Output options

Output basics

Nuclei provides flexible output options to save, format, and export scan results for analysis, reporting, and integration with other tools.

File output

Save to file

Write findings to a text file:

nuclei -target https://example.com -output results.txt

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -o findings.txt

The output file contains one finding per line in Nuclei’s default format:

[CVE-2021-44228] [http] [critical] https://example.com/api
[self-signed-ssl] [ssl] [info] example.com:443

Output files are appended to by default. Delete or rename old output files before new scans to avoid mixing results.

JSON export

Export detailed results in JSON format:

JSON Lines (JSONL)

Export in JSON Lines format (one JSON object per line):

nuclei -target https://example.com -jsonl-export output.jsonl

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -jle output.jsonl

Or use the -jsonl flag to output to stdout:

nuclei -target https://example.com -jsonl

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -j

JSON array

Export as a single JSON array:

nuclei -target https://example.com -json-export output.json

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -je output.json

JSONL format is better for streaming and processing large result sets, while JSON array format is better for one-time analysis.

JSON structure

Nuclei’s JSON output includes:

{
  "template-id": "CVE-2021-44228",
  "info": {
    "name": "Apache Log4j RCE",
    "author": ["pdteam"],
    "severity": "critical",
    "description": "Apache Log4j2 remote code execution",
    "tags": ["cve", "rce", "log4j"]
  },
  "type": "http",
  "host": "https://example.com",
  "matched-at": "https://example.com/api",
  "timestamp": "2024-03-01T12:00:00Z",
  "curl-command": "curl -X GET https://example.com/api",
  "matcher-name": "log4j-detection",
  "request": "GET /api HTTP/1.1...",
  "response": "HTTP/1.1 200 OK..."
}

JSON customization

Omit raw requests/responses

Reduce output size by omitting HTTP request/response pairs:

nuclei -target https://example.com -jsonl-export output.jsonl -omit-raw

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -jle output.jsonl -or

Omit template encoding

Exclude encoded template from JSON output:

nuclei -target https://example.com -jsonl-export output.jsonl -omit-template

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -jle output.jsonl -ot

Omitting raw data and templates significantly reduces output file size for large scans.

Markdown export

Generate organized Markdown reports:

nuclei -target https://example.com -markdown-export reports/

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -me reports/

This creates a directory structure:

reports/
├── example.com/
│   ├── CVE-2021-44228.md
│   ├── self-signed-ssl.md
│   └── index.md

Markdown sorting

Control how Markdown reports are organized:

By template
By host
By severity
No sorting

Sort by template ID (default):

MARKDOWN_EXPORT_SORT_MODE=template nuclei -u example.com -me reports/

Sort by target host:

MARKDOWN_EXPORT_SORT_MODE=host nuclei -u example.com -me reports/

Sort by severity level:

MARKDOWN_EXPORT_SORT_MODE=severity nuclei -u example.com -me reports/

No sorting (faster):

MARKDOWN_EXPORT_SORT_MODE=none nuclei -u example.com -me reports/

SARIF export

Export in SARIF format for integration with code analysis platforms:

nuclei -target https://example.com -sarif-export output.sarif

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -se output.sarif

SARIF (Static Analysis Results Interchange Format) is widely supported by GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and other platforms.

Response storage

Store all HTTP requests and responses:

Store responses

# Store in default directory (./output)
nuclei -target https://example.com -store-resp

# Store in custom directory
nuclei -target https://example.com -store-resp -store-resp-dir responses/

Short flags:

nuclei -u https://example.com -sresp -srd responses/

This creates files like:

output/
├── https_example.com_443/
│   ├── request_1.txt
│   ├── response_1.txt
│   ├── request_2.txt
│   └── response_2.txt

Storing all responses can generate large amounts of data. Use disk space wisely.

