Scripts and --json

tria behaves well outside the terminal: no colors or animations when nobody’s watching, JSON for reading from another program, and exit codes that tell you what happened.

In a script, nobody can answer questions. A command that would need to ask something exits with an error, unless you tell it what to do with an option.

No questions

Command	So it doesn’t ask
`tria sort`	`--auto` applies what’s clear; `--dry-run` and `--json`, on their own, don’t move anything.
`tria init`	`--template` with its template; with `--learn`, add `-y`.
`tria rules ask`	`-y` applies the change without asking.
`tria rules learn` and `tria eval`	`-y` accepts the cost without asking.

Without them, tria says “No interactive terminal: use --yes, --auto, --dry-run or --json depending on the command.” and exits with 2. With tria init --template and no terminal, the profile is created empty.

Clean output

If the output isn’t a terminal, tria writes plain text. The waiting animation goes to standard error, so whatever you save to a file comes out clean:

bash

tria sort --dry-run > proposals.txttria sort --dry-run --json > proposals.json

With --json --show-prompt, what’s sent to the AI goes to standard error and standard output stays pure JSON.

The tria sort JSON

json

{  "applied": [    {      "from": "99-Inbox/Scan_20261011_0012.pdf",      "to": "2-Invoices Received/2026/Q4/Invoice Bay Stationery - 2026-10-11.pdf"    }  ],  "cost": 0.00936,  "failed": [],  "items": [    {      "confidence": "high",      "destination": "2-Invoices Received/2026/Q4/Invoice Bay Stationery - 2026-10-11.pdf",      "file": "99-Inbox/Scan_20261011_0012.pdf",      "reason": "Invoice from Bay Stationery dated October 11, 2026.",      "status": "proposal"    }  ],  "model": "claude-sonnet-5-5",  "usage": {    "cacheReadTokens": 5800,    "cacheWriteTokens": 0,    "inputTokens": 2100,    "outputTokens": 400  }}

Field	What it is
`items`	Each document in the inbox: `file`, `status` (`proposal`, `duplicate` or `pending`), `destination`, `confidence` (`high`, `medium` or `low`), `reason` and, if there is one, `doubt`.
`applied`	What was moved, from `from` to `to`.
`failed`	What couldn’t be moved, with the reason.
`model`, `usage`, `cost`	The model, the tokens and the approximate cost in USD.
`interrupted`	Only if the batch was cut short, with the reason.

Fields with no value are left out. tria eval --json writes the evaluation report along the same lines.

Exit codes

Code	When
`0`	All good. For `tria sort`, nothing left pending; with `--dry-run`, as long as there’s no error.
`1`	`tria sort` leaves documents in the inbox; `tria rules ask` doesn’t make the change; `tria eval --baseline` scores lower.
`2`	Something went wrong.
`130`	Interrupted with Ctrl-C.

bash

tria sort --auto --json > today.jsonif [ $? -eq 1 ]; then echo "Documents left in the inbox"; fi

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `OPENAI_API_KEY`	The key, instead of the one in the Keychain.
`NO_COLOR`	No colors or animations, with any non-empty value.
`CLICOLOR_FORCE=1`	Colors even when the output isn’t a terminal. `NO_COLOR` wins.
`TERM=dumb`	Plain text, no animations or full screen.
`TRIA_LANG`	The language of the messages and the help: `ca`, `es` or `en`.
`XDG_CONFIG_HOME`	Where to look for `tria/config.toml`.

Only one process sorts a space at a time. If the app or another tria is sorting it, tria sort exits with 2 and says so: try again when it finishes.