title: "Scripts" sidebar_position: 6

Scripts

Four commands read and change a .012 workbook without the screen, for shell scripts, cron jobs, Makefiles, nushell pipelines and agents, which also have 012 describe:

012 get budget.012 B7                        # a cell's value, as the sheet shows it
012 get budget.012 'Q3 plan'!A1:C9 --format csv
012 set budget.012 B7 '=SUM(A1:A6)' B8 1200  # type entries, then save
012 recalc budget.012                        # recalculate, save, list the errors
012 export budget.012 budget.xlsx            # what File > Download writes

None of them runs a program or reaches the network unless a flag asks: see Notebooks and JEV functions. The flags and exit statuses of every command are in Command line.

References

A reference names cells as a formula does, with the sheet in front when it isn't the one shown when the file was saved:

Reference	Names
`B7`, `A1:C9`, `A:A`, `$B$7`	Cells of the sheet shown when the file was saved
`Q3!B7`, `'Q3 plan'!A1:C9`	Cells of the sheet named, quoted as in formulas when the name has spaces (the shell needs quotes around it too)
`Sales`	A named range, or a table or notebook output, header row included, so JSON and NUON name its columns
`Sales[Amount]`, `Sales[[#Headers],[Amount]]`	A table's cells by a structured reference, as a formula outside the table reads them: `Sales[Amount]` is the column's data, without its header
`Q3`, `Q3!`	The whole sheet, from A1 to its last cell with contents

A reference that names nothing says what the workbook has: no sheet named "Q4" (sheets: Q1, Q2, Q3).

get

012 get file ref writes the value of a cell, or a table of a range or sheet (the sheet shown when there's no reference). --format picks the form:

Format	One cell	A range or sheet
`text`, the default	As the cell shows it: `$1,200.00`, `9/29/2026`, `#DIV/0!`	Aligned columns, numbers to the right
`csv`, `tsv`	One line	Rows as shown, in the workbook's locale, as a CSV download
`json`	The value with its type: `3.5`, `"00123"`, `true`, `null` for a blank cell, `{"currency": 3.5}`, `{"date": "2026-09-29"}`	A list of records named by the range's first row
`nuon`	The value with its nushell type: a date, a file size, a duration	A nushell table named by the range's first row

JSON and NUON type values by their cells' formats, JSON as the values agents read and NUON as a NUON download does, and take the columns' names from the range's first row, as a table in 012 has its header there. --no-header names the columns by their letters instead (A, B) and makes the first row a record too. A filter doesn't hide rows from get: a script reads all the range holds.

--input writes what was typed rather than what it computes: a formula, or an entry as the file stores it (numbers and dates in en-US's form whatever the workbook's locale), so 012 get budget.012 B7 --input prints =SUM(A1:A6).

In nushell, NUON comes back as a table with its types:

012 get budget.012 A1:C9 --format nuon | from nuon | where amount > 100
012 get budget.012 B7 --format nuon | from nuon      # a number, not a string

set

012 set file ref input [ref input ...] types each input into its cell, in order, as one change, and saves the file atomically: into a temporary file beside it, renamed over it once complete. An empty input clears the cell's contents, keeping its formatting and note, as Delete does. A file that doesn't exist is created, as 012 budget.012 does.

Inputs are what the file stores, not what the sheet's locale types: 1.5 and =ROUND(A1, 2) in every workbook, so a script means the same in a de-DE workbook as in an en-US one. Entries that imply a format ($1,200, 12%, 2026-09-29) set it, as typing them does.

--value takes each input as a value with its type, in JSON or NUON, for what typing has no entry for: sizes, durations, other currencies, text that looks like a number. --table ref writes the table on standard input (NUON or JSON, a list of records) with its header at ref, each column formatted as its values' type, as importing it would, before the entries:

012 set budget.012 --value B7 '{"currency": 12.5, "symbol": "€"}' C7 1.5kb D7 '"00123"'
ls | select name size modified | to nuon | 012 set files.012 --table A1

set stops, and leaves the file as it was, on the first input a cell can't take, naming the cell:

Refused	Says
A formula that doesn't parse	`Sheet1!B7: Expected , or ) in SUM, at character 11 of =SUM(A1:A6`
An entry a validation rule rejects	the rule's help, as the context line would
A cell of an array's result, a pivot table, a linked file or a notebook's output	the same message as on the screen
A cell in a protected range	`Sheet1!B7 is protected (B1:B9): --force sets it anyway`
A reference to a range, not one cell	`A1:B2 is the range A1:B2: name one cell`

An entry a rule only marks invalid is set, with a warning on standard error. An input that starts with -- (a flag's shape) comes after --: 012 set budget.012 -- A1 --.

--dry-run checks the entries the same way but saves nothing, and prints what would change as 012 diff would:

$ 012 set budget.012 B7 '=SUM(A1:A6)' B8 1200 --dry-run
Sheet1!B7  input  "=SUM(A1:A5)" → "=SUM(A1:A6)"
Sheet1!B8  input  + 1200

--format json writes the result, the changes as records, instead (JSON output).

recalc

012 recalc file recomputes every formula, saves the file (leaving it untouched when nothing it stores changed) and lists each formula showing an error, one a line, with what the screen's context line says about it:

Q3!B7  #DIV/0!  Division by zero in B6/C6
Q3!D2  #N/A  JEV functions need --jev and an API key to be answered

It exits 1 when any cell shows an error or a formula reads its own cell, so 012 recalc budget.012 && deploy stops on a broken sheet. --format json writes the list as JSON.

export

012 export file out [ref] writes the workbook in another format, as File > Download does: the format by out's extension or --format (csv, tsv, xlsx, sqlite, json, nuon, html). XLSX gets every sheet; the others get the sheet shown, or ref's range or sheet. A web page of a range draws the charts whose corner is in it; --chart writes one chart alone, found by its number on the sheet (1 for the first) or its title:

012 export budget.012 q3.html 'Q3 plan'!A1:F20
012 export budget.012 spending.html Q3 --chart 'Spending by month'

SQLite writes a table named by --table, replacing one of that name. Formulas are written as their values where the format has no formulas, and a note on standard error says how many. CSV, TSV, JSON and NUON leave out the rows a filter hides, as a download does.

Notebooks and JEV functions

A .012 file stores what was typed and computes the rest, so a few things need more than the file:

Notebook outputs are kept in the file as their cells last left them, and these commands read them as saved, sent to sheets as on the screen; get notes on standard error when the sheet it reads has an output the file doesn't hold (never run, or too large to save). --notebooks runs every notebook's code cells first, each after the cells it reads, as F9 does; a cell that fails stops the rest of its notebook, and is reported. A cell reading $selection fails, having no selection to read.
As on the screen, a notebook saved on another computer asks first: --notebooks refuses it unless --trust gives the answer Run would, and recalc --notebooks --trust saves that trust in the file as the screen does, so later runs don't need it. shell = off in the configuration turns --notebooks off, shell = on runs every file's cells, each cell stops after nu-timeout, and saving keeps as much of the outputs as nu-save-cell-kb and nu-save-notebook-kb allow.
Linked files are followed only on the screen; their regions are empty here.
JEV functions ask a hosted model over the network, and show #N/A here unless --jev asks it, with the API key from the environment, the credential store or jev-api-key-command.

get, recalc, export and describe take these flags; set computes values only to check entries.