Command reference

A reference for startup options and commands available while browsing. Open :help to look them up during use, and press Tab to complete command names.

Startup options

vy [OPTIONS] [INPUT]

Argument or option	Description
INPUT	Input file. Omit it or use - for standard input
-f, --format <FORMAT>	auto (default), json, or yaml
-c, --config <CONFIG>	Configuration file path
-h, --help	Help
-V, --version	Version

Use json for JSON Lines / NDJSON.

TUI commands

Press : in the input, focus, or jaq view to enter a command. Press Enter to run it, Tab to complete it, or Esc / Ctrl+C to close the editor. In the table below, [...] denotes optional arguments and <...> denotes a value to supply.

:grep is available only in the path and value list opened by :flatten. Press : there to open the grep expression editor.

Syntax	Alias	Behavior
:help	:h	Show help reflecting the current keybindings
:quit	—	Exit vy entirely
:goto @<document-index> <path>	—	Move to the target node
:focus [@<document-index> <path>]	—	Open the target subtree
:flatten	—	Open a path and value list for the target view
:grep <expr>	—	Available only in the view opened by :flatten. Filter paths and values with regular expressions, using & for AND and | for OR
:jaq <expr>	:j	Open results in a new view from the input or focus view. Within jaq, update the current results
:preview [@<document-index> <path>]	—	Open a string in a dedicated view
:copy path	:cp path	Copy the selected node’s path
:copy value	:cp value	Copy the selected scalar value
:copy subtree	:cp subtree	Copy the selected subtree
:print [@<document-index> <path>]	—	Write the target to standard output and exit
:write <file-path> [@<document-index> <path>]	—	Save to a new file and continue browsing
:hstr	—	Open command and query history
:config view	—	Display the configuration file
:config get <key>	—	Display a setting’s value from the file
:config set <key> <value>	—	Validate, save, and apply a setting
:config edit	—	Edit the configuration in an external editor

help, quit, flatten, and hstr take no arguments. Command completion shows canonical names.

Specify a target

Document indices start at 0, and . denotes the root. A document index is required when specifying a path.

:goto @0 .items[0]
:focus @0 .items[0]
:preview @0 .items[0].message
:write ./api.json @0 .items[0]

For focus, preview, print, and write, you can omit both the document index and path to target the selected node. copy always targets the selected node.

In side-by-side mode, operations target the active pane.