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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kiwifs.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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.

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Query modes

DQL supports four output modes. 
TABLE title, status, priority FROM "concepts" WHERE status = "draft" SORT priority DESC
  • 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.

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Clauses

ClauseDescription
FROM "path/"Scope the query to a directory.
WHEREFilter with boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT), comparison operators (=, !=, >, <, >=, <=), CONTAINS, and MATCHES (regex).
SORT field ASC|DESCSort results by a field.
GROUP BY fieldGroup results by a field.
FLATTEN fieldExpand array fields into multiple rows.
LIMIT nCap the number of results.

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Implicit fields

Every page exposes these fields without any frontmatter:
FieldDescription
_pathFile path relative to the knowledge base root.
_updatedLast modified timestamp.
_sizeFile size in bytes.
_wordsWord count of the page body.
TABLE _path, _words FROM "concepts" WHERE _words > 1000 SORT _words DESC

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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

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Built-in functions

DQL ships with 27 functions:
now(), date(), duration(), days_since(), format()
lower(), upper(), trim(), split(), join(), contains(), regextest()
round(), floor(), ceil(), abs(), min(), max()
len(), sum(), avg(), first(), last(), sort(), reverse(), unique()
meta() — access implicit fields programmatically.

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CLI usage

Run a DQL query from the command line: 
kiwifs query "TABLE title, status FROM 'concepts' WHERE status = 'draft'"

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REST API

Run a DQL query over HTTP: 
GET /api/kiwi/query?q=TABLE title, status FROM "concepts" WHERE status = "draft"

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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.

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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.

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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.
Last modified on May 4, 2026