Sheets Terminal Spreadsheet

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.

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Installation

Using Go

go install github.com/maaslalani/sheets@main

Download Binary

Download a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases.

Verify Installation

sheets --help

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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

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Navigation Keybindings

Basic Movement

View Alignment

Search

Marks & Jump List

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Editing Keybindings

Insert Mode

Row Operations

Copy / Cut / Paste

Undo / Redo

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Visual Mode

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

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Command Mode

Press : to open the command prompt.

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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)
}

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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

1. Navigate to the column where you want the formula 2. Enter visual mode with v 3. Select the range (e.g., B1:B8) 4. 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

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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.