fix(formatter): omit null/undefined and indent array items in plain output

[amondnet]

Summary

Fixes the plain-text formatter to skip null/undefined fields, use "- " item markers with aligned indentation for arrays, and properly indent nested objects. Also corrects an inline comment about TOON token-savings from an unreproducible 58.9% claim to a measured ~37% (using o200k/cl100k tokenizers on TaskView-shaped list data; ~6% savings observed on long-text detail views).

Changes

• fix(formatter): omit null/undefined fields in plain-text output; use "- " markers with aligned indentation for array items; fix nested object indentation
• docs(formatter): correct TOON token-savings claim in comment to measured ~37% (was an unreproducible 58.9%)

Related issue

None found — no issue linked.

Test Plan

• All 561 tests pass (bun test)
• Lint is clean (bun run lint)

Checklist

• PR title follows Conventional Commits
• Tests added or updated, and the suite passes (bun run test)
• Lint/format pass (bun run lint)
• Documentation updated if behavior changed
• No breaking change, or a BREAKING CHANGE: note is included

---

Summary by cubic

Fix the plain-text formatter to omit null/undefined fields, mark array items with "- " and indent nested structures, and align continuation lines for multiline strings (including in arrays). Also updates the TOON comment to ~37% token savings vs JSON (was 58.9%).

• Bug Fixes
  • Arrays use "- " markers; nested arrays/objects indent consistently.
  • Continuation lines of multiline strings align under their key or item marker.
  • Skip empty array/object bodies to avoid stray blank lines.

^{Written for commit b1284e7. Summary will update on new commits.}

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation

  • Updated formatting comments to reflect a more accurate token-savings estimate.

• Bug Fixes

  • Improved plain-text output formatting for nested data structures.
  • Arrays now render with clearer item markers and aligned continuation lines.
  • Objects now skip fields with empty values and indent nested content more consistently.

• Tests

  • Added coverage for omitted empty fields and the updated multiline formatting behavior.

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
asana	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jul 6, 2026 1:10pm

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The plain-text output formatter was reworked to use indentation-aware helper functions, changing array rendering to use "- " markers and omitting object properties with undefined or null values. TOON documentation comments were updated with revised token-savings figures. Tests were added to cover the new formatting behavior.

Changes

Plain Formatter Rewrite

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Plain formatter implementation and docs src/utils/formatter.ts	formatPlain now dispatches to indentation-aware formatPlainArray/formatPlainObject/formatPlainScalar helpers; arrays render with "- " markers and aligned continuations; objects omit undefined/null values; TOON JSDoc comments updated with revised token-savings estimates.
Formatter test coverage test/utils/formatter.test.ts	Adds tests verifying omission of undefined/null object properties and exact multiline indentation for arrays of objects and nested objects; updates TOON tab-delimiter token-savings comment to ~37%.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~12 minutes

Poem

A rabbit hopped through nested keys,
Trimming nulls with careful ease,
Dashes marking each array line,
Indents aligned, the output fine,
Tests confirm the format's new decree. 🐇

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main formatter changes: omitting null/undefined values and indenting array items in plain output.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch amondnet/agent-mode

---

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request refactors the plain text formatter in src/utils/formatter.ts to support proper indentation for nested objects and arrays, and to omit null and undefined values. It also updates the documentation and tests accordingly. The review feedback correctly identifies a bug where nested arrays are improperly formatted as objects because typeof item === 'object' evaluates to true for arrays, and suggests adding a corresponding test case to verify nested array formatting.

