pda/README.md

pda! is a command-line key-value store tool with:

• templates,
• search and filtering with globs,
• Git-backed version control,
• plaintext exports in multiple formats,
• secrets,
• support for binary data,
• time-to-live support,

and more, written in pure Go, and inspired by skate and nb.

pda! canonically stores key-value pairs in badger databases for the sake of speed, but supports exporting everything out to a handful of different plaintext formats too, including but not limited to CSV, TSV, newline-delimited JSON, and Markdown and HTML tables. pda! uses newline-delimited JSON for version control; a full snapshot of every existing key-value pair across all stores can be manually requested with the snapshot command, or auto-commit can be enabled in the config to automatically generate a descriptive commit for every change made.

Contents

• Overview
• Installation
• Get Started
• Git-backed version control
• Templates
• Globs
• Secrets
• TTL
• Binary
• Environment

Overview

Available Commands:
  get         # Get a value.
  set         # Set a value.
  cp          # Copy a value.
  mv          # Move a value.
  del         # Delete a value.
  del-db      # Delete a whole database.
  list-dbs    # List all databases.
  dump        # Export a database as NDJSON.
  restore     # Imports NDJSON into a database.
  init        # Initialise or fetch a Git repo for version control.
  sync        # Export, commit, pull, restore, and push changes.
  git         # Run git in the pda VCS repository.
  completion  # Generate autocompletions for a specified shell.
  help        # Additional help for any command.
  version     # Current version.

Installation

# Get the latest release from the AUR
yay -S pda

# Or use pda-git for the latest commit
yay -S pda-git

# Go install
go install github.com/llywelwyn/pda@latest

# Or
git clone https://github.com/llywelwyn/pda
cd pda
go install

Get Started

pda set to save a key.

# From arguments
pda set name "Alice"

# From stdin
echo "Alice" | pda set name
cat dogs.txt | pda set dogs
pda set kitty < cat.png

pda get to retrieve it.

pda get name
# Alice

# Or run it directly.
pda get name --run

pda mv to move it.

pda mv name name2
# renamed name to name2

pda cp to make a copy.

pda cp name name2

# 'mv --copy' and 'cp' are aliases. Either one works.
pda mv name name2 --copy

pda del to delete one or more keys.

pda del kitty
# remove  "kitty": are you sure? [y/n]
# y

# Or skip the prompt.
pda del kitty --force

# Remove multiple keys, within the same or different stores.
pda del kitty dog@animals
# remove "kitty", "dog@animals": are you sure? [y/n]
# y

# Mix exact keys with globs.
pda set cog "cogs"
pda set dog "doggy"
pda set kitty "cat"
pda del kitty --glob ?og
# remove "kitty", "cog", "dog": are you sure? [y/n]
# y
# Default glob separators: "/-_.@: " (space included). Override with --glob-sep.

pda ls to see what you've got stored.

pda ls
# name    Alice
# dogs    four legged mammals

# Or as CSV.
pda ls --format csv
# name,Alice
# dogs,four legged mammals

# Or TSV, or Markdown, or HTML.

pda dump to export everything as NDJSON.

pda dump > my_backup

# Dump only matching keys.
pda dump --glob a*

pda restore to import it all back.

# Restore with an argument.
pda restore -f my_backup
# Restored 2 entries into @default.

# Or from stdin.
pda restore < my_backup
# Restored 2 entries into @default.

# Restore only matching keys.
pda restore --glob a* -f my_backup

You can have as many stores as you want.

# Save to a spceific store.
pda set alice@birthdays 11/11/1998

# See which stores have contents.
pda list-dbs
# @default
# @birthdays

# Check out a specific store.
pda ls @birthdays
# alice    11/11/1998
# bob      05/12/1980

# Dump it.
pda dump birthdays > friends_birthdays

# Restore it.
pda restore birthdays < friends_birthdays

# Delete it.
pda del-db birthdays --force

Git

pda! supports automatic version control backed by Git, either in a local-only repository or by initialising from a remote repository.

pda init will initialise the version control system.

