From bef3cc7dd95745a5724d3569e45fe7be4aba02ee Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paul Buetow <paul@buetow.org>
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2026 17:44:37 +0200
Subject: ask: add --json flag for machine-readable output

List, ready, all, info, and urgency commands now output JSON arrays
when --json is passed. This fixes pi agent-plan-mode extension which
expects JSON from ask but was getting human-readable tables.

Amp-Thread-ID: https://ampcode.com/threads/T-019d207c-b8e2-748d-af52-dd8f84fb2b32
Co-authored-by: Amp <amp@ampcode.com>
---
 internal/askcli/command_info_add.go | 14 +++++++++++++-
 internal/askcli/command_list.go     | 13 ++++++++++++-
 internal/askcli/command_urgency.go  | 13 ++++++++++++-
 internal/askcli/dispatch.go         | 16 +++++++++++++++-
 internal/version.go                 |  2 +-
 5 files changed, 53 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/internal/askcli/command_info_add.go b/internal/askcli/command_info_add.go
index 2680163..025b104 100644
--- a/internal/askcli/command_info_add.go
+++ b/internal/askcli/command_info_add.go
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ package askcli
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"strings"
 )
@@ -27,7 +29,17 @@ func (d Dispatcher) handleInfo(ctx context.Context, args []string, stdout, stder
 		io.WriteString(stderr, "error: task not found\n")
 		return 1, nil
 	}
-	io.WriteString(stdout, FormatTaskInfo(tasks[0]))
+	if d.jsonOutput {
+		data, err := json.Marshal(tasks)
+		if err != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintf(stderr, "error: failed to marshal JSON: %v\n", err)
+			return 1, nil
+		}
+		stdout.Write(data)
+		io.WriteString(stdout, "\n")
+	} else {
+		io.WriteString(stdout, FormatTaskInfo(tasks[0]))
+	}
 	return 0, nil
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/askcli/command_list.go b/internal/askcli/command_list.go
index 54eaafc..ef8c22f 100644
--- a/internal/askcli/command_list.go
+++ b/internal/askcli/command_list.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package askcli
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"sort"
@@ -51,7 +52,17 @@ func (d Dispatcher) handleListWithFilters(ctx context.Context, initialFilters, e
 		}
 		return tasks[i].Urgency > tasks[j].Urgency
 	})
-	io.WriteString(stdout, FormatTaskList(tasks))
+	if d.jsonOutput {
+		data, err := json.Marshal(tasks)
+		if err != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintf(stderr, "error: failed to marshal JSON: %v\n", err)
+			return 1, nil
+		}
+		stdout.Write(data)
+		io.WriteString(stdout, "\n")
+	} else {
+		io.WriteString(stdout, FormatTaskList(tasks))
+	}
 	return 0, nil
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/askcli/command_urgency.go b/internal/askcli/command_urgency.go
index 9dd162e..a228f27 100644
--- a/internal/askcli/command_urgency.go
+++ b/internal/askcli/command_urgency.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package askcli
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"sort"
@@ -22,6 +23,16 @@ func (d Dispatcher) handleUrgency(ctx context.Context, stdout, stderr io.Writer)
 	sort.Slice(tasks, func(i, j int) bool {
 		return tasks[i].Urgency > tasks[j].Urgency
 	})
-	io.WriteString(stdout, FormatTaskList(tasks))
+	if d.jsonOutput {
+		data, err := json.Marshal(tasks)
+		if err != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintf(stderr, "error: failed to marshal JSON: %v\n", err)
+			return 1, nil
+		}
+		stdout.Write(data)
+		io.WriteString(stdout, "\n")
+	} else {
+		io.WriteString(stdout, FormatTaskList(tasks))
+	}
 	return 0, nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/askcli/dispatch.go b/internal/askcli/dispatch.go
index 312a6cf..19e9b58 100644
--- a/internal/askcli/dispatch.go
+++ b/internal/askcli/dispatch.go
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ type Runner interface {
 }
 
 type Dispatcher struct {
-	runner Runner
+	runner     Runner
+	jsonOutput bool
 }
 
 func NewDispatcher(runner Runner) *Dispatcher {
@@ -23,6 +24,19 @@ func NewDispatcher(runner Runner) *Dispatcher {
 }
 
 func (d Dispatcher) Dispatch(ctx context.Context, args []string, stdin io.Reader, stdout, stderr io.Writer) (int, error) {
+	// Extract --json flag before dispatching.
+	var jsonOutput bool
+	var filtered []string
+	for _, a := range args {
+		if a == "--json" {
+			jsonOutput = true
+		} else {
+			filtered = append(filtered, a)
+		}
+	}
+	args = filtered
+	d.jsonOutput = jsonOutput
+
 	if len(args) == 0 {
 		return d.handleList(ctx, []string{"list"}, stdout, stderr)
 	}
diff --git a/internal/version.go b/internal/version.go
index 30b7ba7..737f4fa 100644
--- a/internal/version.go
+++ b/internal/version.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 // Package internal provides the Hexai semantic version identifier used by CLI and LSP binaries.
 package internal
 
-const Version = "0.25.11"
+const Version = "0.25.12"
-- 
cgit v1.2.3