Sheets Terminal Spreadsheet

Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection.

Sheets is a terminal-based spreadsheet TUI (Terminal User Interface) for viewing and editing CSV files directly in your terminal. It features vim-style navigation, formula support, visual selection, search, undo/redo, and a command mode — all without leaving the terminal.

Installation

Using Go

go install github.com/maaslalani/sheets@main

Download Binary

Download a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases.

Verify Installation

sheets --help

CLI Usage

Launch the TUI

sheets budget.csv

Read from stdin

sheets <<< "ID,Name,Age

1,Alice,24

2,Bob,32

3,Charlie,26"

Or pipe from another command:

cat data.csv | sheets

Read a Specific Cell

sheets budget.csv B9

# Output: 2760

Read a Cell Range

sheets budget.csv B1:B3

# Output:

# 1200

# 950

# 810

Modify Cells (Non-Interactive)

# Set one cell

sheets budget.csv B7=10

# Set multiple cells

sheets budget.csv B7=10 B8=20

Navigation Keybindings

Basic Movement

Key

Action

h, j, k, l

Move left, down, up, right

gg

Jump to top

G

Jump to bottom

5G

Jump to row 5

gB9

Jump to cell B9

0

Jump to first column

^

Jump to first non-empty column in row

$

Jump to last non-empty column in row

H / M / L

Jump to top / middle / bottom visible row

ctrl+u / ctrl+d

Move half page up / down

View Alignment

Key

Action

zt

Align current row to top of window

zz

Align current row to middle of window

zb

Align current row to bottom of window

Search

Key

Action

/

Search forward

?

Search backward

n

Repeat last search (forward)

N

Repeat last search (backward)

Marks & Jump List

Key

Action

ma

Set mark a at current cell

'a

Jump to mark a

ctrl+o

Move backward through jump list

ctrl+i

Move forward through jump list

Editing Keybindings

Insert Mode

Key

Action

i

Edit current cell

I

Edit from start of cell

c

Clear cell and start editing

ESC

Leave insert / visual / command mode

enter

Commit and move down

tab

Commit and move right

shift+tab

Commit and move left

ctrl+n

Commit and move down

ctrl+p

Commit and move up

Row Operations

Key

Action

o

Insert row below and start editing

O

Insert row above and start editing

dd

Delete current row

Copy / Cut / Paste

Key

Action

y

Yank (copy) current cell

yy

Yank current row(s)

x

Cut current cell or selection

p

Paste current register

Undo / Redo

Key

Action

u

Undo

ctrl+r

Redo

U

Undo all changes

.

Repeat last change

Visual Mode

Enter visual mode with v (cell selection) or V (row selection).

Key

Action

v

Start visual cell selection

V

Start visual row selection

=

Insert formula after selected range (e.g., =|(B1:B8))

Command Mode

Press : to open the command prompt.

Command

Action

:w

Save file

:w path.csv

Save to a new file

:e path.csv

Open another CSV file

:q

Quit

:wq

Save and quit

:goto B9

Jump to cell B9

:B9

Jump to cell B9 (shorthand)

Common Patterns

Create a New CSV and Edit It

# Create a CSV with headers

echo "Name,Amount,Category" > budget.csv

sheets budget.csv

Pipe CSV Data and Edit

# Generate CSV from a database query and edit in sheets

psql -c "COPY (SELECT * FROM sales) TO STDOUT WITH CSV HEADER" | sheets

Script: Update a Cell Programmatically

#!/bin/bash

# Update Q4 value in financial report

sheets report.csv D4=95000 D5=102000 D6=88000

echo "Updated Q4 values in report.csv"

Script: Extract a Range for Processing

#!/bin/bash

# Extract column B rows 1-10 and sum them in bash

values=$(sheets data.csv B1:B10)

total=0

while IFS= read -r line; do

    total=$((total + line))

done <<< "$values"

echo "Total: $total"

Script: Read a Specific Cell in a Shell Script

#!/bin/bash

# Get current budget total from spreadsheet

budget_total=$(sheets budget.csv C15)

if [ "$budget_total" -gt 10000 ]; then

    echo "Budget exceeded!"

