nesdit

Edit structured config (JSON/YAML/TOML) with jq-style queries.

Installation

go install github.com/sdkks/nesdit/cmd/nesdit@latest

Quick start

# Print a YAML file after editing .replicas
nesdit deployment.yaml --query '.replicas = 3'

# Edit in-place (atomic write)
nesdit -i config.json --query '.env = "production"'

# Preview changes without writing
nesdit -n config.yaml --query '.timeout = "30s"'

# Check if a file is up-to-date (exit 2 on drift)
nesdit --check config.yaml --query '.'

# Open $EDITOR and get a suggested query from your edits
nesdit --edit config.yaml

Supported formats

Format	Extensions	Notes
JSON	.json	Preserves key order
YAML	.yaml, .yml	Single-document per file
TOML	.toml	Tables and arrays of tables

Format is detected from the file extension. Use --format to override.

Flags

See the CLI reference for all flags.

Resource limits

By default nesdit caps inputs at 10 MiB (--max-bytes), nesting at 1000 levels (--max-depth), YAML nodes at 100 000 (--max-yaml-nodes), and query files at 1 MiB (--max-query-bytes). Pass 0 to any cap to disable it — for example --max-bytes=0 handles large Terraform state files.