Nushell
Nushell is a Linux terminal shell that makes processing and visualizing data easier. For the chuck-stack, Nushell excels beyond others because of its preference for and usability with structured data and data pipelines.
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Why We Love Nushell
Here are the reasons we love Nushell:
- It is an active and welcoming project, and it is well documented.
- It is open source.
- You can get up and running with Nushell in a meaningful way in minutes.
- It does its job (data pipelines) amazingly well.
- It makes the data we need to do our jobs immediately available.
- It makes creating modules, scripts and plugins significantly easier (as compared to bash and other shells).
- It visualizes structured data in a terminal better than just about any other tool.
- It has great synergy with the rest of the chuck-stack.
Visualize ERP Data
One of the benefits of Nushell is how it can visualize data in just about any size screen (monitor, tablet, phone, ...).
- Nushell creates good information density
- Nushell data visualization can be read by anyone (technical and non-technical)
- Configuring/customizing what data is presented is quite simple
Visualize Order/Invoice Data
Here is an example showing an order summary. Few ERP systems can produces summaries with this information density:
Here is a json representation of the same data:
{
"order": {
"id": "ORD-12345",
"customer": {
"id": "CUST-789",
"name": "John Smith",
"email": "john.smith@email.com",
"address": {
"street": "123 Main St",
"city": "Springfield",
"state": "IL",
"zip": "62701"
}
},
"items": [
{
"id": "PROD-001",
"name": "Coffee Mug",
"quantity": 2,
"price": 12.99,
"subtotal": 25.98
},
{
"id": "PROD-002",
"name": "Tea Set",
"quantity": 1,
"price": 45.00,
"subtotal": 45.00
}
],
"payment": {
"method": "credit-card",
"status": "completed",
"transaction-id": "TXN-456789"
},
"summary": {
"subtotal": 70.98,
"tax": 4.26,
"shipping": 5.99,
"total": 81.23
},
"status": "processing",
"created-at": "2023-05-15T14:30:00Z"
}
}
Here is a NUON (Nushell Object Notation) representation of the same data:
{
order: {
id: ORD-12345
customer: {
id: CUST-789
name: "John Smith"
email: john.smith@email.com
address: {
street: "123 Main St"
city: Springfield
state: IL
zip: 62701
}
}
items: [
{
id: PROD-001
name: "Coffee Mug"
quantity: 2
price: 12.99
subtotal: 25.98
}
{
id: PROD-002
name: "Tea Set"
quantity: 1
price: 45.00
subtotal: 45.00
}
]
payment: {
method: credit-card
status: completed
transaction-id: TXN-456789
}
summary: {
subtotal: 70.98
tax: 4.26
shipping: 5.99
total: 81.23
}
status: processing
created-at: 2023-05-15T14:30:00Z
}
}
Notice how NUON is cleaner than JSON:
- No quotes needed for keys
- No quotes for simple strings (IDs, emails, single words)
- No commas between fields
- Only multi-word strings need quotes
- Native support in Nushell for direct loading and manipulation
Visualize Project Data
Here is an example showing a project summary. Few ERP systems can as succinctly visualize project management data with sub-projects and line items:
Here is a JSON representation of project data:
{
"project": {
"search_key": "PROJ-2025-001",
"client": {
"search_key": "CLIENT-456",
"name": "TechCorp Industries",
"contact": "sarah.johnson@techcorp.com"
},
"sub_projects": [
{
"search_key": "SUB-001",
"name": "Database Migration",
"lines": [
{
"search_key": "LINE-001",
"task": "Schema Analysis",
"hours": 40,
"rate": 175.00,
"amount": 7000.00
},
{
"search_key": "LINE-002",
"task": "Data Scripts",
"hours": 80,
"rate": 150.00,
"amount": 12000.00
}
],
"total": 19000.00
},
{
"search_key": "SUB-002",
"name": "API Development",
"lines": [
{
"search_key": "LINE-003",
"task": "REST Design",
"hours": 32,
"rate": 180.00,
"amount": 5760.00
},
{
"search_key": "LINE-004",
"task": "Implementation",
"hours": 120,
"rate": 140.00,
"amount": 16800.00
}
],
"total": 22560.00
}
],
"summary": {
"budget": 50000.00,
"spent": 41560.00,
"hours": 272
},
"status": "active",
"created_at": "2025-01-10T09:00:00Z"
}
}
Here is the same data in NUON format:
{
project: {
search_key: PROJ-2025-001
client: {
search_key: CLIENT-456
name: "TechCorp Industries"
contact: sarah.johnson@techcorp.com
}
sub_projects: [
{
search_key: SUB-001
name: "Database Migration"
lines: [
{
search_key: LINE-001
task: "Schema Analysis"
hours: 40
rate: 175.00
amount: 7000.00
}
{
search_key: LINE-002
task: "Data Scripts"
hours: 80
rate: 150.00
amount: 12000.00
}
]
total: 19000.00
}
{
search_key: SUB-002
name: "API Development"
lines: [
{
search_key: LINE-003
task: "REST Design"
hours: 32
rate: 180.00
amount: 5760.00
}
{
search_key: LINE-004
task: Implementation
hours: 120
rate: 140.00
amount: 16800.00
}
]
total: 22560.00
}
]
summary: {
budget: 50000.00
spent: 41560.00
hours: 272
}
status: active
created_at: 2025-01-10T09:00:00Z
}
}
When visualized in Nushell, this hierarchical project structure displays cleanly with sub-projects expanded inline and line items shown in tabular format, making it easy to scan project costs and resource allocation at a glance.
Nu Tutor
Nushell is powerful. The easiest to learn the Nushell way of thinking is using Nu's tutor. You can walk through examples by simply executing tutor from a Nushell prompt.
Notes and References
- Nushell has not reached production stability yet; although, it is close. The Nushell team still introduces frequent breaking changes in an effort to enhance consistency and improve usability.
- Nushell compliments PostgreSQL in that Nushell can perform many of the same data tasks as PostgreSQL without requiring data first be inserted into a database.
- Said another way, Nushell gives you many of the same data processing abilities prior to persisting it in a database.
- Nushell also makes persisting data in PostgreSQL easier.
- NUON (Nushell Object Notation) is Nushell's native data format, similar to JSON but with cleaner syntax
- Nushell plugin for visualizing and plotting data https://github.com/Euphrasiologist/nu_plugin_plot
- Also reference: gnuplot
- Nushell demonstrations and explanations
- Nushell todo script - highlighted picture of success
- Nushell using AI
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