Improve output highlighting

[emiliosheinz]

Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

Currently, when asking questions in the GitHub Copilot CLI, the answers are displayed in a way that gets dimmed or faded out. This makes them harder to read, especially for long responses or code blocks.

Proposed solution

Implement a better highlighting and formatting system for answers, similar to the one used in Claude Code CLI
or on Crush. This could include:

• Stronger contrast for text
• Syntax highlighting for code blocks
• Clearer separation between input and output
• Optional toggle to switch between “dimmed” and “full” display modes

Benefits

• Improved readability of answers
• Better developer experience when using GitHub Copilot CLI
• More consistent UX compared to other modern AI-powered CLIs

Example prompts or workflows

• Show me the content of file X
• Explain this repo and its current architectural organization
• List all functions in utils.py and briefly describe each
• Generate a code example for calling API Y and show me step-by-step
• Compare the implementation of function foo() between commit A and commit B

Additional context

What it looks like on Copilot CLI:

What it looks like on Claude Code:

How Crush does it:

crush-demo.238e393760cf226.webm

[RyanHecht]

Hi @emiliosheinz -- in the two months since this issue was opened, we've made a variety of improvements to our output highlighting, addressing some of the feedback here and then some. If any of these points are still relevant, I invite you to open a new issue focused on them. Thanks for your help in making the Copilot CLI beautiful!