diff --git a/ui/terminal/format.go b/ui/terminal/format.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4205bdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/terminal/format.go
@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+// Copyright 2019 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package terminal
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+
+	"android/soong/ui/status"
+)
+
+type formatter struct {
+	format string
+	quiet  bool
+	start  time.Time
+}
+
+// newFormatter returns a formatter for formatting output to
+// the terminal in a format similar to Ninja.
+// format takes nearly all the same options as NINJA_STATUS.
+// %c is currently unsupported.
+func newFormatter(format string, quiet bool) formatter {
+	return formatter{
+		format: format,
+		quiet:  quiet,
+		start:  time.Now(),
+	}
+}
+
+func (s formatter) message(level status.MsgLevel, message string) string {
+	if level >= status.ErrorLvl {
+		return fmt.Sprintf("FAILED: %s", message)
+	} else if level > status.StatusLvl {
+		return fmt.Sprintf("%s%s", level.Prefix(), message)
+	} else if level == status.StatusLvl {
+		return message
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
+func (s formatter) progress(counts status.Counts) string {
+	if s.format == "" {
+		return fmt.Sprintf("[%3d%% %d/%d] ", 100*counts.FinishedActions/counts.TotalActions, counts.FinishedActions, counts.TotalActions)
+	}
+
+	buf := &strings.Builder{}
+	for i := 0; i < len(s.format); i++ {
+		c := s.format[i]
+		if c != '%' {
+			buf.WriteByte(c)
+			continue
+		}
+
+		i = i + 1
+		if i == len(s.format) {
+			buf.WriteByte(c)
+			break
+		}
+
+		c = s.format[i]
+		switch c {
+		case '%':
+			buf.WriteByte(c)
+		case 's':
+			fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%d", counts.StartedActions)
+		case 't':
+			fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%d", counts.TotalActions)
+		case 'r':
+			fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%d", counts.RunningActions)
+		case 'u':
+			fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%d", counts.TotalActions-counts.StartedActions)
+		case 'f':
+			fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%d", counts.FinishedActions)
+		case 'o':
+			fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%.1f", float64(counts.FinishedActions)/time.Since(s.start).Seconds())
+		case 'c':
+			// TODO: implement?
+			buf.WriteRune('?')
+		case 'p':
+			fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%3d%%", 100*counts.FinishedActions/counts.TotalActions)
+		case 'e':
+			fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%.3f", time.Since(s.start).Seconds())
+		default:
+			buf.WriteString("unknown placeholder '")
+			buf.WriteByte(c)
+			buf.WriteString("'")
+		}
+	}
+	return buf.String()
+}
+
+func (s formatter) result(result status.ActionResult) string {
+	var ret string
+	if result.Error != nil {
+		targets := strings.Join(result.Outputs, " ")
+		if s.quiet || result.Command == "" {
+			ret = fmt.Sprintf("FAILED: %s\n%s", targets, result.Output)
+		} else {
+			ret = fmt.Sprintf("FAILED: %s\n%s\n%s", targets, result.Command, result.Output)
+		}
+	} else if result.Output != "" {
+		ret = result.Output
+	}
+
+	if len(ret) > 0 && ret[len(ret)-1] != '\n' {
+		ret += "\n"
+	}
+
+	return ret
+}