Command Line Options
Sauva - Terminal Unicode Explorer 🪄
Usage: sauva [OPTIONS] [INPUT]
Arguments:
[INPUT] Text or code point to inspect, or - to read stdin
Options:
-t, --text <TEXT> Treat the input as literal text, without code point notation parsing; - reads stdin
-g, --graphics <MODE> Control glyph preview graphics [default: auto] [possible values: auto, force, iterm2, off]
--print-default-config Print the complete default configuration to standard output
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
INPUT
Input is interpreted in this order:
- An input containing a single code point opens the Inspector.
U+or0xfollowed by one to six hexadecimal digits selects a code point. The prefixes are case-insensitive.- An argument made entirely of hexadecimal digits is interpreted as a code point. It must contain two to six digits.
- Other nonempty text opens Sequence mode when it contains multiple code points, even if it looks like one character.
Code point values must be between U+0000 and U+10FFFF. Empty input is rejected.
| Example | Interpretation |
|---|---|
sauva あ | Inspect U+3042 |
sauva A | Inspect the letter A (U+0041) |
sauva U+A | Inspect U+000A |
sauva 41 | Inspect U+0041 |
sauva 1F600 | Inspect U+1F600 |
sauva 'Á👩💻' | Analyze a sequence of code points |
A hexadecimal-only argument that fails notation parsing is rejected; it does not fall back to literal text. For example, use --text for a string of seven hexadecimal digits.
-t, --text <TEXT>
Treat the input as literal text without parsing code point notation:
sauva --text 41
sauva -t U+2192
A single code point still opens the Inspector; multiple code points open Sequence mode. Empty text is rejected.
INPUT and --text cannot be supplied together.
Reading from Stdin
Use - as INPUT to read stdin using the same interpretation rules. Use --text - to read literal text instead.
printf 'U+2192' | sauva -
printf 'Á👩💻' | sauva -
printf '41' | sauva --text -
printf 'A\nB\n' | sauva -
sauva --text - < input.txt
Sauva reads UTF-8 input until EOF before starting the TUI. All whitespace, including trailing LF and CRLF, is preserved. Empty input and invalid UTF-8 are rejected.
In particular, echo U+2192 | sauva - is rejected because the newline is part of the code point notation. Use printf 'U+2192' | sauva - for notation, or echo U+2192 | sauva --text - to inspect the literal text including its newline.
Stdin is read only when - is explicitly supplied. An interactive terminal is still required for keyboard input.
Since - selects stdin, use sauva U+002D to inspect the hyphen character itself.
-g, --graphics <MODE>
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
auto | Use the Kitty graphics protocol in detected kitty and Ghostty terminals; otherwise omit glyph images |
force | Use the Kitty graphics protocol without terminal detection |
iterm2 | Use the iTerm2 inline image protocol; never selected automatically |
off | Disable glyph images |
See Compatibility for support details.
--print-default-config
Print the complete built-in configuration, including default keybindings, and exit:
sauva --print-default-config
sauva --print-default-config > config.toml
This option does not start the TUI or load your local configuration. It must be used on its own.
See Configurations for where to put the file.
-h, --help and -V, --version
Print command line help or the installed application version and exit.