DQL

DQL (DataView Query Language) lets you query frontmatter metadata across your entire knowledge base. It is inspired by Obsidian Dataview but runs server-side against the SQLite metadata index.

Query modes

DQL supports four output modes.

TABLE title, status, priority FROM "concepts" WHERE status = "draft" SORT priority DESC

LIST FROM "reports"

COUNT FROM "entities"

DISTINCT author FROM "documents"

TABLE returns tabular results with the fields you specify.
LIST returns a flat list of matching page paths.
COUNT returns the number of matching pages.
DISTINCT returns unique values for a single field.

Clauses

Clause	Description
`FROM "path/"`	Scope the query to a directory.
`WHERE`	Filter with boolean logic (`AND`, `OR`, `NOT`), comparison operators (`=`, `!=`, `>`, `<`, `>=`, `<=`), `CONTAINS`, and `MATCHES` (regex).
`SORT field ASC\|DESC`	Sort results by a field.
`GROUP BY field`	Group results by a field.
`FLATTEN field`	Expand array fields into multiple rows.
`LIMIT n`	Cap the number of results.

Implicit fields

Every page exposes these fields without any frontmatter:

Field	Description
`_path`	File path relative to the knowledge base root.
`_updated`	Last modified timestamp.
`_size`	File size in bytes.
`_words`	Word count of the page body.

TABLE _path, _words FROM "concepts" WHERE _words > 1000 SORT _words DESC

Expressions

DQL supports arithmetic, function calls, string interpolation, comparisons, and boolean logic inside WHERE and computed field definitions.

TABLE title, $.priority * 10 + len($.tags) AS score FROM "concepts" SORT score DESC

Built-in functions

DQL ships with 27 functions:

Date and time

now(), date(), duration(), days_since(), format()

String

lower(), upper(), trim(), split(), join(), contains(), regextest()

Math

round(), floor(), ceil(), abs(), min(), max()

Collection

len(), sum(), avg(), first(), last(), sort(), reverse(), unique()

Metadata

meta() — access implicit fields programmatically.

CLI usage

Run a DQL query from the command line:

kiwifs query "TABLE title, status FROM 'concepts' WHERE status = 'draft'"

REST API

Run a DQL query over HTTP:

GET /api/kiwi/query?q=TABLE title, status FROM "concepts" WHERE status = "draft"

Aggregation

Use the aggregate command to group and summarize metadata:

kiwifs aggregate --group status --calc count,avg:priority

Supported aggregation functions: count, avg, sum, min, max. You can group by any frontmatter field.

Computed views

A markdown file with kiwi-view: true in its frontmatter becomes a computed view. KiwiFS auto-refreshes the file body from a DQL query embedded in the frontmatter.

---
kiwi-view: true
query: "TABLE title, status FROM 'concepts' WHERE status = 'draft' SORT _updated DESC"
---

The body of this file is overwritten with live query results on every index update. Think of it as a saved query that always shows current data.

Computed frontmatter fields

You can define virtual fields in .kiwi/config.toml that are evaluated at index time. These fields are queryable like any other frontmatter field.

[dataview]
computed_fields.age_days = "days_since(updated)"
computed_fields.is_long = "len(body) > 5000"
computed_fields.priority_score = "priority * 10 + len(tags)"

Computed fields are recalculated on every reindex. They do not modify your source files.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Data Import

Data Export

Deployment

Query modes

Clauses

Implicit fields

Expressions

Built-in functions

CLI usage

REST API

Aggregation

Computed views

Computed frontmatter fields

​Query modes

​Clauses

​Implicit fields

​Expressions

​Built-in functions

​CLI usage

​REST API

​Aggregation

​Computed views

​Computed frontmatter fields

Query modes

Clauses

Implicit fields

Expressions

Built-in functions

CLI usage

REST API

Aggregation

Computed views

Computed frontmatter fields