Displaying tables in chats | Friends of the Crustacean 🦞🤝 | Page 1

warm stump May 13, 2026, 10:37 AM

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If I'm having a chat with a agent and it answers using a table of information, it usually just draws table borders with ascii characters, is there a way to tell it to display tables a better way

runic fossilBOT May 13, 2026, 10:37 AM

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To help others find answers, you can mark your question as solved via Right click solution message -> Apps -> ✅ Mark Solution

loud cobaltBOT May 13, 2026, 10:37 AM

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Yep — usually the best fix is to add a style instruction to that agent’s instructions / AGENTS.md, something like:

When presenting tabular information in Discord/chat, do not use ASCII box-drawing tables. Prefer short bullet lists, grouped sections, or compact key/value lines. If an actual table is necessary, use a simple fenced code block with aligned columns.

One catch: Discord doesn’t really render Markdown tables nicely like GitHub does, so asking for “Markdown tables” often won’t help much. For Discord, bullets or compact sections are usually the cleanest.

Example:

Plan options:
- Basic: $10/mo — good for testing
- Pro: $30/mo — best default
- Team: $80/mo — shared usage + admin controls

If you’re using the web UI or another surface that supports richer rendering, you can be more specific there, but for Discord I’d steer it away from table borders entirely. 🦞

warm stump May 13, 2026, 10:38 AM

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I use telegram rather than discord

loud cobaltBOT May 13, 2026, 10:38 AM

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Ah, for Telegram the advice changes a bit: Telegram still doesn’t render GitHub-style Markdown tables as real tables. So if the agent sends | col | col |, Telegram will usually just show it as plain text.

I’d tell the agent to avoid tables for Telegram and use one of these instead:

When replying in Telegram, do not use ASCII-bordered tables or Markdown tables. Prefer compact bullet lists, grouped sections, or key/value lines. For dense tabular data, use a fenced monospace code block with aligned columns only if necessary.

Good Telegram-friendly format:

Options:
• Basic — $10/mo — testing/small use
• Pro — $30/mo — best default
• Team — $80/mo — shared/admin features

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For structured info:

Pro plan
Price: $30/mo
Best for: normal daily use
Limits: higher than Basic

If you really need a proper table, the cleanest route is usually to have the agent generate an image/PDF/CSV attachment rather than trying to make Telegram render one inline.

warm stump May 13, 2026, 10:40 AM

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So a fence monospace code block should work?

loud cobaltBOT May 13, 2026, 10:40 AM

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Yes — a fenced monospace code block is the most reliable inline option for Telegram.

Use triple backticks:

```text
Name      Price   Notes
Basic     $10     Small/testing
Pro       $30     Best default
Team      $80     Shared/admin
```

That should preserve spacing and avoid the ugly ASCII border boxes. The tradeoff is it’s not responsive: on narrow phone screens, wide tables may still wrap or require horizontal scrolling/copying. So I’d only use it for small tables; for bigger data, bullets or an attached CSV/PDF/image will usually read better.

warm stump May 13, 2026, 10:40 AM

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I do have a chart MCP server available

loud cobaltBOT May 13, 2026, 10:41 AM

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Nice — then that’s probably the better route when the data is genuinely table/chart-shaped.

I’d add an instruction like:

When presenting structured numeric/comparison data in Telegram:
- Prefer concise bullets for small datasets.
- For small tables, use a fenced `text` code block with aligned columns.
- For larger tables, trends, rankings, or comparisons, use the chart MCP server to generate a chart/image instead of rendering ASCII tables.
- Include a short plain-language summary before the chart.

So the agent chooses:

• 2–5 rows: bullets/key-value lines
• small matrix: fenced monospace block
• larger/comparative/numeric data: chart MCP image

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• raw data needed: attach CSV too, if available

For Telegram specifically, an image chart often reads much better on mobile than a wide code-block table.

warm stump May 13, 2026, 10:41 AM

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so how would this look in my agents.md file

loud cobaltBOT May 13, 2026, 10:41 AM

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I’d put a small “chat formatting” section in AGENTS.md, something like this:

## Chat Formatting

When replying in Telegram, optimize for mobile readability.

- Do not use ASCII box-drawing tables, e.g. `+---+---+` borders.
- Do not rely on Markdown tables; Telegram does not render them as real tables.
- For small comparisons, prefer bullets or key/value lines.
- For small fixed-width tables, use a fenced `text` code block with aligned columns.
- For larger datasets, rankings, numeric comparisons, or trends, use the chart MCP server to generate a chart/image instead of an inline table.
- Include a short plain-language summary before any chart or table.

Examples:

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Good small comparison:

- Basic — $10/mo — testing/small use
- Pro — $30/mo — best default
- Team — $80/mo — shared/admin controls

Good compact table:

```text
Plan    Price   Best for
Basic   $10     Testing
Pro     $30     Daily use
Team    $80     Groups/admin

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For larger or visual data:
Use the chart MCP server and attach the generated image.

Tiny gotcha: because that snippet itself contains triple backticks, if you paste it manually you may need to remove the outer code fence from my message and keep the inner examples.

warm stump May 13, 2026, 10:42 AM

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So can you give me the text that I can copy stright into the agents.md file

loud cobaltBOT May 13, 2026, 10:43 AM

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Yep — copy this straight into your AGENTS.md:

## Chat Formatting

When replying in Telegram, optimize for mobile readability.

- Do not use ASCII box-drawing tables such as `+---+---+` or `|---|---|` borders.
- Do not rely on Markdown tables; Telegram usually does not render them as real tables.
- For small comparisons, prefer bullets or key/value lines.
- For small fixed-width tables, use a fenced `text` code block with aligned columns.
- For larger datasets, rankings, numeric comparisons, or trends, use the chart MCP server to generate a chart/image instead of an inline table.
- Include a short plain-language summary before any chart, table, or generated image.

Good small comparison format:

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- Basic — $10/mo — testing/small use
- Pro — $30/mo — best default
- Team — $80/mo — shared/admin controls

Good compact table format:

```text
Plan    Price   Best for
Basic   $10     Testing
Pro     $30     Daily use
Team    $80     Groups/admin
```

When using the chart MCP server, attach the generated image and briefly explain what it shows.

warm stump May 13, 2026, 11:42 AM

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The agent didn't notice it the first time and I had to remind it, will that change over time?

loud cobaltBOT May 13, 2026, 11:43 AM

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Not automatically in a reliable “it learned forever” way.

If the instruction is in AGENTS.md, the agent should see it on future runs/sessions, but models can still miss softer guidance sometimes — especially if the task strongly suggests a table. Reminding it once in-chat usually helps for that conversation, but that reminder may not persist unless it’s written into durable instructions/memory.

I’d make the rule more forceful and decision-like, e.g.:

## Telegram Output Rules

For Telegram replies, never use ASCII table borders or Markdown pipe tables.

If information would normally be shown as a table, choose one of these instead:
1. Use bullets or key/value lines for small comparisons.
2. Use a fenced `text` code block only for small fixed-width tables.
3. Use the chart MCP server for larger datasets, rankings, trends, or numeric comparisons.

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Before sending any table-like output, check whether it will be readable on a phone screen. If not, convert it to bullets or a chart image.

That “never” + explicit decision tree tends to work better than “prefer”. Still not 100%, but much better. If it keeps ignoring it, put the rule near the top of AGENTS.md under something like “Important output rules” so it’s harder to miss.

#Displaying tables in chats