RTK is parsing `rspec` default output as json, when it is not.

Description

⏺ Bash(cd ~/dev/chopin && bundle exec rspec redacted/path/to/my_spec.rb --no-color 2>&1 | grep -E "examples|Failure|passe…)
  ⎿  [rtk] rspec: JSON parse failed (expected value at line 1 column 1), using text fallback

⏺ RTK tries parse rspec output as JSON. Default rspec formatter = progress (text), not json. Fallback works but noisy.

  Options:
  - Ignore warning. Text fallback fine.
  - Run raw: rtk proxy bundle exec rspec ...
  - Force JSON: bin/rspec --format json ... (RTK parse success)
  - File RTK bug: formatter autodetect should skip JSON parse when --format not json.

Contributor guide

Tech stack

rust

Domain

cli

Issue type

bug

DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.

2

Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.

under 1 hour

Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.

fresh

ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.

clear

Prerequisites

basic Rustunderstanding of JSON parsing

Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.

75

Research direction

The issue occurs when RTK tries to parse rspec output as JSON. The default rspec formatter is progress (text), not JSON. Look at the output parsing code in RTK (likely in a module handling shell command results). Find where JSON parsing is attempted and add a condition to skip it unless the user explicitly uses ` format json` in the rspec command. The existing text fallback already works, so the fix is to avoid the unnecessary JSON parse attempt.