RichFormat

RichFormat

Contents: Ideal State · Anti-criteria · Intent Routing · What it draws · The LifeOS rule · Tool contracts · Data & Config · Gotchas · Examples

A function-hooks plugin that makes assistant replies faster to read in the terminal. Claude Code loads it from this folder in every interactive session. It hooks two events and nothing else:

• prompt.compose adds one section to the system prompt that teaches the drawable conventions, in interactive terminal sessions only (Anti-criteria).
• classic.MessageDisplay receives each batch of finished lines while an answer streams and returns the text the terminal shows in their place, with ANSI colour. That text is the answer's first and only copy. A drawable fence is held until it closes, then drawn whole (hooks/stream.ts).

Ideal State

• Every construct in What it draws that parses is drawn, never left as plain markdown: a flow fence as boxed nodes, a diff fence as numbered red and green lines, a fully marked VERIFY run as green and red marks, and a label line in its colour (the engine and pure-logic suites hold each).
• The stored message never changes. The model, the transcript file and ctrl+o all see plain markdown.
• On any doubt the lines show as written: a fence that does not parse, a fence still open at the message's last flush, a thrown error, or the option switched off.
• Every answer prints exactly once, at any length, under the full statusline.

Anti-criteria

• The mod never hooks any event besides prompt.compose and classic.MessageDisplay; no ui.render hook on AssistantMessage comes back, even one that passes the answer straight through.
• A finished answer is never repainted; this mod shapes first draws only.
• The prompt section is never added outside an interactive terminal session, so iMessage bridges, -p runs, teammates and SDK sessions never learn a convention they cannot draw.
• A list is never split between two renderers: a 💡 line inside a list or table, a ✓ bullet outside VERIFY, a VERIFY run with any unmarked or nested bullet, and anything inside another code fence stay plain.
• A double-printed answer is never fixed by turning the statusline off.