codes in pipes
4. ✅ Zero inline style creation (all centralized)
5. ✅ Proper stderr usage throughout
6. ✅ Structured error rendering with IDE integration
7. ✅ Accessibility mode support
8. ✅ Layout composition helpers for common patterns

Deductions (-8 points)

• -3 points: Underutilized lipgloss/table (only 14 uses, many opportunities)
• -3 points: Underutilized lipgloss/tree (0 uses, clear opportunities)
• -2 points: Limited huh usage (only confirmations, no multi-step forms)

Recommendation

The identified opportunities are enhancements rather than critical fixes. The current implementation is production-ready and follows best practices. The suggested improvements would further elevate the user experience with more interactive forms, better hierarchical visualization, and more consistent table rendering.

---

🔍 Files for Reference

Key Implementation Files

• pkg/styles/theme.go - Centralized adaptive color system
• pkg/console/console.go - Core formatting and error rendering
• pkg/console/layout.go - Layout composition helpers
• pkg/console/confirm.go - Interactive confirmations with Huh
• pkg/console/render.go - Struct rendering with reflection
• pkg/console/list.go - Interactive lists with Bubble Tea
• pkg/tty/tty.go - TTY detection utilities

Documentation

• specs/styles-guide.md - Existing styles guide
• pkg/console/README.md - Console package overview
• pkg/console/layout.go - Layout helper documentation (inline)

---

Analysis Performed By: Terminal Stylist Agent
Timestamp: 2026-01-08T08:42:35.388Z
Workflow Run: https://github.com/githubnext/gh-aw/actions/runs/20810782068

AI generated by Terminal Stylist

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This discussion was automatically closed because it expired on 2026-01-15T08:46:48.982Z.