1 files changed, 9 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/doc/developer-guidelines.sgml b/doc/developer-guidelines.sgml
index 951f167b..718bd02a 100644
--- a/doc/developer-guidelines.sgml
+++ b/doc/developer-guidelines.sgml
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@
 <section id="PlugOutput"><title>Plugin Output for Nagios</title>
         
                 <para>You should always print something to STDOUT that tells if the 
-                service is working or why its failing. Try to keep the output short - 
+                service is working or why it is failing. Try to keep the output short - 
                 probably less that 80 characters. Remember that you ideally would like 
                 the entire output to appear in a pager message, which will get chopped
                 off after a certain length.</para>
@@ -124,6 +124,14 @@
                 when it notifies contacts about potential problems. If you print
                 multiple lines, you're out of luck. Remember, keep it short and
                 to the point.</para>
+
+                <para>Output should be in the format:</para>
+                <literallayout>
+                METRIC STATUS: Information text
+                </literallayout>
+                <para>However, note that this is not a requirement of the API, so you cannot depend on this
+                being an accurate reflection of the status of the service - the status should always 
+                be determined by the return code.</para>
                 </section>
 
                 <section><title>Verbose output</title>