Output Formats

July 3, 2026 · View on GitHub

behave-lint supports five output formats. Use --output FORMAT to select the desired format.

Console

Human-readable output for terminal use. Diagnostics are grouped and formatted with optional ANSI color support.

behave-lint features/
behave-lint features/ --color
behave-lint features/ --no-color

File output: Not supported (always stdout).

Features:

Auto-detects terminal for color support
Severity labels: error (red), warning (yellow), info (blue)
Summary line with counts and timing

JSON

Machine-readable JSON with a stable, versioned schema.

behave-lint features/ --output json
behave-lint features/ --output json --output-file report.json

File output: Supported.

Schema version: 1.0.0

Schema

{
  "schemaVersion": "1.0.0",
  "tool": {
    "name": "behave-lint",
    "version": "0.9.0"
  },
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00+00:00",
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "rule_id": "BC001",
      "severity": "error",
      "message": "Duplicate scenario name 'Login'",
      "file_path": "features/login.feature",
      "line": 15,
      "category": "correctness",
      "column": 3,
      "end_line": 20,
      "end_column": 1,
      "suggestion": "Rename one of the scenarios.",
      "doc_url": "https://github.com/MathiasPaulenko/behave-lint/blob/main/docs/rules/correctness.md"
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "total_files": 5,
    "files_with_issues": 2,
    "total_diagnostics": 3,
    "error_count": 1,
    "warning_count": 1,
    "info_count": 1,
    "rules_executed": 41,
    "duration_ms": 42.5,
    "cache_hits": 3,
    "cache_misses": 2
  },
  "exit_code": 1
}

Diagnostic fields

Field	Type	Always present	Description
`rule_id`	str	Yes	Rule identifier (e.g., `BC001`).
`severity`	str	Yes	`error`, `warning`, `info`.
`message`	str	Yes	Human-readable description.
`file_path`	str	Yes	Path to the `.feature` file.
`line`	int	Yes	1-based line number.
`category`	str	Yes	Rule category.
`column`	int	No	1-based column number.
`end_line`	int	No	End line for multi-line issues.
`end_column`	int	No	End column for multi-line issues.
`suggestion`	str	No	Fix suggestion.
`doc_url`	str	No	URL to rule documentation.

Summary fields

Field	Type	Description
`total_files`	int	Number of files analyzed.
`files_with_issues`	int	Files with at least one diagnostic.
`total_diagnostics`	int	Total diagnostics found.
`error_count`	int	Diagnostics with ERROR severity.
`warning_count`	int	Diagnostics with WARNING severity.
`info_count`	int	Diagnostics with INFO severity.
`rules_executed`	int	Number of rules that ran.
`duration_ms`	float	Execution time in milliseconds.
`cache_hits`	int	Cache hits.
`cache_misses`	int	Cache misses.

SARIF

SARIF v2.1.0 format for GitHub Code Scanning integration.

behave-lint features/ --output sarif
behave-lint features/ --output sarif --output-file behave-lint.sarif

File output: Supported.

SARIF version: 2.1.0

Schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oasis-tcs/sarif-spec/main/Schemata/sarif-schema-2.1.0.json

Severity mapping

behave-lint	SARIF level
ERROR	`error`
WARNING	`warning`
INFO	`note`
OFF	`none`

Structure

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oasis-tcs/sarif-spec/main/Schemata/sarif-schema-2.1.0.json",
  "version": "2.1.0",
  "runs": [
    {
      "tool": {
        "driver": {
          "name": "behave-lint",
          "version": "0.9.0",
          "informationUri": "https://github.com/MathiasPaulenko/behave-lint",
          "rules": [...]
        }
      },
      "results": [...]
    }
  ]
}

Each result includes ruleId, level, message, locations with physicalLocation (artifact URI + region), and optional fixes with the suggestion text.

Markdown

Markdown report for GitHub Actions summaries and PR comments.

behave-lint features/ --output markdown --output-file report.md

File output: Supported.

Features:

Summary table with counts and timing
Diagnostics table with file, line, rule, severity, message
Severity emojis: ❌ (error), ⚠️ (warning), ℹ️ (info)

GitHub Actions

Inline PR annotations using GitHub Actions workflow commands.

behave-lint features/ --output github

File output: Not supported (always stdout).

Commands:

Severity	Command
ERROR	`::error`
WARNING	`::warning`
INFO	`::notice`

Example output

::error file=features/login.feature,line=15::BC001: Duplicate scenario name 'Login'
::warning file=features/login.feature,line=20::BS001: Tag '@SmokeTest' should be lowercase
::notice::behave-lint found 2 diagnostics (1 error, 1 warning, 0 info) in 1 files

GitHub Actions renders these as inline annotations in the PR review interface.