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nu-shell

Nushell treats all data as structured tables — lists of records with rows and columns. Every file and command output becomes a table you can filter, transform, and combine.

File I/O & Parsing

Files auto-detect from extension. Pipe command output into tables:

open data.csv                # CSV → table
df -h | detect columns       # Command output → table
$data | save -f output.csv   # Write (overwrite with -f)

Core Pipeline Commands

Filtering & Selecting

open data.csv | where rating > 4.0 and status == "active"
ls | sort-by size | reverse | first 10

• select col1 col2 — keep specific columns (keeps table shape)
• reject col — drop a column
• get col — extract as a list (not a table)

Transforming Data

# Map rows
$items | each { |row| { ...$row, tax: ($row.price * 0.1) } }

# Transform a column
$table | update price { |x| $x * 1.1 }

# Add or update columns
$table | insert new_col ($in.old_col * 2)

# Rename
$table | rename old_name new_name

Combining Data

$first | append $b          # Stack rows
$first | merge $second      # Side-by-side columns

String Operations

where name =~ "pattern"         # Regex match
str upcase / str downcase       # Case conversion
str trim / str kebab-case       # Formatting
str join "," $list              # Join list with separator
$"My value is ($expr)"          # Interpolation

Flow Control & Variables

let x = (open data.csv); mut count = 0
if ($x | length) > 0 { print "has" } else { print "empty" }
for row in $items { process $row }
match $value { "A" => do_a, "B" => do_b, _ => default_action }
try { open nonexistent.txt } catch { |err| print $"Error: ($err.msg)" }

# Capture external command output
do { ^my-command arg1 } | complete   # Returns .exit_code, .stdout, .stderr

JSON Manipulation (jq equivalents)

Nushell replaces jq entirely. Parse with from json, transform with pipeline commands, output with to json.

# Select a field (jq '.name')
'{"name": "Alice"}' | from json | get name

# Filter array (jq '.[] | select(.age > 28)')
'[...]' | from json | where age > 28

# Map values (jq 'map(. * 2)')
'[1, 2, 3]' | from json | each { $in * 2 }

# Conditional (jq 'if .age > 18 then "Adult" else "Child" end')
'{"age": 30}' | from json | if $in.age > 18 { "Adult" } else { "Child" }

# Format string (jq "Name: \(.name)")
'{"name": "Alice", "age": 30}' | from json | format "Name: {name}, Age: {age}"

# Build new record (jq '{name: .name, age: (.age + 5)}')
'{"name": "Alice", "age": 30}' | from json | {name: $in.name, age: ($in.age + 5)}

# Filter nulls (jq 'map(select(. != null))')
'[1, null, 3]' | from json | where { $in != null }

# Flatten nested arrays (jq '.data[].values[]')
'{"data": [{"values": [1, 2]}]}' | from json | get data.values | flatten

# Sort / unique (jq 'sort' / 'unique')
'[3, 1, 4]' | from json | sort
'[1, 2, 2]' | from json | uniq

Statistical Operations

# Average (jq 'map(.score) | add / length')
'[...]' | from json | get score | math avg

# Group and aggregate (jq 'group_by(.category)')
'[...]' | from json | group-by --to-table category
| update items { |row| $row.items.value | math sum }
| rename category sum

# Reduce (jq 'reduce .[] as $item (0; . + $item.value)')
'[...]' | from json | reduce -f 0 { |item, acc| $acc + $item.value }

Custom Recursive Commands

For patterns without built-in equivalents, see references/jq_patterns.md:

• cherry-pick — recursive key extraction (jq .. | .key?)
• walk — recursive transformation (jq walk(...))
• flatten record-paths — flatten nested records to dot-paths

Best Practices

• Prefer internal commands: Built-ins return structured data. Only use ^ prefix for external binaries when necessary.
• Collect before save: Use collect | save --force file to avoid read/write conflicts.
• Type safety: Empty cells parse as empty strings, not null. Filter empties before numeric conversion: where column != "" | into int.
• Prefer filters over loops: Use where, each, reduce instead of for/while — they stream and parallelize better.
• Nushell replaces jq: For JSON processing, use from json + pipeline commands instead of jq. Nushell works natively with JSON, YAML, CSV, and more.
• For heavy JSON analytics: Use DuckDB (duckdb skill) when you need SQL queries, schema inference, or complex joins over JSON data.