ANSI escape sequences are emitted when stdout is not a TTY

[contributor]

OpenCodeReview Version

open-code-review v1.8.4 (e784744) windows/amd64

Operating System

Windows

Installation Method

GitHub Release binary

LLM Provider

Other OpenAI-compatible endpoint

Bug Description

Description

ocr review emits ANSI escape sequences even when its output is redirected or piped to another program.

This makes it difficult to use the command in scripts or to publish its output elsewhere (e.g. GitHub issue comments), because the raw escape sequences become part of the output.

Expected behavior

When stdout is not a TTY, ocr review should output plain text without ANSI escape sequences.

Alternatively, please provide an option such as:

• --no-color
• --color=never
• --plain

to explicitly disable ANSI formatting.

Environment

• OpenCode Review (ocr)
• Windows (Git Bash)

Use case

I would like to pipe the review output directly into GitHub CLI:

ocr review --commit HEAD | gh issue comment <issue> --body-file -

Currently the resulting GitHub comment contains literal escape sequences such as:

�[2m
�[93m
�[0m

instead of plain text.

Steps to Reproduce

ocr review --commit HEAD | cat -v

Output contains ANSI sequences such as:

^[[2m─── packages/... ───^[[0m
^[[93m[maintainability · medium]^[[0m ...

or:

ocr review --commit HEAD | grep -P $'\x1b'

which matches the lines containing the colored severity labels.

Expected Behavior

When stdout is not a TTY, ocr review should output plain text without ANSI escape sequences.

Alternatively, please provide an option such as:

• --no-color
• --color=never
• --plain

to explicitly disable ANSI formatting.

Logs / Error Output

Additional Context

Environment

• OpenCode Review (ocr)
• Windows (Git Bash)

[binyaaminofficial]

Issue is caused by the CLI output/logger lacking TTY auto-detection and missing color configuration flags. When writing to a pipe or file redirect, stdout/stderr is not a TTY terminal, so ANSI escape sequences should either be automatically stripped or suppressed via standard flags (such as --no-color or respecting the standard NO_COLOR environment variable).

1. Implement TTY Detection & Color Control Flags (cmd/review.go / pkg/cli)
   Use standard terminal TTY checks (e.g., mattn/go-isatty or golang.org/x/term) and respect the standard NO_COLOR environment variable:
   import (
   "os"
   "github.com/mattn/go-isatty"
   "github.com/spf13/cobra"
   )

var noColor bool

func init() {
// Add CLI flag
reviewCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&noColor, "no-color", false, "Disable ANSI color output")
}

// Helper to determine if ANSI styling should be applied
func shouldColorize() bool {
if noColor || os.Getenv("NO_COLOR") != "" {
return false
}
// Check if stdout is an actual terminal / TTY
return isatty.IsTerminal(os.Stdout.Fd()) || isatty.IsCygwinTerminal(os.Stdout.Fd())
}

2. Strip / Disable ANSI Printer when Outputting Plain Text
   Pass shouldColorize() into your log formatter or lipgloss/fatih/color printer setup before rendering output:
   if !shouldColorize() {
   // Disable colors on output renderer (e.g., lipgloss / color package)
   color.NoColor = true
   }

Workaround (For Current v1.8.4 Users)
Until a fix is released, you can strip ANSI escape sequences in Git Bash using sed before piping to gh:
ocr review --commit HEAD | sed 's/\x1b[[0-9;]*m//g' | gh issue comment --body-file -

[lizhengfeng101]

Thanks for the detailed report — this is a legitimate issue. Our text output path in output.go uses hardcoded ANSI escape sequences without any TTY detection, so piping or redirecting the output indeed produces garbled text.

We're planning to address this by adding TTY auto-detection along with NO_COLOR environment variable support and a --no-color flag.

Would you or @binyaaminofficial be interested in submitting a PR for this? We'd be happy to review and guide the implementation. Contributions are very welcome!

[nightcityblade]

Hi, I'd like to work on this. I'll submit a focused PR with TTY detection, NO_COLOR support, and regression coverage shortly.

[lizhengfeng101]

Hi, I'd like to work on this. I'll submit a focused PR with TTY detection, NO_COLOR support, and regression coverage shortly.

@nightcityblade Looking forward to your PR

[binyaaminofficial]

Ok as you done.

…

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026, 1:03 pm kite, ***@***.***> wrote: *lizhengfeng101* left a comment (alibaba/open-code-review#682) <#682 (comment)> Hi, I'd like to work on this. I'll submit a focused PR with TTY detection, NO_COLOR support, and regression coverage shortly. @nightcityblade <https://github.com/nightcityblade> Looking forward to your PR — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#682?email_source=notifications&email_token=B7K2NNGGKVFOZNIKOZ3HJR35IBBMDA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTKMJWGM3TQNZQGA4KM4TFMFZW63VHNVSW45DJN5XKKZLWMVXHJLDGN5XXIZLSL5RWY2LDNM#issuecomment-5163787008>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/B7K2NNBAIXCWO24FNLRNBUL5IBBMDAVCNFSNUABGKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMYTENBRHE3DAMRSGY5US43TOVSTWNJQGQZDCMJQG43TDILWAI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>