Claude Code Output Styles

Guide for the native Claude Code output style feature and for applying the same response-contract pattern to agents, slash commands, teams, and skills.

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when:

• Creating a custom output style for a session or plugin
• Shipping output styles from a plugin via the output-styles/ directory
• Deciding whether a need is best served by an output style, a skill, CLAUDE.md, or --append-system-prompt
• Standardizing the response shape a worker agent must return so a team lead can filter and parse it
• Writing reusable response-format contracts that multiple agents, commands, or skills reference
• Debugging why a subagent is not honoring the session's output style

Two Things This Skill Covers

1. The Claude Code feature: a session-level system prompt modification selected via /config, shipped as Markdown files, optionally bundled in plugins.
2. The pattern: a reusable response-format contract authored once and referenced from agents, commands, teams, or skills when consistent, parseable output is needed.