Orchestrator Terminal Style

Provides terminal formatting patterns using VS Code 1.108's enhanced glyph support for conductor workflows, validation scripts, and agent output.

Description

This skill teaches agents how to format terminal output with the ~800 GPU-accelerated glyphs available in VS Code 1.108, including status indicators, box drawing, progress bars, and Git symbols. It covers the canonical glyph set, formatting patterns, accessibility requirements, and fallback strategies for conductor workflows.

When to Use

This skill is relevant when:

•Formatting terminal output from PowerShell validation scripts
•Displaying status summaries in conductor workflows
•Creating progress indicators for multi-phase tasks
•Formatting Git operation results
•Displaying test results with visual indicators
•Creating tables or structured output in terminals

Entry Points

Trigger Phrases

•"format terminal output"
•"show validation results"
•"display progress"
•"create status summary"
•"format test results"
•"use glyphs in output"

Context Patterns

•Running validation scripts (validate-copilot-assets.ps1, run-lint.ps1, run-smoke-tests.ps1)
•Displaying conductor phase progress
•Formatting implementer test results
•Showing reviewer findings summary
•Displaying deployment status

Core Knowledge

Canonical Glyph Set

Status Indicators

•✓ (U+2713) — Success, passed, approved
•✗ (U+2717) — Failure, error, rejected
•⚠ (U+26A0) — Warning, caution, attention needed
•ℹ (U+2139) — Information, note, guidance
•● (U+25CF) — Active state, in-progress
•○ (U+25CB) — Inactive state, pending

Box Drawing (U+2500-U+257F)

code

┌─┬─┐  ╔═╦═╗  ╭─┬─╮
├─┼─┤  ╠═╬═╣  ├─┼─┤
└─┴─┘  ╚═╩═╝  ╰─┴─╯
│ ─    ║ ═    │ ─

Block Elements (U+2580-U+259F)

•▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ — Progress bars (8 levels)
•░▒▓█ — Density indicators

Progress Indicators (U+EE00-U+EE0B)

• — Spinner frames for loading
•Combine with timer for animated progress

Git Symbols (U+F5D0-U+F60D)

•`` (U+E0A0) — Branch indicator
•`` (U+E0B0) — Powerline separator

Formatting Patterns

1. Status Summary

powershell

Write-Host "✓ All Copilot assets passed validation." -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host "⚠ 2 warnings found in documentation." -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-Host "✗ Build failed with 3 errors." -ForegroundColor Red
Write-Host "ℹ Use -Verbose flag for detailed output." -ForegroundColor Cyan

2. File Operations

powershell

Write-Host "┌─ Phase 3: Terminal Glyphs Style Guide"
Write-Host "├── ✓ Created instructions/global/terminal-formatting.instructions.md"
Write-Host "├── ✓ Created docs/guides/terminal-formatting-guide.md"
Write-Host "└── ● Validating changes..."

3. Test Results

powershell

Write-Host "`n═══ Test Results ═══"
Write-Host "✓ Unit Tests:     42/42 passed"
Write-Host "✓ Integration:    15/15 passed"
Write-Host "⚠ E2E Tests:      8/10 passed (2 skipped)"
Write-Host "═══════════════════════"

4. Progress Updates

powershell

$progress = [math]::Floor($completed / $total * 8)
$bar = "█" * $progress + "░" * (8 - $progress)
Write-Host "Progress: [$bar] $completed/$total phases"

5. Git Operations

powershell

Write-Host " main → feature-branch" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host "  7 files changed, 234 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)"

6. Validation Results

powershell

Write-Host "`n┌─ Validation Summary ───────────────┐"
Write-Host "│ Asset Validation      ✓ PASS       │"
Write-Host "│ Lint Check           ✓ PASS       │"
Write-Host "│ Smoke Tests          ✓ PASS       │"
Write-Host "│ Token Budget         ℹ REVIEW     │"
Write-Host "└────────────────────────────────────┘"

Accessibility Requirements

Always pair glyphs with text labels:

powershell

# ✓ GOOD — Accessible
Write-Host "✓ PASS — All assets validated"

# ✗ BAD — Screen reader only sees glyph
Write-Host "✓"

Use ANSI colors for additional context:

powershell

Write-Host "✓ Success" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host "✗ Error" -ForegroundColor Red
Write-Host "⚠ Warning" -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-Host "ℹ Info" -ForegroundColor Cyan

ANSI Color Codes

powershell

# PowerShell -ForegroundColor values
Black, DarkBlue, DarkGreen, DarkCyan, DarkRed, DarkMagenta, DarkYellow, Gray
DarkGray, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow, White

