Read
Portable AWK recognizes mappings, sequences, flow nodes, scalars, tags, anchors, and documents.
Release v1.7.0 · 2,610 yq programs agree
Program YAML with one portable shell script. No package manager. No language runtime. No mystery binary. Just /bin/sh, AWK, and a frankly unreasonable amount of ambition.
1services:
2 - name: api
3 enabled: true
4 - name: worker
5 enabled: false
6 - name: web
7 enabled: true
Structure all the way through
YAML.sh parses a proper node graph before evaluating expressions. Mappings, sequences, tags, anchors, aliases, and source lines stay intact from input to output.
Portable AWK recognizes mappings, sequences, flow nodes, scalars, tags, anchors, and documents.
Aliases and merge sources connect through node identity, with precedence and recursion validation.
Paths, environment values, reducers, assignments, and cross-file merges operate on real node references with identity and type intact.
Tiny commands. Serious YAML.
Compose files without inviting another runtime.
$ ysh ea 'select(fileIndex == 0) * select(fileIndex == 1)' defaults.yml production.yml
{"replicas":3,"region":"west"}
Collections become clean, typed JSON.
$ ysh -o=json '.services[0]' config.yml
{"name":"api","enabled":true,"port":8080}
Change a real file in place. The comments get to stay.
$ ysh -i '.services[] | select(.enabled) | .tier = "active"' config.yml
$ ysh '.services[].tier' config.yml
active
backend
active
Open the hood whenever the YAML gets weird.
$ ysh --type '.release.date' config.yml
timestamp
$ ysh --ast config.yml
node 1 mapping line=1
01 / PORTABLE
Bootstrap containers, CI runners, old Macs, tiny servers, and recovery shells. If the system has /bin/sh and AWK, YAML.sh is ready.
02 / PRECISE
Use .["key.with.dots"] when punctuation belongs to the YAML—not the query.
03 / HONEST
Full pinned outcomes, strict rejection, generated properties, and explicit limits—without claiming that one corpus is the whole language.
Read the support contract04 / HACKABLE
The shipped executable contains the complete shell launcher and AWK engine. Read it, copy it, bend it.
05 / OBSERVABLE
--ast and --events turn parser internals into first-class debugging tools.
Install the current release
The installer downloads and checksum-verifies a pinned release, then places ysh in /usr/local/bin. Set YSH_INSTALL_DIR to choose another location.
curl -fsSL https://yaml.azohra.com/install | sh
Prefer to inspect first? Read the installer source.