Improve formatting of (or suppress)MCP tool responses

[steren]

What would you like to be added?

By default, Gemini CLI prints the whole output of MCP tools.

Many MCP servers are returning structured JSON payloads.

This results in a not-so-great experience, for example:

I suggest the following:

• do not print MCP output in primary test color, use gray, to convey to the user they don't need to read it
• cap the height to 2/3 lines maximum

potentially, we could detect if the output is JSON vs plaintext, and if plaintext, assume the response is relevant to be seen by the user? If Json, we could imagine pretty printing it, or just taking the decision to now show it and always return a nicely Gemini CLI-formatted text response.

Why is this needed?

Make Gemini CLI nicer

Additional context

No response

[medic-code]

For pretty printing there's a PR in review.

#9767

I didn't address the wider UX in the PR but like the idea of a grey colour for MCP raw outputs and what to do with large outputs.

Is there a way to distinguish between raw outputs and json outputs from MCP that's intended to be read ?

Happy to work on this as a follow up.

FYI @jacob314

[gemini-cli]

Hello! As part of our effort to keep our backlog manageable and focus on the most active issues, we are tidying up older reports.

It looks like this issue hasn't been active for a while, so we are closing it for now. However, if you are still experiencing this bug on the latest stable build, please feel free to comment on this issue or create a new one with updated details.

Thank you for your contribution!