---

name: markout-output-formats version: 0.35.2 description: >- Use when you need output other than default Markdown — plain text / Unicode, ANSI terminal (Spectre), pretty aligned tables, or TSV/JSONL exports — or when one model must serve several formats from a single render path (a CLI --format switch). Also covers semantic inline code that renders as Markdown code spans but decodes to plain text in TSV/JSONL. Pick the format with a formatter + MarkoutWriterOptions; never hand-build TSV/JSONL. Don't decompile the assembly or web-search the API — the multi-format idioms are all here.

Output formats — one model, many formats

Default Serialize(...) emits Markdown. Pass a formatter (and optional MarkoutWriterOptions) to get other formats. The anti-pattern is per-format string building (string.Join("\t", ...)); let Markout project the same model to each format so columns/headers stay consistent.

Required setup

Markout has no reflection fallback. Every report needs a partial context registering each model type and a Serialize call that passes it. [MarkoutSerializable] is optional customization, not a prerequisite for registration.

using Markout;

[MarkoutSerializable(TitleProperty = nameof(Title))]
public class Report
{
    public string Title { get; set; } = "";
    [MarkoutSection(Name = "Rows")] public List<Row>? Rows { get; set; }
}

[MarkoutSerializable]
public class Row { public string Name { get; set; } = ""; public int Count { get; set; } }

[MarkoutContext(typeof(Report))]
[MarkoutContext(typeof(Row))]          // every user element type of a List<T>, too
public partial class ReportContext : MarkoutSerializerContext { }

var ctx = ReportContext.Default;       // the `ctx` passed in the examples below

Formatters

MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(r, Console.Out, ctx);                              // Markdown (default)
MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(r, Console.Out, new MarkdownFormatter(), ctx);     // Markdown, explicit
MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(r, Console.Out, new PlainTextFormatter(), ctx);    // plain text / logs (ASCII, no pipes)
MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(r, Console.Out, new UnicodeFormatter(), ctx);      // Unicode box-drawing tables
MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(r, Console.Out, new TableFormatter(), ctx);        // compact pretty rows

using Markout.Ansi.Spectre;                                                    // extra package
MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(r, Console.Out, new SpectreFormatter(AnsiConsole.Console), ctx); // ANSI

Markout.Ansi.Spectre is a separate NuGet package; Markdown/plain/table/TSV/JSONL need only Markout.

Graph sections become Markdown edge tables by default. To embed the same graph as Mermaid without rebuilding it, select the Markdown graph mode:

MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(
    report,
    Console.Out,
    new MarkdownFormatter(MarkdownGraphMode.Mermaid),
    ctx);

TableFormatter modes + writer options

TableFormatter + MarkoutWriterOptions.TableMode selects the tabular shape:

var opts = new MarkoutWriterOptions
{
    TableMode = MarkoutTableMode.Tsv,          // Pretty | Tsv | Jsonl
    IncludeDescription = false,
    IncludeSections = new HashSet<string> { "Results" },
    JsonTypedValues = true,                    // JSONL: emit numbers and booleans as JSON values
    MaxItems = 3,                              // cap rows; JSONL stays record-only when rows are skipped
};
MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(report, Console.Out, new TableFormatter(), ctx, opts);

• MarkoutTableMode.Pretty — columns aligned to a uniform start position.
• MarkoutTableMode.Tsv — stable snake_case headers; never emits embedded tabs/newlines in cells.
• MarkoutTableMode.Jsonl — one record per row, carrying only that row's keys (heterogeneous).
• MaxItems = N caps every table to N rows. Presentation and TSV output append ... and {count} more; JSONL omits the notice because every line must remain a data record. Apply the cap only to presentation options when TSV/JSONL exports must remain complete. (Or cap a property with [MarkoutMaxItems(3)] and an optional EllipsisFormat.)

Central multi-format dispatch (the CLI --format pattern)

Route one model through one method so every command gets every format for free:

static void Render<TView, TJson>(TView view, OutputFormat fmt, MarkoutSerializerContext ctx)
{
    switch (fmt)
    {
        case OutputFormat.Text:  MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(view, Console.Out, new PlainTextFormatter(), ctx); break;
        case OutputFormat.Md:    MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(view, Console.Out, new MarkdownFormatter(), ctx,
                                     new MarkoutWriterOptions { MaxItems = 3 }); break;   // first 3 rows + "... and N more"
        case OutputFormat.Table: MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(view, Console.Out, new TableFormatter(), ctx); break;
        case OutputFormat.Tsv:   MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(view, Console.Out, new TableFormatter(), ctx,
                                     new MarkoutWriterOptions { TableMode = MarkoutTableMode.Tsv }); break;
        case OutputFormat.Jsonl: MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(view, Console.Out, new TableFormatter(), ctx,
                                     new MarkoutWriterOptions { TableMode = MarkoutTableMode.Jsonl, JsonTypedValues = true }); break;
    }
}

If a format needs byte-exact output (e.g. a verbatim packet), bypass Markout for that one case and keep Markout for the structured formats — don't try to force it.

Format promises (rely on these)

• Markdown table cells normalize | to | (not \|).
• TSV uses stable snake_case headers and never embeds tabs/newlines in cells.
• Pretty renders the same projection as TSV, aligned.

Format-neutral inline code

Store code-like values with semantic <code>...</code> tags. XML-escape angle brackets inside the tags:

row.Operation = "<code>dotnet test</code>";
row.Signature = "<code>Result&lt;T&gt; Parse&lt;T&gt;(string value)</code>";

Markdown renders code spans such as `Result<T> Parse<T>(string value)`. Pretty, TSV, and JSONL remove the tags, decode the entities, and emit plain text. Do not store raw backticks or use [MarkoutDisplayFormat("`{0}`")]; that hard-codes Markdown into the model.

JSONL must still go through Markout:

var jsonl = new MarkoutWriterOptions
{
    TableMode = MarkoutTableMode.Jsonl,
    JsonTypedValues = true,
};
MarkoutSerializer.Serialize(report, Console.Out, new TableFormatter(), ctx, jsonl);

Do not substitute System.Text.Json: it does not apply Markout's table projection, stable property names, or semantic-tag decoding.

Guardrails

• One model → many formats; never hand-assemble TSV/JSONL rows.
• Reach for IncludeSections/IncludeDescription to trim exports rather than a second model.
• Spectre/ANSI needs the Markout.Ansi.Spectre package; the rest do not.