diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 65d2981e..0c4d63c0 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/spf13/afero v1.14.0
 	github.com/urfave/cli-docs/v3 v3.0.0-alpha6
 	github.com/urfave/cli/v3 v3.3.3
+	golang.org/x/term v0.32.0
 	gopkg.in/yaml.v3 v3.0.1
 )
 
@@ -161,7 +162,6 @@ require (
 	golang.org/x/oauth2 v0.30.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/sync v0.14.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/sys v0.33.0 // indirect
-	golang.org/x/term v0.32.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/text v0.25.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/time v0.11.0 // indirect
 	google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/api v0.0.0-20250428153025-10db94c68c34 // indirect
diff --git a/internal/output/color.go b/internal/output/color.go
index 31a08080..afd4b0bf 100644
--- a/internal/output/color.go
+++ b/internal/output/color.go
@@ -4,10 +4,12 @@ package output
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"os"
 
 	chroma "github.com/alecthomas/chroma/v2/quick"
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/urfave/cli/v3"
+	"golang.org/x/term"
 
 	"github.com/go-vela/cli/internal"
 )
@@ -29,6 +31,11 @@ func ColorOptionsFromCLIContext(c *cli.Command) ColorOptions {
 
 	opts.Enabled = internal.StringToBool(c.String(internal.FlagColor))
 
+	// if it's not a terminal, don't use color
+	if !term.IsTerminal(int(os.Stdout.Fd())) {
+		opts.Enabled = false
+	}
+
 	if c.IsSet(internal.FlagColorFormat) {
 		opts.Format = c.String(internal.FlagColorFormat)
 	}