---
title: Custom formatting
description: ecctl supports a global --format flag which can be passed to any existing command or subcommand. Using the --format flag allows you to obtain a specific...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2322/reference/ecctl/ecctl-custom-formatting
---

# Custom formatting
ecctl supports a global `--format` flag which can be passed to any existing command or subcommand. Using the `--format` flag allows you to obtain a specific part of a command response that might not have been shown before with the default `--output=text`. The `--format` internally uses Go templates which means that you can use the power of the Go built-in [`text/templates`](https://golang.org/pkg/text/template/) on demand.