# Initialise an empty pda! repository.
pda init

# Or clone an existing one.
pda init https://github.com/llywelwyn/my-repository

# --clean to replace your (existing) local repo with a new one.
pda init --clean

pda sync conducts a best-effort syncing of your local data with your Git repository. Any time you swap machine or know you've made changes outside of pda! itself, I recommend syncing.

If you're ahead of your Git repo, syncing will add your changes, commit them, and push to remote if a remote is set. If you use multiple devices or otherwise end up behind your Git repo, syncing will detect this and give you a prompt: either stash your local changes and pull the latest commit from version control, or abort and fix the issue manually.

# Sync with Git
pda sync

pda! supports some automation via its config. There are options for git.auto_commit, git.auto_fetch, and git.auto_push. Any of these operations will slow down pda! because it means exporting and versioning with every change, but it does effectively guarantee never managing to desync oneself and requiring manual fixes, and reduces the frequency with which one will need to manually run the sync command.

Auto-commit will commit changes immediately to the local Git repository any time pda! data is changed. Auto-fetch will fetch before committing any changes, but incurs a significant slowdown in operations simply due to the time a fetch takes. Auto-push will automatically push committed changes to the remote repository, if one is set.

If auto-commit is set to false, auto-fetch and auto-push will do nothing. They can be considered to be additional steps taken during the commit process.

Running pda sync manually will always fetch, commit, and push - or if behind it will fetch, stash, and pull - regardless of config.

My general recommendation would be to enable git.auto_commit, and to run a manual pda sync any time you're preparing to switch machines, or loading up a new one.

Templates

Values support effectively all of Go's text/template syntax. Templates are evaluated on pda get.

text/template is a Turing-complete templating library that supports most of what you'd expect in a scripting language. Actions are given with {{ action }} syntax and support pipelines and nested templates, along with a lot more. I recommend reading the documentation if you want to do anything more complicated than described here.

To fit text/template nicely into this tool, pda has a sparse set of additional functions built-in. For example, default values, enums, required values, lists, among others.

Below is more detail on the extra functions added by this tool.

{{ .BASIC }} substitution

pda set greeting "Hello, {{ .NAME }}"
pda get greeting NAME="Alice"
# Hello, Alice

default sets a default value.

pda set greeting "Hello, {{ default "World" .NAME }}"
pda get greeting
# Hello, World
pda get greeting NAME="Bob"
# Hello, Bob

require errors if missing.

pda set file "{{ require .FILE }}"
pda get file
# Error: required value missing or empty

env reads from environment variables.

pda set my_name "{{ env "USER" }}"
pda get my_name
# llywelwyn

enum restricts acceptable values.

pda set level "Log level: {{ enum .LEVEL "info" "warn" "error" }}"
pda get level LEVEL=info
# Log level: info
pda get level LEVEL=debug
# Error: invalid value "debug" (allowed: [info warn error])

int to parse as an integer.

pda set number "{{ int .N }}"
pda get number N=3
# 3

# Use it in a loop.
pda set meows "{{ range int .COUNT }}meow! {{ end }}"
pda get meows COUNT=4
# meow! meow! meow! meow!

list to parse CSV as a list.

pda set names "{{ range list .NAMES }}Hi {{.}}. {{ end }}"
pda get names NAMES=Bob,Alice
# Hi Bob. Hi Alice.

pass no-template to output literally without templating.

pda set hello "{{ if .MORNING }}Good morning.{{ end }}"
pda get hello MORNING=1
# Good morning.
pda get hello --no-template
# {{ if .MORNING }}Good morning.{{ end }}

Globs

Globs can be used in a few commands where their use makes sense. gobwas/glob is used for matching.

Searching for globs is inherently slower than looking for direct matches, so globs are opt-in via a repeatable --glob/-g flag by default rather than having every string treated as a glob by default. Realistically the performance impact will be negligible unless you have many thousands of entries in the same database.

