xnv

Interactive XML navigator and filter with XPath-like queries — inspired by jnv by ynqa.

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Overview

xnv is a terminal-based interactive viewer for XML files. Type XPath-like queries to filter and explore the document tree in real time. Results update as you type. When you find what you need, press Enter twice to exit and print the query and output to stdout.

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Installation

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew install jaedmunt/tap/xnv

Cargo

cargo install xnv

Prebuilt binaries

Download from the releases page for:

• x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
• x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
• aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
• x86_64-apple-darwin
• aarch64-apple-darwin
• x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
• aarch64-pc-windows-msvc

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Usage

# From a file
xnv data.xml

# From stdin
cat data.xml | xnv

# Start with a default query
xnv data.xml --default-filter '//item'

# Exit and write result to stdout
xnv data.xml --write-to-stdout

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Query syntax

Query	Result
(empty)	Show the full document
//tagname	All elements named tagname
/root/child	Navigate by absolute path
@attr	All elements that have attribute attr
@attr=value	Elements where attr equals value
//tag/text()	Text values only — no XML tags

Examples

//item                   → all <item> elements
/catalog/book            → <book> elements at that exact path
@id                      → all elements with an id attribute
@type=premium            → elements where type="premium"
//title/text()           → just the text inside <title> tags

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Keybindings

Global

Key	Action
Ctrl+C	Quit
Enter × 2	Exit and print query + output
Shift+↑ / Shift+↓	Switch focus: query editor ↔ XML viewer
Ctrl+H	Toggle help overlay
Ctrl+T	Toggle values-only mode
Ctrl+Q	Copy current query to clipboard
Ctrl+O	Copy current result to clipboard

Query editor

Key	Action
Tab	Autocomplete XPath
Ctrl+A	Move to start of line
Ctrl+E	Move to end of line
Alt+B / Alt+F	Move by word
Ctrl+W	Delete previous word
Alt+D	Delete next word
Ctrl+U	Clear input

XML viewer (after Shift+↓)

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move cursor
Enter	Collapse / expand element
Ctrl+P	Expand all
Ctrl+N	Collapse all
Ctrl+L	Jump to top
Ctrl+G	Jump to bottom
Mouse scroll	Scroll results

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Configuration

xnv loads its configuration from:

• Linux / macOS: ~/.config/xnv/config.toml
• Windows: %APPDATA%\xnv\config.toml

The file is created automatically on first run with defaults. You can override any setting — see default.toml for the full reference.

Example customisation

[xml]
indent = 4

[keybinds]
exit = ["Ctrl+C", "Ctrl+D"]
toggle_values = ["Ctrl+T"]

[keybinds.on_xml_viewer]
up = ["Up", "Ctrl+K"]
down = ["Down", "Ctrl+J"]

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Features

• Real-time filtering — results update as you type with configurable debounce
• XPath-like queries — //tag, /path/to/elem, @attr, @attr=value, /text()
• Values-only mode — strip tags, show just text content (//tag/text())
• Collapse / expand — fold any element subtree in the viewer
• Tab completion — autocomplete paths from the document
• Clipboard support — copy queries or results with a single keybind
• Animated prefix — reactive snake animation on the query prompt
• Double-Enter exit — print query + output without leaving the TUI manually
• Cross-platform — Linux, macOS, Windows

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Building from source

Requires Rust 1.85+.

git clone https://github.com/jaedmunt/xnv
cd xnv
cargo build --release
./target/release/xnv --help

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Acknowledgements

Inspired by jnv by ynqa — the JSON navigator this tool is modelled after.

Built with:

• roxmltree — XML parsing
• promkit — TUI widget framework
• tokio — async runtime
• cargo-dist — release infrastructure

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License

MIT