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@src/utils/formatter.ts`:
- Around line 148-155: The nested array/object handling in formatter.ts
currently pushes the result of formatPlainArray and formatPlainObject even when
they return an empty string, creating stray blank lines after the key label.
Update the logic in the Array.isArray(value) and typeof value === 'object'
branches to check the formatted body before pushing it, so empty arrays/objects
only emit the key line and nothing else. Keep the fix localized around the
formatter flow that uses formatPlainArray, formatPlainObject, and keyLabel.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 04b3fda1-c4b5-4b11-a6ef-4fce69af92ba

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between f4e36a4 and 9e7e5e0.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• src/utils/formatter.ts
• test/utils/formatter.test.ts

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR rewrites the plain-text formatter to produce cleaner human-readable output: null/undefined fields are omitted, arrays render with - markers and aligned continuation lines, nested objects are indented consistently, and multiline strings are aligned under their key. It also corrects a comment about TOON token savings from an unverifiable 58.9% to a measured ~37%.

• Formatter logic (formatter.ts): formatPlainArray and formatPlainObject now receive an indent accumulator; the body.slice(itemIndent.length) trick strips the leading indent from the first line and replaces it with the - marker, keeping subsequent lines aligned. Null/undefined guard is added at the top of the object loop; an empty-body guard prevents spurious blank lines.
• Test coverage (formatter.test.ts): 7 new focused tests verify null/undefined omission, array markers, nested arrays, nested objects, multiline string alignment, and the empty-array/object blank-line fix introduced in a prior iteration.

Confidence Score: 5/5

Safe to merge — the formatter changes are self-contained, well-covered by tests, and do not affect TOON or JSON output paths.

The recursive indent-accumulation approach is correctly implemented: body.slice(itemIndent.length) reliably strips the leading whitespace prefix because formatPlainObject/formatPlainArray always prefix their output with exactly the indent string passed in. The null/undefined guard fires before any branching. The empty-body guard from the previous review iteration is present and tested. Seven new snapshot-style tests pin the exact line-by-line output for every significant case introduced.

No files require special attention.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
src/utils/formatter.ts	Formatter rewritten to pass indent context through recursive calls; null/undefined omission, "- " markers, and multiline alignment all work correctly for the covered cases. Logic is sound and tests confirm the expected output shapes.
test/utils/formatter.test.ts	Seven new plain-format tests added; each pins exact line-by-line output with split('\n') + toEqual, giving strong regression coverage for the new formatting behaviour.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A["formatPlain(data, colors)"] --> B{Array.isArray?}
    B -->|yes| C["formatPlainArray(data, colors, '')"]
    B -->|no| D{typeof object && not null?}
    D -->|yes| E["formatPlainObject(data, colors, '')"]
    D -->|no| F["String(data)"]

    C --> G["map each item with itemIndent = indent + '  '"]
    G --> H{item type?}
    H -->|Array| I["formatPlainArray(item, colors, itemIndent)\nbody.slice(itemIndent.length)\nreturn indent + '- ' + stripped"]
    H -->|Object non-null| J["formatPlainObject(item, colors, itemIndent)\nbody.slice(itemIndent.length)\nreturn indent + '- ' + stripped"]
    H -->|Scalar| K["formatPlainScalar → split on newline, join newline+indent+'  '\nreturn indent + '- ' + scalar"]

    E --> L["for each key/value entry"]
    L --> M{value null/undefined?}
    M -->|yes| N["skip (continue)"]
    M -->|no| O{value type?}
    O -->|Array| P["formatPlainArray(value, colors, indent+'  ')\npush key: then body if non-empty"]
    O -->|Object| Q["formatPlainObject(value, colors, indent+'  ')\npush key: then body if non-empty"]
    O -->|Scalar| R["formatPlainScalar → split newline join newline+indent+'  '\npush indent+key: +scalar"]

