Output Style

What is an Output Style

Output style is a configurable setting that changes the tone and format of an agent's written responses, more concise versus more explanatory, terse status updates versus fuller reasoning, or matching a specific team's existing writing conventions rather than a generic default voice.

It changes how the agent communicates, not what it is capable of doing. Two sessions with different output styles can run the identical task and produce the identical underlying file changes, while the summaries and explanations they write along the way read very differently, one dense and clipped, the other more walked-through.

Output style is typically set at the session or configuration level rather than negotiated per message, similar in spirit to how a CLAUDE.md sets standing conventions for a project. Teams with an established writing style, a particular tone for commit messages or PR descriptions, use it to keep an agent's output consistent with what a human on the team would have written.