> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developer.lofty.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Output Formats

> lofty-cli supports four output formats so you can pipe results into any downstream tool. The default is human-readable text; everything else is selected with --format or the --json shortcut.

`lofty-cli` supports four output formats so you can pipe results into any downstream tool. The default is human-readable text; everything else is selected with `--format` (or the `--json` shortcut).

## `text` (default)

Designed for terminals. Tables are aligned and colorized; long fields are truncated.

```bash theme={null}
lofty-cli leads list
```

```text theme={null}
ID         FIRSTNAME  LASTNAME  STAGE       CREATED
12345      John       Smith     New         2026-04-01
12346      Jane       Doe       Contacted   2026-04-02
```

Use `--no-color` to drop ANSI sequences and `--no-header` to omit the column row — useful when piping to `awk` or `cut`:

```bash theme={null}
lofty-cli leads list --no-header --no-color | awk '{print $1}'
```

## `json`

Stable, machine-readable, and the only format that preserves nested fields and full precision for 64-bit IDs.

```bash theme={null}
lofty-cli leads list --json
# or equivalently:
lofty-cli leads list --format json
```

```json theme={null}
[
  {
    "leadId": "1234567890123",
    "firstName": "John",
    "lastName": "Smith",
    "stage": "New"
  }
]
```

<Warning>
  Lofty IDs are 64-bit integers. Always use `--json` (not `text`) when piping IDs to another script — see [JavaScript / TypeScript Integration](/javascript-integration) for why precision matters.
</Warning>

Combine with [`jq`](https://jqlang.github.io/jq/) for ad-hoc filtering:

```bash theme={null}
lofty-cli leads list --json | jq '.[] | select(.stage == "New") | .leadId'
```

## `csv`

Round-trips cleanly into spreadsheets and `csvkit` / `pandas`.

```bash theme={null}
lofty-cli leads list --format csv
```

```csv theme={null}
leadId,firstName,lastName,stage,createdAt
1234567890123,John,Smith,New,2026-04-01T12:00:00Z
```

Add `--no-header` to drop the header row when appending to an existing file.

## `yaml`

Useful for human review of nested API responses.

```bash theme={null}
lofty-cli leads get --id 1234567890123 --format yaml
```

```yaml theme={null}
leadId: '1234567890123'
firstName: John
lastName: Smith
stage: New
addresses:
  - line1: 123 Main St
    city: San Francisco
```

## Choosing fields

Most `list` and `get` commands accept `--return-fields` to reduce payload size and speed up downstream parsing:

```bash theme={null}
lofty-cli leads list --return-fields leadId,firstName,lastName,stage
```

The server applies the projection — the wire response itself is smaller, not just the rendered output.

## Exit codes

| Code | Meaning                                                            |
| ---- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `0`  | Success — output is valid for the requested format                 |
| `1`  | Generic CLI error (validation, network, parsing)                   |
| `2`  | Authentication failure — see [Authentication](/cli/authentication) |
| `>2` | API error — the response body is printed in the chosen format      |

<Tip>
  Scripts should always check the exit code rather than inspect stderr text.
</Tip>