auto-markdown for AI agents

I might regret this, but let's see how it goes.

Author: philpennock

commands/root/table.go

@@ -1,16 +1,21 @@
-// Copyright © 2015-2017,2025 Phil Pennock.
+// Copyright © 2015-2017,2025,2026 Phil Pennock.
 // All rights reserved, except as granted under license.
 // Licensed per file LICENSE.txt
 
 package root
 
 import (
+	"os"
+
 	"github.com/philpennock/character/internal/table"
 )
 
 func init() {
 	// flagSet: match the logic from root.go
 	flagSet := characterCmd.PersistentFlags()
+	if table.MarkdownStyle != "" && isInsideAIAgent() {
+		table.RenderStyle = table.MarkdownStyle
+	}
 	if table.AvailableStyles != nil {
 		flagSet.StringVar(&table.RenderStyle, "table-style", table.RenderStyle, "style option for table")
 	}
@@ -24,3 +29,19 @@ func tableRequestedList() bool {
 		return false
 	}
 }
+
+func isInsideAIAgent() bool {
+	for _, v := range []string{
+		"AGENT",          // multiple tools, emerging standard, name of agent as value, 'Goose', 'Amp'; <https://github.com/agentsmd/agents.md/issues/136>
+		"AI_AGENT",       // promoted by Vercel's detect-agent package
+		"OPENCODE_AGENT", // Open source multi-model client; set to '1'
+		"CLAUDECODE",     // Anthropic's Claude Code, set to '1'
+		"CURSOR_AGENT",   // OpenAI's Cursor, set to '1'
+		"GEMINI_CLI",     // Google's Gemini, set to '1'
+	} {
+		if os.Getenv(v) != "" {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}

internal/table/api_features.go

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// Copyright © 2015,2016 Phil Pennock.
+// Copyright © 2015,2016,2026 Phil Pennock.
 // All rights reserved, except as granted under license.
 // Licensed per file LICENSE.txt
 
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ const (
 // RenderStyle represents how the table should be styled.
 var RenderStyle string
 
+// MarkdownStyle is set non-empty if it is an available style for Markdown
+var MarkdownStyle string
+
 // AvailableStyles when non-nil, indicates that we can set style options, and
 // lists those styles.  Should be sorted.
 var AvailableStyles []string

internal/table/tabular.go

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// Copyright © 2016,2025 Phil Pennock.
+// Copyright © 2016,2025,2026 Phil Pennock.
 // All rights reserved, except as granted under license.
 // Licensed per file LICENSE.txt
 
@@ -109,4 +109,5 @@ func (t *Table) SetOmitColumnName(name string) error {
 func init() {
 	AvailableStyles = tb.ListStyles()
 	RenderStyle = defaultRenderStyle
+	MarkdownStyle = "markdown"
 }