fi

Go Integration Example

If building a Go application that generates CSV for use with sheets:

package main

import (

    "encoding/csv"

    "fmt"

    "os"

    "os/exec"

)

func createAndOpenSpreadsheet(data [][]string, filename string) error {

    // Write CSV data

    f, err := os.Create(filename)

    if err != nil {

        return fmt.Errorf("creating file: %w", err)

    }

    defer f.Close()

    w := csv.NewWriter(f)

    if err := w.WriteAll(data); err != nil {

        return fmt.Errorf("writing CSV: %w", err)

    }

    w.Flush()

    // Open in sheets TUI

    cmd := exec.Command("sheets", filename)

    cmd.Stdin = os.Stdin

    cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout

    cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr

    return cmd.Run()

}

func main() {

    data := [][]string{

        {"Month", "Revenue", "Expenses", "Profit"},

        {"January", "12000", "8500", "3500"},

        {"February", "13500", "9200", "4300"},

        {"March", "11800", "8900", "2900"},

    }

    if err := createAndOpenSpreadsheet(data, "monthly_report.csv"); err != nil {

        fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Error: %v\n", err)

        os.Exit(1)

    }

}

Go: Read a Cell Non-Interactively

package main

import (

    "fmt"

    "os/exec"

    "strings"

)

func readCell(csvFile, cell string) (string, error) {

    out, err := exec.Command("sheets", csvFile, cell).Output()

    if err != nil {

        return "", fmt.Errorf("reading cell %s: %w", cell, err)

    }

    return strings.TrimSpace(string(out)), nil

}

func readRange(csvFile, cellRange string) ([]string, error) {

    out, err := exec.Command("sheets", csvFile, cellRange).Output()

    if err != nil {

        return nil, fmt.Errorf("reading range %s: %w", cellRange, err)

    }

    lines := strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(string(out)), "\n")

    return lines, nil

}

func main() {

    total, err := readCell("budget.csv", "B9")

    if err != nil {

        fmt.Println("Error:", err)

        return

    }

    fmt.Println("Budget total:", total)

    values, err := readRange("budget.csv", "B1:B6")

    if err != nil {

        fmt.Println("Error:", err)

        return

    }

    fmt.Println("Monthly values:", values)

}

Tips for AI Agents

Suggesting Sheets for CSV Tasks

When a user wants to view or edit CSV files in the terminal, suggest sheets:

# Instead of cat data.csv

sheets data.csv

# Instead of awk/sed edits for simple changes

sheets data.csv B3=new_value

Formula Insertion Workflow

• Navigate to the column where you want the formula

• Enter visual mode with v

• Select the range (e.g., B1:B8)

• Press = to insert formula after the selection: =|(B1:B8)

Efficient Navigation (Vim Users)

Sheets uses vim-style navigation — users familiar with vim can be productive immediately:

• gg/G for top/bottom

• hjkl for movement

• i/c for insert modes

• dd to delete rows

• u/ctrl+r for undo/redo

• / for search

Troubleshooting

sheets command not found

# Ensure Go bin directory is in PATH

export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin

# Or install again and verify

go install github.com/maaslalani/sheets@main

which sheets

File Not Saved After Editing

Use :w in command mode to save, or :wq to save and quit. Just pressing q or ctrl+c quits without saving.

TUI Rendering Issues

Sheets relies on terminal capabilities. If the display looks broken:

• Ensure your terminal supports 256 colors or truecolor

• Try a different terminal emulator (iTerm2, Alacritty, Ghostty, WezTerm)

• Check TERM environment variable: echo $TERM

Reading Non-CSV Files

Sheets is designed for CSV format. Convert other formats first:

# Excel to CSV (using Python)

python3 -c "import pandas as pd; pd.read_excel('data.xlsx').to_csv('data.csv', index=False)"

sheets data.csv

Large Files Performance

For very large CSV files, navigate directly to specific cells rather than scrolling:

:goto A1000

or press 5G to jump to row 5 directly.