Zeal supports three output formats, selected with --format <fmt>.
text (default)
Human-readable output with ANSI colors. Each entry is formatted with the log level, timestamp, message, and any extra fields. A summary line shows match counts at the end.
zeal 'FROM app.json WHERE level = "error"'
--format text explicitly.
json
Outputs one JSON object per matching log entry (NDJSON format). No headers, footers, or decoration — just a stream of JSON objects, one per line.
zeal --format json 'FROM app.json WHERE level = "error"'
# Output: {"level":"error","message":"timeout","timestamp":"2024-01-15T10:30:06Z","line":42}
jq, scripts, alerting pipelines, and any other tool that consumes structured data:
# Extract request IDs from error entries
zeal --format json 'FROM app.json WHERE level = "error"' | jq '.request_id'
# Count errors per minute with jq
zeal --format json 'FROM app.json WHERE level = "error"' | jq -r '.timestamp' | cut -c1-16 | sort | uniq -c
--color setting.
raw
Outputs the original log lines with zero decoration — no formatting, no colors, no summary. Each matched line is printed exactly as it appeared in the source file.
zeal --format raw 'FROM app.json WHERE level = "error"'
raw when you need to feed matched lines to another tool that expects the original log format:
# Re-process matched lines with another log tool
zeal --format raw 'FROM app.json WHERE level = "error"' | mylogtool --parse
| Format | Best for |
|---|
text | Interactive terminal use, human reading |
json | Piping to jq, scripts, alerting systems |
raw | Feeding matched lines to tools that expect the original format |
Color control
Color output applies only to text format. In auto mode (the default), Zeal enables colors when stdout is a TTY and disables them when piping.
--no-color # Disable colors
--color never # Same effect
--color always # Force colors even when piping
--color auto # Auto-detect TTY (default)
--color always forces ANSI escape codes even when stdout is not a terminal. Use this if a downstream tool or viewer supports color but Zeal’s TTY detection returns false.
