> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.sonarsource.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cli/using-sonarqube-cli/output-formats.md).

# Output formats

Several SonarQube CLI commands can output their results in different formats. Pick the one that matches what's consuming the output.

## Available formats

| Format  | Best for                               | Notes                                                                                                                                                                        |
| ------- | -------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `json`  | Scripts, dashboards, downstream tools. | A JSON array or object. Default for `sonar list issues`; the only output of `sonar list projects`.                                                                           |
| `table` | Reading in your terminal.              | A human-friendly aligned table. Adds no headers or borders that would break copy/paste.                                                                                      |
| `csv`   | Spreadsheets, BI tools, archives.      | Comma-separated values with a header row.                                                                                                                                    |
| `toon`  | AI coding agents and LLM consumption.  | [Token-Oriented Object Notation (TOON)](https://github.com/toon-format/toon), a token-efficient, LLM-friendly serialization. Use it when piping data into Claude or Copilot. |
| `text`  | Default for analysis commands.         | Native human-readable output. Used by `sonar analyze` and `sonar analyze agentic`.                                                                                           |

## Which command supports which format

| Command                             | Supported formats              | Default |
| ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | ------- |
| `sonar list issues`                 | `json`, `toon`, `table`, `csv` | `json`  |
| `sonar list projects`               | `json` (only)                  | `json`  |
| `sonar analyze` / `analyze agentic` | `text`, `json`                 | `text`  |
| `sonar analyze dependency-risks`    | `json`, `toon`, `table`        | `table` |
| `sonar analyze secrets`             | (no `--format`; text only)     | -       |
| `sonar remediate`                   | (no `--format`; interactive)   | -       |
| `sonar api`                         | Raw response body              | -       |
| `sonar system status`               | `json` (via `--json`)          | `text`  |

## Choosing a format

* **You're a person reading the output.** Use `table` for `list` commands, or stick with the default `text` for analysis.
* **You're a script.** Use `json`. It's stable, structured, and widely supported. For `sonar analyze dependency-risks`, progress prints to stderr and the payload prints to stdout, so `jq` and other parsers see only the results.
* **You're piping into a spreadsheet or BI tool.** Use `csv`.
* **You're piping into an AI agent (Claude Code, Copilot, etc.).** Use `toon`. It packs the same information into far fewer tokens than JSON, letting the agent see more of the data inside its context window.

## Examples

Human-readable issues list:

```bash
sonar list issues -p my-project --format table
```

Pipe issues into `jq`:

```bash
sonar list issues -p my-project --format json | jq '.issues[] | select(.severity=="BLOCKER")'
```

Export issues to a spreadsheet:

```bash
sonar list issues -p my-project --format csv > issues.csv
```

Feed issues to an AI agent:

```bash
sonar list issues -p my-project --format toon
```

Feed dependency risks to an AI agent:

```bash
sonar analyze dependency-risks -p my-project --format toon
```

## Related pages <a href="#related-pages" id="related-pages"></a>

* [Commands reference](/sonarqube-cli/using-sonarqube-cli/commands.md)
* [Exit codes](/sonarqube-cli/using-sonarqube-cli/exit-codes.md)


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