Output formats

tally supports five output formats so it fits into both terminals and automation pipelines. Select a format with --format or the format key in .tally.toml.

Output options

Flag	Description
`--format, -f`	Output format: `text`, `json`, `sarif`, `github-actions`, `markdown`
`--output, -o`	Output destination: `stdout`, `stderr`, or a file path
`--no-color`	Disable colored output (also respects the `NO_COLOR` env var)
`--show-source`	Show source code snippets (default: `true`)
`--hide-source`	Hide source code snippets

Invocation-aware output

When you lint a Bake or Compose entrypoint, tally may run more than one invocation for the same Dockerfile. Output formats preserve that attribution:

Format	Invocation behavior
`text`	Groups findings under labels such as `[bake target: api]` or `[compose service: worker]` and prints an invocation summary.
`json`	Adds an `invocation` object to each orchestrator-derived violation and includes `invocations_scanned`.
`sarif`	Stores invocation metadata in each result’s properties.
`github-actions`	Prefixes annotation messages with the invocation label.
`markdown`	Adds an `Invocation` column when invocation metadata is present.

See Build invocations for CLI examples and supported entrypoints.

text
json
sarif
github-actions
markdown

text (default)

Human-readable output with colors and source code snippets. Best for local development.

tally lint Dockerfile

Example output:

WARNING: StageNameCasing - https://docs.docker.com/go/dockerfile/rule/stage-name-casing/
Stage name 'Builder' should be lowercase

Dockerfile:2
────────────────────
   1 │ FROM alpine
>>>2 │ FROM ubuntu AS Builder
   3 │ RUN echo "hello"
────────────────────

Source snippets

Source snippets are shown by default. Toggle them with flags:

# Hide source snippets (cleaner for long files)
tally lint --hide-source Dockerfile

# Explicitly show (useful when config sets show-source = false)
tally lint --show-source Dockerfile

In .tally.toml:

[output]
show-source = false

json

Machine-readable format with full violation details, summary statistics, and scan metadata. Best for scripts, dashboards, and custom reporting.

tally lint --format json Dockerfile

Example output:

{
  "files": [
    {
      "file": "Dockerfile",
      "violations": [
        {
          "location": {
            "file": "Dockerfile",
            "start": { "line": 2, "column": 0 }
          },
          "rule": "buildkit/StageNameCasing",
          "message": "Stage name 'Builder' should be lowercase",
          "severity": "warning",
          "docUrl": "https://docs.docker.com/go/dockerfile/rule/stage-name-casing/"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "total": 1,
    "errors": 0,
    "warnings": 1,
    "info": 0,
    "style": 0,
    "files": 1
  },
  "files_scanned": 1,
  "rules_enabled": 41
}

Top-level fields:

Field	Description
`files`	Array of files with their violations
`summary`	Aggregate counts: `total`, `errors`, `warnings`, `info`, `style`, `files`
`files_scanned`	Total number of files scanned
`invocations_scanned`	Total number of build invocations scanned; omitted or `0` for direct Dockerfile runs
`rules_enabled`	Number of active rules with a non-`"off"` default severity

Orchestrator-derived violations also include:

Field	Description
`invocation.kind`	`bake` or `compose`
`invocation.file`	Absolute path to the Bake or Compose file
`invocation.name`	Target or service name

Write JSON to a file:

tally lint --format json --output results.json .

sarif

SARIF 2.1.0 format for static analysis tools and CI code scanning integrations. Best for GitHub Code Scanning, Azure DevOps, and similar platforms.

tally lint --format sarif --output results.sarif .

Or redirect to a file:

tally lint --format sarif . > results.sarif

SARIF output includes rule metadata, help URIs, and per-result location data that code scanning tools use to render findings in pull requests and security dashboards.

GitHub Code Scanning

# Generate SARIF (use --fail-level none so the step doesn't fail before upload)
tally lint --format sarif --output tally.sarif --fail-level none .

# Upload with the CodeQL action
# uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
# with:
#   sarif_file: tally.sarif

See CI/CD integration for a complete GitHub Actions workflow example.

github-actions

Emits GitHub Actions workflow commands (::warning and ::error) for inline PR annotations.

tally lint --format github-actions .

Example output:

::warning file=Dockerfile,line=2,title=StageNameCasing::Stage name 'Builder' should be lowercase

GitHub renders these as inline annotations in the PR diff and in the Actions run summary. No upload step is needed — the annotations appear automatically when the format is used in a GitHub Actions workflow.Severity mapping:

tally severity	GitHub command
`error`	`::error`
`warning`	`::warning`
`info`	`::notice`
`style`	`::notice`

markdown

Concise Markdown tables optimized for AI agents, PR comments, and token-efficient reporting.

tally lint --format markdown Dockerfile

Example output:

**2 issues** in `Dockerfile`

| Line | Issue                                       |
| ---- | ------------------------------------------- |
| 2    | ⚠️ Stage name 'Builder' should be lowercase |
| 10   | ❌ Use absolute WORKDIR                     |

Features:

Summary line with total issue count upfront.
Violations sorted by invocation, file, line, column, and rule code.
Emoji severity indicators: ❌ error, ⚠️ warning, ℹ️ info, 💅 style.
No rule codes or doc URLs — optimized for token efficiency.
Adds a File column automatically when linting multiple files.
Adds an Invocation column automatically when linting Bake or Compose entrypoints.

Pipe output into a file for use as a PR comment or report artifact:

tally lint --format markdown . > lint-report.md

Documentation Index

​Output options

​Invocation-aware output

​text (default)

​Source snippets

​json

​sarif

​GitHub Code Scanning

​github-actions

​markdown

Output options

Invocation-aware output

text (default)

Source snippets

json

sarif

GitHub Code Scanning

github-actions

markdown