Skip to content

cli.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
129 lines (89 loc) · 2.99 KB

cli.md

File metadata and controls

129 lines (89 loc) · 2.99 KB
Raw

CLI Guide

The outputguard command validates and repairs structured output from files or stdin. The CLI is organized around subcommands.

Install

pip install outputguard

Validate

Validate one output against a JSON Schema file:

outputguard validate response.txt --schema schema.json

Validate and repair if needed:

outputguard validate response.txt --schema schema.json --repair

Use a non-JSON format:

outputguard validate response.yaml --schema schema.json --input-format yaml

Read from stdin:

cat response.txt | outputguard validate - --schema schema.json

Repair

Repair one output without schema validation:

outputguard repair response.txt

Write repaired text to a file:

outputguard repair response.txt --output repaired.json

Inspect repairs:

outputguard repair response.txt --diff
outputguard repair response.txt --verbose

Retry Prompt

Generate feedback for an invalid output:

outputguard retry-prompt response.txt --schema schema.json

Omit the original output from the generated retry prompt:

outputguard retry-prompt response.txt --schema schema.json --no-message-history

Batch

The batch command reads a JSON array of strings and validates each item against one JSON Schema.

outputguard batch outputs.json --schema schema.json --input-format auto
outputguard batch outputs.json --schema schema.json --repair --input-format json

Emit machine-readable JSON:

outputguard batch outputs.json --schema schema.json --repair --format json

Strategies and Version

outputguard strategies
outputguard version

Common Flags

Flag Meaning
--schema, -s JSON Schema file path for validation commands
--repair, -r Attempt repair before final validation
--input-format Input format: json, yaml, toml, python, auto, or forced-json-off
--format, -f CLI output format: text or json
--quiet, -q Suppress non-essential validation output
--output, -o Write repaired or JSON output to a file
--diff, -d Show a repair diff
--verbose, -v Show per-strategy repair details
--strategies Comma-separated repair strategy names for repair
--no-message-history Omit the original output from retry-prompt output

Run outputguard --help for the exact options supported by the installed version.

Exit Codes

The CLI uses conventional exit codes:

  • 0: command completed successfully and validation passed when applicable.
  • 1: validation or repair failed.
  • 2: command usage or input shape was invalid.

For automation, inspect both the exit code and --format json output when using validation or batch commands.

Format Notes

JSON is the default. Pass --input-format whenever the prompt expected another format. Use auto for mixed historical output and forced-json-off when the prompt explicitly told the model not to return JSON.