This is the user guide:
https://github.com/saulpw/visidata/blob/stable/docs/user-gui...
(The link is broken in the docs/README file)
This is the walkthrough on sample data:
https://github.com/saulpw/visidata/blob/develop/docs/tours.r...
In Show HN: VisiData – vi for datasaulpw
visidata
Python2017–2026
saulpw / visidata
visidata
A terminal spreadsheet multitool for discovering and arranging data
27Distinct people
42Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
9.5KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
A terminal spreadsheet multitool for discovering and arranging data
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- sharkdp/bat · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- sharkdp/fd · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- asciinema/asciinema · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 6:01:32 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year42 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2017-05-31 05:02:51 UTC to 2026-09-24 01:14:43 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 2 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
VisiData v3.5
A terminal interface for exploring and arranging tabular data.
VisiData supports tsv, csv, sqlite, json, xlsx (Excel), hdf5, and many other formats.
Platform requirements
Linux, OS/X, or Windows (with WSL)
Python 3.8+
additional Python modules are required for certain formats and sources
Install
To install the latest release from PyPi:
pip3 install visidata
To try VisiData without installing, use pipx or uv:
pipx run visidata # or: uvx visidata
To install permanently (adds vd to your PATH):
pipx install visidata # or: uv tool install visidata
Additional Python packages are needed for some formats:
pipx install visidata --preinstall openpyxl --preinstall lxml
# or: uv tool install visidata --with openpyxl --with lxml
To add format packages to an existing pipx install:
pipx inject visidata openpyxl lxml
To install the cutting edge develop branch (no warranty expressed or implied):
pip3 install git+https://github.com/saulpw/visidata.git@develop
If VisiData reports package X not installed even after you installed it, vd
is almost certainly running from a different environment than the one you
installed the package into. Check which vd, then install the package into
that environment — e.g. pipx inject visidata X for a pipx install, or the
Homebrew Python for brew install visidata.
See visidata.org/install for detailed instructions for all available platforms and package managers.
Usage
$ vd <input>
$ <command> | vd
Press Ctrl+Q to quit at any time.
Hundreds of other commands and options are also available; see the documentation.
Documentation
VisiData documentation
Plugin Author's Guide and API Reference
Quick reference (available within vd with Ctrl+H), which has a list of commands and options.
Intro to VisiData Tutorial by Jeremy Singer-Vine
Help and Support
If you have a question, issue, or suggestion regarding VisiData, please create an issue on Github or chat with us at #visidata on irc.libera.chat.
If you use VisiData regularly, please support me on Patreon!
License
Code in the stable branch of this repository, including the main vd application, loaders, and plugins, is available for use and redistribution under GPLv3.
Credits
VisiData is conceived and developed by Saul Pwanson <vd@saul.pw>.
Anja Kefala <anja.kefala@gmail.com> maintains the documentation and packages for all platforms.
Many thanks to numerous other contributors, and to those wonderful users who provide feedback, for helping to make VisiData the awesome tool that it is.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
5 sourcesThis should really straightforward (like maybe 1-3 hours) for someone who knows use the Python3 modules for those databases. See the SQLite addon, for example: https://github.com/saulpw/visidata/blob/stable/visidata/addo...
In Show HN: VisiData – vi for dataShow HN: VisiData – vi for data
221 points · Open discussionNice, some initial remarks:
- Sad to see it's an Electron app, but I don't want to start this flamewar all over again
- Mid-sized CSV file opens fairly quick
- If you want to build this into a full-fledged app, be prepared to handle a lot of CSV edge cases, also think about supporting AVRO, Parquet files
- Regarding filtering: I can filter on CONTAINS and '=' but not on NOT-CONTAINS or '<>' I think? This is annoying to filter out empty strings (didn't check in much detail so I might be wrong here)
- Regarding filtering: I have a lot of columns, would be nice if the dropdown would allow me typing some characters to prune the list and quickly find what I'm looking for
- You might think about including some statistics per column, e.g. variance or entropy to allow for exploration in case many columns are present and you quickly want to highli
Read the rest
ght the more "interesting" ones
Congrats on putting something out! Some competition in this space: https://exploratory.io/, https://github.com/saulpw/visidata and http://www.delimitware.com/ (as others have mentioned).
If you prefer working from the terminal, you should check out VisiData (https://github.com/saulpw/visidata). It's a curses tabular data tool that can start browsing terabyte .csv files immediately, with few dependencies and no clicking.
In Tad, a tabular data viewer