Output formats

x turns each command's result into rows and renders them through one of several formats. This page defines each format, the --fields and --template modifiers, and the exit codes.

Choosing a format

-o (or --output) selects the format. With no -o, x picks table when the output is a terminal and jsonl when it is a pipe or file.

Format	What it produces
table	Aligned, human-readable columns. The default on a terminal.
jsonl	One JSON object per line. The default when piped. The natural input for jq.
json	A single JSON array of all rows.
csv	Comma-separated values with a header row.
tsv	Tab-separated values with a header row.
url	The canonical X URL of each row, one per line.
raw	The upstream payload, unshaped, as x received it.

--no-header drops the header line from csv and tsv. --color (auto|always|never) controls colored table output.

Projecting columns

--fields is a comma-separated list of keys to keep, in the order given:

x timeline nasa --fields id,text
x followers nasa --guest --fields username,name -o csv

The names are the JSON keys of a row, the same keys the jsonl and json formats emit. It applies to table, csv, tsv, json, and jsonl.

Templates

--template renders each row with Go's text/template. The current row is the dot (.) and its fields are addressed by their JSON-tag keys, including nested objects:

x timeline nasa --template '{{.id}} {{.author.username}}: {{.text}}'
x user nasa     --template '{{.username}} {{.metrics.followers}}'

Semantics worth knowing:

• Keys mirror the jsonl output: {{.id}}, {{.text}}, {{.author.username}}, {{.metrics.followers}}, and so on.
• Integer fields render as plain digits.
• IDs render as their string value (see below).
• Standard text/template actions ({{if}}, {{range}}, pipelines) are available.

To discover the keys for a command, run it once with -o json and read the structure.

IDs are strings

Tweet and user IDs are 64-bit snowflakes. x always renders them as strings, in every format, so they survive jq, CSV imports, and round-trips without losing precision. x tweet 20 -o json | jq .id is "20", not 20, and a 19-digit id comes back exactly as sent.

Exit codes

x uses distinct exit codes so scripts can branch on the outcome:

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Generic error
2	Usage error (bad flags or arguments)
3	No results
4	Needs auth (a tier you have not enabled)
5	Rate-limited
6	Not found

See troubleshooting for what to do about codes 4, 5, and 6.