Output Styles

Control how agents display responses — from silent SDK mode to verbose interactive output

Control what your agent prints during a run — silent for APIs, status for CLI, stream for chat UIs.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="You are helpful.",
    output="status",
)
result = agent.start("What is the capital of France?")

The user runs the agent; output presets control whether responses stay silent, stream, or show status lines.

How It Works

Quick Start

1. Simple Usage

   Pass output as a string preset:

   from praisonaiagents import Agent
   
   agent = Agent(
       name="Assistant",
       instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
       output="status"
   )
   
   result = agent.start("What is the weather in Tokyo?")

2. With Configuration

   Use OutputConfig for fine-grained control:

   from praisonaiagents import Agent, OutputConfig
   
   agent = Agent(
       name="Assistant",
       instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
       output=OutputConfig(
           verbose=True,
           markdown=True,
           stream=True,
           metrics=True,
       )
   )
   
   result = agent.start("Explain machine learning in simple terms")

Which Style Should I Use?

Pick a preset based on where the output is consumed.

How It Works

Concurrent execution (PR #5219)

Configuration Options

Precedence ladder — choose the level you need:

# Level 1: String preset
agent = Agent(output="verbose")   # "silent" | "minimal" | "normal" | "verbose" | "debug"

# Level 2: OutputConfig (full control)
agent = Agent(output=OutputConfig(verbose=True, stream=True, output_file="results.md"))

from praisonaiagents import Agent, OutputConfig

agent = Agent(
    instructions="...",
    output=OutputConfig(
        verbose=False,
        markdown=False,
        stream=False,
        metrics=False,
        reasoning_steps=False,
        actions_trace=False,
        json_output=False,
        simple_output=False,
        status_trace=False,
        editor_output=False,
        show_parameters=False,
        output_file=None,
        template=None,
        tool_output_limit=16000,
    )
)

Mutual Exclusion of Console Output Modes

Three modes — editor_output, status_trace, and actions_trace — register callbacks on a process-wide registry, not on the individual Agent. Only one can be active at a time in a given Python process, no matter how many Agents you construct.

First mode wins. If an earlier Agent already enabled a mode, a later Agent asking for a different one silently keeps the earlier mode’s routing. This stops an Agent-B trace construction from clobbering the callbacks Agent-A wired for editor — which would otherwise route Agent-A’s events through Agent-B’s sink with the wrong formatting and redaction.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

a = Agent(name="A", instructions="You are helpful.", output="editor")   # editor mode wins
b = Agent(name="B", instructions="You are helpful.", output="trace")    # keeps editor mode
c = Agent(name="C", instructions="You are helpful.", output="status")   # keeps editor mode

Precedence within a single Agent when multiple mode flags are set:

editor_output > status_trace > actions_trace

String Preset Aliases

Common Patterns

Silent (SDK Default)

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
)

result = agent.start("Summarize this article: ...")
print(result)

Status (CLI / Interactive)

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
    output="status"
)

result = agent.start("What is the capital of France?")

Save Response to File

from praisonaiagents import Agent, OutputConfig

agent = Agent(
    instructions="Write a detailed report",
    output=OutputConfig(
        output_file="report.md",
        markdown=True,
    )
)

agent.start("Write a report on renewable energy trends")

Best Practices

Related