DuckDB 2.0's CLI agent mode cuts output size for coding agents, but not always

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DuckDB 2.0.0 "Cinnamon Teal" was released as a long-term support version, supported until at least October 2027. Its CLI includes an agent mode that activates when an AI agent's environment variable is set and stdout is not a terminal, printing compact Markdown tables, JSON errors, and a result footer. A tester comparing seven common queries found agent mode about 56% smaller in total than the standard box format, though it was larger than plain JSON for big results and produced bigger error messages. The footer's hash also let the tester confirm that the result was the same across different row orderings. The author noted that output size is a small share of an agent's total token usage, so the benefits may come from other factors.

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