Loading

%%{init: {'theme': 'base', 'themeVariables': {"darkMode": true, "background": "#0d1117", "primaryColor": "#21262d", "primaryTextColor": "#e6edf3", "primaryBorderColor": "#8b949e", "lineColor": "#8b949e", "textColor": "#e6edf3", "edgeLabelBackground": "#161b22", "actorBkg": "#21262d", "actorBorder": "#8b949e", "actorTextColor": "#e6edf3", "actorLineColor": "#8b949e", "signalColor": "#8b949e", "signalTextColor": "#e6edf3", "noteBkgColor": "#373320", "noteBorderColor": "#d4a72c", "noteTextColor": "#f0e6c0", "labelBoxBkgColor": "#21262d", "labelBoxBorderColor": "#8b949e", "labelTextColor": "#e6edf3", "loopTextColor": "#e6edf3", "activationBkgColor": "#30363d", "activationBorderColor": "#8b949e"}}}%%
flowchart TD
    A["formatPlain(data, colors)"] --> B{Array.isArray?}
    B -->|yes| C["formatPlainArray(data, colors, '')"]
    B -->|no| D{typeof object && not null?}
    D -->|yes| E["formatPlainObject(data, colors, '')"]
    D -->|no| F["String(data)"]

    C --> G["map each item with itemIndent = indent + '  '"]
    G --> H{item type?}
    H -->|Array| I["formatPlainArray(item, colors, itemIndent)\nbody.slice(itemIndent.length)\nreturn indent + '- ' + stripped"]
    H -->|Object non-null| J["formatPlainObject(item, colors, itemIndent)\nbody.slice(itemIndent.length)\nreturn indent + '- ' + stripped"]
    H -->|Scalar| K["formatPlainScalar → split on newline, join newline+indent+'  '\nreturn indent + '- ' + scalar"]

    E --> L["for each key/value entry"]
    L --> M{value null/undefined?}
    M -->|yes| N["skip (continue)"]
    M -->|no| O{value type?}
    O -->|Array| P["formatPlainArray(value, colors, indent+'  ')\npush key: then body if non-empty"]
    O -->|Object| Q["formatPlainObject(value, colors, indent+'  ')\npush key: then body if non-empty"]
    O -->|Scalar| R["formatPlainScalar → split newline join newline+indent+'  '\npush indent+key: +scalar"]

Loading

_{Reviews (3): Last reviewed commit: "chore(formatter): indent multiline scala..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[amondnet]

/gemini review

[cubic-dev-ai]

1 issue found and verified against the latest diff

Prompt for AI agents (unresolved issues)

Check if these issues are valid — if so, understand the root cause of each and fix them. If appropriate, use sub-agents to investigate and fix each issue separately.


<file name="src/utils/formatter.ts">

<violation number="1" location="src/utils/formatter.ts:129">
P2: Nested arrays are incorrectly formatted as objects here. Since `typeof [] === 'object'` is `true` in JavaScript, any array element that is itself an array will be passed to `formatPlainObject`, which iterates over its numeric indices as keys. Add an `Array.isArray(item)` check before the object check to recurse correctly:

```ts
if (Array.isArray(item)) {
  const body = formatPlainArray(item, colors, itemIndent)
  return `${indent}- ${body.slice(itemIndent.length)}`
}
if (typeof item === 'object' && item !== null) {
  ...
}
```</violation>
</file>

<sub>Reply with feedback, questions, or to request a fix.

Re-trigger cubic</sub>

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request refactors the plain text formatting utility to support proper indentation for nested arrays and objects, prefix array items with a dash, and omit null or undefined values. It also updates the documentation and tests to reflect these changes. The reviewer suggested adding a test case to verify that multiline strings are correctly indented in plain format, which is a valid improvement for test integrity.

[amondnet]

/gemini review

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request refactors the plain text formatter in src/utils/formatter.ts to support proper nested indentation, omit null/undefined values, and handle multiline strings. It also updates the documentation and tests regarding TOON format token savings. Feedback was provided regarding a missing indentation alignment for multiline strings when they are elements of an array.

[amondnet]

/gemini review

[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request refactors the plain text formatting logic in src/utils/formatter.ts to support proper indentation, item markers, omission of null/undefined values, and multiline strings, along with adding comprehensive unit tests. The reviewer suggested adding a test case to ensure Date objects are correctly formatted as ISO strings in plain text format rather than being treated as empty objects.