Getting started

Installation

Homebrew

brew install ynqa/tap/vy

Shell installer

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/ynqa/vy/releases/latest/download/vy-installer.sh | sh

Cargo

If you have Rust and Cargo installed, run:

cargo install vy --locked

Add Cargo’s installation bin directory to your PATH. The default location is ~/.cargo/bin.

Verify the installation

vy --version
vy --help

Open a file or pipe

vy data.json
vy config.yaml
cat data.json | vy
vy --format yaml input.txt

--format accepts auto (the default), json, and yaml. Automatic detection checks known file extensions first, then infers the format from the beginning of the content. Specify the format explicitly if detection does not give the intended result.

Input	Behavior
JSON	Displayed as a JSON tree
JSON Lines / NDJSON	Each JSON value is displayed as a separate document. Supports --format json
YAML	Displayed as a YAML tree
YAML separated by ---	Each document is displayed separately

vy reads the entire input before opening the interface. It does not support continuously browsing input that never ends, such as tail -f.

First steps

After opening a file, navigate the tree to select the node you want to inspect. Enter commands beginning with a colon inside vy.

1. Move between lines with j / k, and expand or collapse a node with Space.
2. If you know the path, jump directly to it with :goto.
3. Run :focus to open only the selected subtree.
4. Press /, enter a search term or regular expression, and press Enter to search.
5. While browsing in focus, press Esc to return to the original view.
6. Run :quit to exit vy entirely.

Press Tab to complete command names and paths. Open :help whenever you need to look up the controls.

Next, try Navigation or flatten.