focus

Open a subtree in a separate view to narrow the scope of navigation, search, and queries.

Open a subtree

Run :focus on the selected node to open a view rooted at that subtree. You can also specify the target by path.

:focus @0 .items[0]

This makes the first element of the items array the root. The original document index and path appear in the status area.

Open nested views

You can run :focus again within focus. Press Esc while browsing to return one level, preserving the calling view’s selection, scroll position, and folding state.

Pressing Esc while editing a command or search closes the editor and returns to browsing. Use :quit to exit vy entirely.

Display the input and subtree side by side

Press s to display the input and subtree side by side. Switch panes with Tab or the mouse. Commands, search, and completion target the active pane. Press s again to show only the subtree.

Work relative to the subtree

Within focus, the entire subtree is treated as a single document, @0 .. You do not need to repeat the original document’s path. These examples assume you opened an object with name and message fields.

Example	Target
:goto @0 .name	Move to name directly under the root
/ → failed → Enter	Search keys and values within the subtree
:flatten	List paths and values within the subtree
:jaq .name	Get name using the subtree as input
:preview @0 .message	Open message directly under the root
:write ./selected.json @0 .	Save the entire opened subtree to a new file

Path completion is limited to this scope. The path returned by copy path is also relative to the focus root.

See Combining focus and jaq for examples of using the two commands together.