Display options

Silent mode

Display only findings, no progress or banner:

nuclei -target https://example.com -silent

Perfect for piping to other tools:

nuclei -u https://example.com -silent | grep critical

No metadata

Disable printing result metadata:

nuclei -target https://example.com -no-meta

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -nm

Timestamps

Enable timestamps in output:

nuclei -target https://example.com -timestamp

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -ts

Output includes timestamps:

[2024-03-01 12:00:00] [CVE-2021-44228] [http] [critical] https://example.com

Matcher status

Show match failure status for debugging:

nuclei -target https://example.com -matcher-status

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -ms

Matcher status helps debug template logic by showing why certain conditions failed.

No color

Disable colored output:

nuclei -target https://example.com -no-color

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -nc

Useful for log files and CI/CD pipelines.

Statistics

Enable statistics

Display scan statistics:

nuclei -target https://example.com -stats

Shows periodic updates:

Templates: 3500 | Hosts: 1 | RPS: 150 | Errors: 0 | Matches: 5

Statistics interval

Control update frequency (in seconds):

nuclei -target https://example.com -stats -stats-interval 10

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -stats -si 10

JSON statistics

Output statistics in JSON format:

nuclei -target https://example.com -stats -stats-json

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -stats -sj

HTTP statistics

Enable HTTP status code tracking:

nuclei -target https://example.com -http-stats

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -hps

Tracks request/response statistics for analysis.

Metrics endpoint

Expose metrics via HTTP endpoint:

nuclei -target https://example.com -metrics-port 9092

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -mp 9092

Access metrics at http://localhost:9092/metrics.

Metrics are exposed in Prometheus format for monitoring integration.

Reporting database

Persist results to a database for deduplication:

nuclei -target https://example.com -report-db results.db

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -rdb results.db

Benefits:

Automatic deduplication
Historical tracking
Persistent storage

Reporting integrations

Configure external reporting systems:

nuclei -target https://example.com -report-config reporting-config.yaml

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -rc reporting-config.yaml

Supported integrations:

Jira
Slack
GitHub Issues
Elasticsearch
Splunk
Custom webhooks

See Cloud Integration for detailed reporting configuration.

Data redaction

Redact sensitive data from output:

# Redact specific keys
nuclei -target https://example.com \
  -jsonl-export output.jsonl \
  -redact Authorization,Cookie,api-key

# Redact from file
nuclei -target https://example.com \
  -jsonl-export output.jsonl \
  -redact redact-keys.txt

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -jle output.jsonl -rd Authorization,Cookie

Redaction removes sensitive data from query parameters, request headers, and request body.

Verbose output

Verbose mode

Show additional details:

nuclei -target https://example.com -verbose

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -v

Very verbose mode

Show template loading and detailed execution:

nuclei -target https://example.com -vv

Shows:

Templates being loaded
Request/response pairs
Matcher evaluation
Workflow execution

Variable dump

Display variable values for debugging:

nuclei -target https://example.com -show-var-dump

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -svd

Limit displayed characters:

nuclei -u https://example.com -svd -var-dump-limit 500

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -svd -vdl 500

Debug output

Debug mode

Show all requests and responses:

nuclei -target https://example.com -debug

Debug requests only

nuclei -target https://example.com -debug-req

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -dreq

Debug responses only

nuclei -target https://example.com -debug-resp

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -dresp

Debug mode generates extensive output. Use with single targets for troubleshooting.

Trace and error logs

Trace log

Log all requests to a file:

nuclei -target https://example.com -trace-log trace.log

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -tlog trace.log

Error log

Log errors to a separate file:

nuclei -target https://example.com -error-log errors.log

Short flag:

nuclei -u https://example.com -elog errors.log

Practical examples

Example 1: Comprehensive reporting

nuclei -list targets.txt \
  -output findings.txt \
  -json-export findings.json \
  -markdown-export reports/ \
  -sarif-export findings.sarif \
  -report-db scan-results.db \
  -stats

Example 2: Silent pipeline

cat targets.txt | \
  nuclei -silent -jsonl | \
  jq -r 'select(.info.severity=="critical") | .host'

Example 3: Detailed debugging

nuclei -u https://example.com \
  -t custom-template.yaml \
  -debug \
  -verbose \
  -matcher-status \
  -trace-log trace.log

