yq

When you need a specific field from a YAML file, reach for yq rather than Read. Syntax mirrors jq.

yq '.field' file.yml

Assumes mikefarah/yq (Go-based). The Python kislyuk/yq fork has different syntax; if jq-style queries don't work, check which yq is on PATH.

Three things easy to forget:

• -r -- raw string output (no surrounding quotes)
• select(document_index == N) -- pick the Nth doc in a multi-document file (--- separators)
• yq -o json file.yml | jq '...' -- escape hatch when yq syntax gets ugly

For anything else, yq --help.