# Direct ANSI (for cross-platform scripts)
$ESC = [char]27
Write-Host "$ESC[32m✓ Success$ESC[0m"  # Green
Write-Host "$ESC[31m✗ Error$ESC[0m"    # Red
Write-Host "$ESC[33m⚠ Warning$ESC[0m"  # Yellow

Agent-Specific Guidelines

Conductor

•Use tree structure for phase progress
•Status summary with emoji + text
•Box drawing for plan/review boundaries

Implementer

•Progress bars for test execution
•File operation trees (├─┼─)
•Success/failure indicators per test

Reviewer

•Severity indicators: ✗ BLOCKER, ⚠ MAJOR, ℹ MINOR, ● NIT
•Finding summaries with counts
•Box-drawn verdict sections

Validation Scripts

•Status summary format: ✓ PASS, ✗ FAIL, ⚠ WARN, ℹ INFO
•Tree structure for multi-file validation
•Total counts in box-drawn table

Examples

Example 1: Conductor Phase Progress

powershell

Write-Host "`n┌─ VS Code 1.108 Integration ─────────┐"
Write-Host "│ ✓ Phase 1: Settings & Docs Update  │"
Write-Host "│ ✓ Phase 2: Worktrees Docs Refresh  │"
Write-Host "│ ✓ Phase 3: Terminal Glyphs Style   │"
Write-Host "│ ✓ Phase 4: Terminal Auto-Approve   │"
Write-Host "│ ● Phase 5: Agent Sessions Updates  │"
Write-Host "│ ○ Phase 6: Agent Skills Pilot      │"
Write-Host "│ ○ Phase 7: Rollout & Validation    │"
Write-Host "└──────────────────────────────────────┘"
Write-Host "Progress: [█████░░░] 5/7 phases (71%)"

Example 2: Validation Script Output

powershell

function Format-ValidationResult {
    param([bool]$Success, [string]$Name, [int]$Warnings = 0)
    
    if ($Success -and $Warnings -eq 0) {
        Write-Host "✓ PASS" -ForegroundColor Green -NoNewline
        Write-Host " — $Name"
    } elseif ($Success -and $Warnings -gt 0) {
        Write-Host "⚠ WARN" -ForegroundColor Yellow -NoNewline
        Write-Host " — $Name ($Warnings warnings)"
    } else {
        Write-Host "✗ FAIL" -ForegroundColor Red -NoNewline
        Write-Host " — $Name"
    }
}

# Usage
Format-ValidationResult -Success $true -Name "Asset validation"
Format-ValidationResult -Success $true -Name "Lint check" -Warnings 2
Format-ValidationResult -Success $false -Name "Smoke tests"

Example 3: Test Results Summary

powershell

Write-Host "`n╔═══════════════════════════════════╗"
Write-Host "║   Test Execution Complete        ║"
Write-Host "╠═══════════════════════════════════╣"
Write-Host "║ ✓ Unit Tests        127/127     ║"
Write-Host "║ ✓ Integration       45/45       ║"
Write-Host "║ ⚠ E2E Tests         23/25       ║"
Write-Host "║ ─────────────────────────────── ║"
Write-Host "║ Total:              195/197     ║"
Write-Host "║ Success Rate:       99.0%       ║"
Write-Host "╚═══════════════════════════════════╝"

Fallback Strategies

When Glyphs Don't Render

If terminal doesn't support Unicode:

powershell

# Detect console capability
$useUnicode = $Host.UI.SupportsVirtualTerminal -or ($env:TERM -match "xterm|vt100")

if ($useUnicode) {
    Write-Host "✓ Success"
} else {
    Write-Host "[PASS] Success"
}

ASCII Fallback Set

code

✓ → [PASS] or [OK]
✗ → [FAIL] or [X]
⚠ → [WARN] or [!]
ℹ → [INFO] or [i]
● → [*]
○ → [ ]

Testing

Test glyph rendering in your terminal:

powershell

# Test basic glyphs
Write-Host "Status: ✓ ✗ ⚠ ℹ ● ○"

# Test box drawing
Write-Host "┌─┬─┐"
Write-Host "├─┼─┤"
Write-Host "└─┴─┘"

# Test blocks
Write-Host "Progress: ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█"

# Test colors
Write-Host "✓ Green" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host "✗ Red" -ForegroundColor Red
Write-Host "⚠ Yellow" -ForegroundColor Yellow

References

•Full glyph reference: docs/guides/terminal-formatting-guide.md
•Agent instructions: instructions/global/terminal-formatting.instructions.md
•VS Code 1.108 terminal features: docs/guides/vscode-copilot-configuration.md