Example 4: Production scan

nuclei -list production.txt \
  -severity critical,high \
  -silent \
  -jsonl-export findings.jsonl \
  -omit-raw \
  -no-color \
  -report-db production-scan.db

Example 5: CI/CD integration

nuclei -target $CI_TARGET \
  -silent \
  -no-color \
  -sarif-export nuclei-results.sarif \
  -severity critical,high \
  -exclude-tags dos,intrusive

Example 6: Research and analysis

nuclei -list research-targets.txt \
  -jsonl-export full-results.jsonl \
  -store-resp \
  -store-resp-dir responses/ \
  -stats \
  -stats-json \
  -report-db research.db

Output format comparison

Format	Use Case	Size	Streaming	Machine Readable
Text	Quick review	Small	Yes	No
JSONL	Processing	Medium	Yes	Yes
JSON	Analysis	Medium	No	Yes
Markdown	Reports	Large	No	No
SARIF	CI/CD Integration	Large	No	Yes

Best practices

Choose appropriate formats

Select output formats based on your workflow:

# Development: verbose + debug
nuclei -u example.com -v -debug-req

# Production: silent + JSON + database
nuclei -list targets.txt -silent -jle results.jsonl -rdb scan.db

# Reporting: Markdown + SARIF
nuclei -u example.com -me reports/ -se results.sarif

Use deduplication

Always use report database for recurring scans:

nuclei -list targets.txt -report-db scan.db

Optimize output size

Omit unnecessary data for large scans:

nuclei -list large-targets.txt -jle results.jsonl -or -ot

Enable statistics

Monitor long-running scans:

nuclei -list targets.txt -stats -si 30

Next steps

Rate limiting

Control scan speed and performance

Cloud integration

Upload results to ProjectDiscovery Cloud

Filtering templates

Filter what gets scanned and reported

Running scans

Back to scanning fundamentals

Get Started

Core Concepts

Using Nuclei

Configuration

Advanced Features

Documentation Index

​Output basics

​File output

​Save to file

​JSON export

​JSON Lines (JSONL)

​JSON array

​JSON structure

​JSON customization

​Omit raw requests/responses

​Omit template encoding

​Markdown export

​Markdown sorting

​SARIF export

​Response storage

​Store responses

​Display options

​Silent mode

​No metadata

​Timestamps

​Matcher status

​No color

​Statistics

​Enable statistics

​Statistics interval

​JSON statistics

​HTTP statistics

​Metrics endpoint

​Reporting database

​Reporting integrations

​Data redaction

​Verbose output

​Verbose mode

​Very verbose mode

​Variable dump

​Debug output

​Debug mode

​Debug requests only

​Debug responses only

​Trace and error logs

​Trace log

​Error log

​Practical examples

​Example 1: Comprehensive reporting

​Example 2: Silent pipeline

​Example 3: Detailed debugging

​Example 4: Production scan

​Example 5: CI/CD integration

​Example 6: Research and analysis

​Output format comparison

​Best practices

​Next steps

Rate limiting

Cloud integration

Filtering templates

Running scans

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Output basics

File output

Save to file

JSON export

JSON Lines (JSONL)

JSON array

JSON structure

JSON customization

Omit raw requests/responses

Omit template encoding

Markdown export

Markdown sorting

SARIF export

Response storage

Store responses

Display options

Silent mode

No metadata

Timestamps

Matcher status

No color

Statistics

Enable statistics

Statistics interval

JSON statistics

HTTP statistics

Metrics endpoint

Reporting database

Reporting integrations

Data redaction

Verbose output

Verbose mode

Very verbose mode

Variable dump

Debug output

Debug mode

Debug requests only

Debug responses only

Trace and error logs

Trace log

Error log

Practical examples

Example 1: Comprehensive reporting

Example 2: Silent pipeline

Example 3: Detailed debugging

Example 4: Production scan

Example 5: CI/CD integration

Example 6: Research and analysis

Output format comparison

Best practices

Next steps