diff --git a/pkg/cmd/clustertask/describe.go b/pkg/cmd/clustertask/describe.go
index 4dd421b9f..c3c1a7ad8 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/clustertask/describe.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/clustertask/describe.go
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ package clustertask
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"os"
 	"sort"
 	"text/tabwriter"
 	"text/template"
@@ -24,8 +26,10 @@ import (
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 	"github.com/tektoncd/cli/pkg/cli"
 	"github.com/tektoncd/cli/pkg/formatted"
+	"github.com/tektoncd/cli/pkg/printer"
 	"github.com/tektoncd/pipeline/pkg/apis/pipeline/v1alpha1"
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema"
 	cliopts "k8s.io/cli-runtime/pkg/genericclioptions"
 )
 
@@ -134,6 +138,16 @@ or
 				Err: cmd.OutOrStderr(),
 			}
 
+			output, err := cmd.LocalFlags().GetString("output")
+			if err != nil {
+				fmt.Fprint(os.Stderr, "Error: output option not set properly \n")
+				return err
+			}
+
+			if output != "" {
+				return describeClusterTaskOutput(cmd.OutOrStdout(), p, f, args[0])
+			}
+
 			return printClusterTaskDescription(s, p, args[0])
 		},
 	}
@@ -143,6 +157,30 @@ or
 	return c
 }
 
+func describeClusterTaskOutput(w io.Writer, p cli.Params, f *cliopts.PrintFlags, name string) error {
+	cs, err := p.Clients()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	c := cs.Tekton.TektonV1alpha1().ClusterTasks()
+
+	clustertask, err := c.Get(name, metav1.GetOptions{})
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	// NOTE: this is required for -o json|yaml to work properly since
+	// tektoncd go client fails to set these; probably a bug
+	clustertask.GetObjectKind().SetGroupVersionKind(
+		schema.GroupVersionKind{
+			Version: "tekton.dev/v1alpha1",
+			Kind:    "ClusterTask",
+		})
+
+	return printer.PrintObject(w, clustertask, f)
+}
+
 func printClusterTaskDescription(s *cli.Stream, p cli.Params, tname string) error {
 	cs, err := p.Clients()
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/clustertask/describe_test.go b/pkg/cmd/clustertask/describe_test.go
index 80d1e19b2..7137aadfd 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/clustertask/describe_test.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/clustertask/describe_test.go
@@ -215,3 +215,38 @@ func Test_ClusterTaskDescribe(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestClusterTask_custom_output(t *testing.T) {
+	name := "clustertask"
+	expected := "clustertask.tekton.dev/" + name
+
+	clock := clockwork.NewFakeClock()
+
+	cstasks := []*v1alpha1.ClusterTask{
+		tb.ClusterTask(name),
+	}
+
+	cs, _ := test.SeedTestData(t, pipelinetest.Data{
+		ClusterTasks: cstasks,
+		Namespaces: []*corev1.Namespace{
+			{
+				ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
+					Name: "",
+				},
+			},
+		},
+	})
+
+	p := &test.Params{Tekton: cs.Pipeline, Clock: clock, Kube: cs.Kube}
+	clustertask := Command(p)
+
+	got, err := test.ExecuteCommand(clustertask, "desc", "-o", "name", name)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("Unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	got = strings.TrimSpace(got)
+	if got != expected {
+		t.Errorf("Result should be '%s' != '%s'", got, expected)
+	}
+}