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title: "Nushell" sidebar_position: 1

Nushell

Nushell is a shell whose pipelines carry tables: ls, ps, open data.csv and http get all hand the next command rows and columns, with file sizes, durations and dates as values of their own type. 012 is a spreadsheet for those tables. A table can go through 012 in the middle of a pipeline, and nushell can run inside 012 in a notebook, its cells' outputs live parts of the sheets.

Three ways to use them together

Way	Looks like	For
A stage in a pipeline	ls | sheet | where size > 1kb	Looking at a table on the terminal, editing it, and sending it on to the next command
A notebook	sheet nu, then ls | select name size in a code cell named files	Pipelines you keep, as in Jupyter: cells run when you ask, each output under its cell, read by later cells as $files and, sent to a sheet, by formulas and charts
A followed file	Data > Linked file, then $app | where status >= 500	A log or export that keeps growing: its rows come in as they're written, and pipelines read the rows it has now

The first needs nothing but nushell. The other two run nu from inside 012, so it has to be installed (Installing nushell); without it a cell's output says so, and the rest of 012 works as before.

Install the sheet command

012 comes with a nushell module, 012.nu, whose sheet command runs 012 in a pipeline. Write it into nushell's scripts folder:

^012 nu --install-module

and add the line it prints to config.nu (config nu opens it):

use scripts/012.nu *

In a new nushell, help sheet describes it:

Command	Does
sheet	Opens the table piped in (or a file: sheet budget.xlsx) and returns what you send back, with its types; --send selection or --send sheet sends it on quitting without asking (Pipelines)
sheet view	Opens the table piped in and returns nothing
sheet nu	Opens a notebook, as 012 nu

^012 nu --install-module refuses to replace a different file already there unless given --force; given a path, it writes the module there instead. ^012 nu --module prints the module, to read or to put somewhere yourself.

Without the module, 012 is run as ^012: in nushell, a word that starts with a digit is a number, and the caret calls an external command by name (Running external commands). Other shells run it as 012.

A 30-second tour

# A table in, edited, and out again, with its types
ls | select name size | sheet | where size > 1kb

# A notebook of nushell cells, their outputs under them
sheet nu work.012

In the notebook's cells, each run with Shift+Enter:

sales = open sales.csv | update Revenue { str replace -ar '[$,]' '' | into float }
$sales | group-by Region --to-table | update items { get Revenue | math sum }

The second cell reads the first's output as $sales; running sales again marks the second stale until it runs too. G sends an output to a sheet, where =SUM(nu.sales) reads it and follows each run.

Pages

Page	For
Pipelines	sheet, 012 - and 012 --pipe: tables in on standard input and out on standard output, sending back, the exit status
Notebooks	sheet nu and 012 nu: code and note cells, their keys, running, $name, $selection and $sheet.A1:C9, outputs sent to sheets as nu.name, saving and trust
Types	How each nushell type becomes a cell and goes back, and what doesn't survive the trip
Cookbook	Worked examples: disk usage, a log followed live, a CSV cleaned and summarized, an API, processes, git history

Nushell's own book explains pipelines, tables and types; the pages here link to the parts they build on.