* wildcards a word or series of characters.

pda ls --no-values
# cat
# dog
# cog
# mouse hotdog
# mouse house
# foo.bar.baz

pda ls --glob "*"
# cat
# dog
# cog

pda ls --glob "* *"
# mouse hotdog
# mouse house

pda ls --glob "foo.*.baz"
# foo.bar.baz

** super-wildcards ignore word boundaries.

pda ls --glob "foo**"
# foo.bar.baz

pda ls --glob "**g"
# dog
# cog
# mouse hotdog

? wildcards a single letter.

pda ls --glob ?og
# dog
# cog
# frog --> fail
# dogs --> fail

[abc] must match one of the characters in the brackets.

pda ls --glob [dc]og
# dog
# cog
# bog --> fail

# Can be negated with '!'
pda ls --glob [!dc]og
# dog --> fail
# cog --> fail
# bog

[a-c] must fall within the range given in the brackets

pda ls --glob [a-g]ag
# bag
# gag
# wag --> fail

# Can be negated with '!'
pda ls --glob [!a-g]ag
# bag --> fail
# gag --> fail
# wag

pda ls --glob 19[90-99]
# 1991
# 1992
# 2001 --> fail
# 1988 --> fail

Globs can be arbitrarily complex, and can be combined with strict matches.

pda ls --no-keys
# cat
# mouse trap
# dog house
# cat flap
# cogwheel

pda rm cat --glob "{mouse,[cd]og}**"
# remove: 'cat', 'mouse trap', 'dog house', 'cogwheel': are you sure? [y/n]

--glob-sep can be used to change the default list of separators used to determine word boundaries. Separators default to a somewhat reasonable list of common alphanumeric characters so should be usable in most usual situations.

pda ls --no-keys
# foo%baz

pda ls --glob "*"
# foo%baz

pda ls --glob "*" --glob-sep "%"
# foo%baz --> fail
# % is considered a word boundary, so "*" no longer matches.

pda ls --glob "*%*" --glob-sep "%"
# foo%baz

Secrets

Mark sensitive values with secret to stop accidents.

# Store a secret
pda set password "hunter2" --secret

secret is used for revealing secrets too.

pda get password
# Error: "password" is marked secret; re-run with --secret to display it
pda get password --secret
# hunter2

list censors secrets.

pda ls
# password    ************

pda ls --secret
# password    hunter2

dump excludes secrets unless allowed.

pda dump
# nil

pda dump --secret
# {"key":"password","value":"hunter2","encoding":"text"}

TTL

ttl sets an expiration time. Expired keys get marked for garbage collection and will be deleted on the next-run of the store. They wont be accessible.

# Expire after 1 hour
pda set session "123" --ttl 1h

# After 52 minutes and 10 seconds
pda set session2 "xyz" --ttl 54m10s

list --ttl shows expiration date in list output.

pda ls --ttl
# session    123    2025-11-21T15:30:00Z (in 59m30s)
# session2   xyz    2025-11-21T15:21:40Z (in 51m40s)

dump and restore persists the expiry date. Expirations will continue ticking down regardless of if they're actively in a store or not - the expiry is just a timestamp, not a timer.

Binary

Save binary data.

pda set logo < logo.png```

And get it like normal.

pda get logo > output.png

list and get will omit binary data whenever it's a human reading it. If it's being piped somewhere or ran outside of a TTY, it'll output the whole data.

include-binary to show the full binary data regardless.

pda get logo
# (omitted binary data)

pda get logo --include-binary
# 89504E470D0A1A0A0000000D4948445200000001000000010802000000

dump encodes binary data as base64.

pda dump
# {"key":"logo","value":"89504E470D0A1A0A0000000D4948445200000001000000010802000000","encoding":"base64"}

Environment

Config is stored in your user config directory in pda/config.toml.

Usually: ~/.config/pda/config.toml

PDA_CONFIG overrides the default config location. pda! will look for a config.toml file in that directory.

PDA_CONFIG=/tmp/config/ pda set key value

Data is stored in your user data directory under pda/stores/.

Usually:

• linux: ~/.local/share/pda/stores/
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/pda/stores/
• windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%/pda/stores/

PDA_DATA overrides the default storage location.

PDA_DATA=/tmp/stores pda set key value

pda get --run uses SHELL for command execution.

# SHELL is usually your current shell.
pda get script --run

# An empty SHELL falls back to using 'sh'.
export SHELL=""
pda get script --run