Output Formats

Every command accepts -o / --output to control the output format. The flag is registered globally, so read, write, delete, and every other subcommand honour it uniformly. Pick the one that matches what you’re doing: reading, scripting, or exporting.

table

Default format, optimised for human reading.

redmine issues list --project myproject

ID    TRACKER  STATUS  PRIORITY  SUBJECT
123   Bug      Open    High      Fix login timeout
124   Feature  Open    Normal    Add dark mode

json

Machine-readable output. Ideal for scripting and piping.

redmine issues list --project myproject -o json

[
  {
    "id": 123,
    "tracker": {"id": 1, "name": "Bug"},
    "status":  {"id": 1, "name": "Open"},
    "priority":{"id": 2, "name": "High"},
    "subject": "Fix login timeout"
  }
]

csv

Comma-separated values for spreadsheets and data analysis.

redmine issues list --project myproject -o csv

ID,Tracker,Status,Priority,Subject
123,Bug,Open,High,Fix login timeout
124,Feature,Open,Normal,Add dark mode

Working with JSON

jq friendly

JSON output pairs well with jq for ad-hoc analysis:

# IDs of all open bugs
redmine issues list --tracker Bug -o json | jq '.[].id'

# Count issues by status
redmine issues list --project myproject -o json \
  | jq 'group_by(.status.name) | map({status: .[0].status.name, count: length})'

Note

In -o json mode the CLI emits JSON only on stdout. Human-readable pagination hints are suppressed, so piping to jq is safe. Keep stderr separate if you want to surface actual errors.

JSON output shapes

-o json produces two top-level shapes on stdout:

1. Raw resources for commands that fetch or return data (issues list, issues get, project create, …). The payload is the resource object (or array of objects) exactly as the API returned it.

2. Action envelope for mutators that have no natural response body (issues close, issues delete, issues assign, wiki delete, memberships delete, …). The envelope is stable and minimal:

   {
     "ok": true,
     "action": "deleted",
     "resource": "project",
     "id": "demo",
     "message": "Project \"demo\" deleted"
   }

   ok tells you whether the command changed state. Commands that complete successfully but have nothing to change may return the same envelope with ok: false and a descriptive message.

   The action vocabulary is small and intentional: created, updated, deleted, closed, reopened, assigned, commented, logged, user_added, user_removed, logged_in, logged_out, switched, installed, opened.

JSON error envelope

When -o json is active and a command fails, the CLI writes a structured error envelope to stdout and exits non-zero:

{
  "error": {
    "message": "Resource not found.",
    "code": "not_found"
  }
}

code comes from a small stable set: not_found, auth_failed, forbidden, validation_failed, server_error, unknown. Validation errors include a details array with the individual field messages from Redmine.

stdout vs stderr

• Machine-readable output (JSON, CSV, table rows) always goes to stdout.
• Human-oriented messages (success confirmations in non-JSON mode, warnings, progress spinners, update-check hints) always go to stderr.

This split is stable — scripts can safely redirect stdout to a file or pipe it into jq without worrying about interleaved status noise.

Default format

Set a default in your config file:

~/.redmine-cli.yaml

output_format: table

The -o flag always overrides the default for a single command.

Related

AI agent integration Agents default to -o json for reliable automation.

Issues reference Every flag that -o formats output for.