
HLEDGER-UI(1)                hledger User Manuals                HLEDGER-UI(1)

NAME
       hledger-ui  -  terminal interface (TUI) for hledger, a robust, friendly
       plain text accounting app.

SYNOPSIS
       hledger-ui [OPTS] [QUERYARGS]
       or
       hledger ui [OPTS] [QUERYARGS]

DESCRIPTION
       This manual is for hledger's terminal interface, version 1.51.99.   See
       also the hledger manual for common concepts and file formats.

       hledger  is a robust, user-friendly, cross-platform set of programs for
       tracking money, time, or any other commodity,  using  double-entry  ac-
       counting  and  a  simple, editable file format.  hledger is inspired by
       and largely compatible with  ledger(1),  and  largely  interconvertible
       with beancount(1).

       hledger-ui  is  hledger's  terminal  interface,  providing an efficient
       full-window text UI for viewing accounts  and  transactions,  and  some
       limited  data  entry  capability.   It  is  easier  than hledger's com-
       mand-line interface, and sometimes quicker and more convenient than the
       web interface.

       Like hledger, it reads from (and appends to) a journal  file  specified
       by    the    LEDGER_FILE    environment    variable    (defaulting   to
       $HOME/.hledger.journal); or you can specify files with -f options.   It
       can  also  read timeclock files, timedot files, or any CSV/SSV/TSV file
       with a date field.  (See hledger(1) -> Input for details.)

       Unlike hledger, hledger-ui hides all future-dated transactions  by  de-
       fault.   They  can  be revealed, along with any rule-generated periodic
       transactions, by pressing the F key (or starting  with  --forecast)  to
       enable "forecast mode".

OPTIONS
       Any  arguments  are  interpreted  as  a hledger query which filters the
       data.  hledger-ui provides the following options:

              Flags:
                -w --watch                watch for data and date changes and reload
                                          automatically
                   --theme=THEME          use this custom display theme (default,
                                          greenterm, terminal, dark)
                   --cash                 start in the cash accounts screen
                   --bs                   start in the balance sheet accounts screen
                   --is                   start in the income statement accounts screen
                   --all                  start in the all accounts screen
                   --register=ACCTREGEX   start in the (first matched) account's register
                   --change               show period balances (changes) at startup instead
                                          of historical balances
                -l --flat                 show accounts as a flat list (default)
                -t --tree                 show accounts as a tree

       and also supports many of hledger's general options:

              General input/data transformation flags:
                -f --file=[FMT:]FILE      Read data from FILE, or from stdin if FILE is -,
                                          inferring format from extension or a FMT: prefix.
                                          Can be specified more than once. If not specified,
                                          reads from $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal.
                   --rules=RULESFILE      Use rules defined in this rules file for
                                          converting subsequent CSV/SSV/TSV files. If not
                                          specified, uses FILE.csv.rules for each FILE.csv.
                   --alias=A=B|/RGX/=RPL  transform account names from A to B, or by
                                          replacing regular expression matches
                   --auto                 generate extra postings by applying auto posting
                                          rules ("=") to all transactions
                   --forecast[=PERIOD]    Generate extra transactions from periodic rules
                                          ("~"), from after the latest ordinary transaction
                                          until 6 months from now. Or, during the specified
                                          PERIOD (the equals is required). Auto posting rules
                                          will also be applied to these transactions. In
                                          hledger-ui, also make future-dated transactions
                                          visible at startup.
                -I --ignore-assertions    don't check balance assertions by default
                   --txn-balancing=...    how to check that transactions are balanced:
                                          'old':   use global display precision
                                          'exact': use transaction precision (default)
                   --infer-costs          infer conversion equity postings from costs
                   --infer-equity         infer costs from conversion equity postings
                   --infer-market-prices  infer market prices from costs
                   --pivot=TAGNAME        use a different field or tag as account names
                -s --strict               do extra error checks (and override -I)
                   --verbose-tags         add tags indicating generated/modified data

              General output/reporting flags (supported by some commands):
                -b --begin=DATE           include postings/transactions on/after this date
                -e --end=DATE             include postings/transactions before this date
                                          (with a report interval, will be adjusted to
                                          following subperiod end)
                -D --daily                multiperiod report with 1 day interval
                -W --weekly               multiperiod report with 1 week interval
                -M --monthly              multiperiod report with 1 month interval
                -Q --quarterly            multiperiod report with 1 quarter interval
                -Y --yearly               multiperiod report with 1 year interval
                -p --period=PERIODEXP     set begin date, end date, and/or report interval,
                                          with more flexibility
                   --today=DATE           override today's date (affects relative dates)
                   --date2                match/use secondary dates instead (deprecated)
                -U --unmarked             include only unmarked postings/transactions
                -P --pending              include only pending postings/transactions
                -C --cleared              include only cleared postings/transactions
                                          (-U/-P/-C can be combined)
                -R --real                 include only non-virtual postings
                -E --empty                Show zero items, which are normally hidden.
                                          In hledger-ui & hledger-web, do the opposite.
                   --depth=DEPTHEXP       if a number (or -NUM): show only top NUM levels
                                          of accounts. If REGEXP=NUM, only apply limiting to
                                          accounts matching the regular expression.
                -B --cost                 show amounts converted to their cost/sale amount
                -V --market               Show amounts converted to their value at period
                                          end(s) in their default valuation commodity.
                                          Equivalent to --value=end.
                -X --exchange=COMM        Show amounts converted to their value at period
                                          end(s) in the specified commodity.
                                          Equivalent to --value=end,COMM.
                   --value=WHEN[,COMM]    show amounts converted to their value on the
                                          specified date(s) in their default valuation
                                          commodity or a specified commodity. WHEN can be:
                                          'then':     value on transaction dates
                                          'end':      value at period end(s)
                                          'now':      value today
                                          YYYY-MM-DD: value on given date
                -c --commodity-style=S    Override a commodity's display style.
                                          Eg: -c '.' or -c '1.000,00 EUR'
                   --pretty[=YN]          Use box-drawing characters in text output? Can be
                                          'y'/'yes' or 'n'/'no'.
                                          If YN is specified, the equals is required.

              General help flags:
                -h --help                 show command line help
                   --tldr                 show command examples with tldr
                   --info                 show the manual with info
                   --man                  show the manual with man
                   --version              show version information
                   --debug=[1-9]          show this much debug output (default: 1)
                   --pager=YN             use a pager when needed ? y/yes (default) or n/no
                   --color=YNA --colour   use ANSI color ? y/yes, n/no, or auto (default)

       With  hledger-ui,  the  --debug  option  sends  debug   output   to   a
       hledger-ui.log file in the current directory.

       If  you use the bash shell, you can auto-complete flags by pressing TAB
       in the command line.  If this is not working see Install >  Shell  com-
       pletions.

MOUSE
       In  most  modern terminals, you can navigate through the screens with a
       mouse or touchpad:

       o Use mouse wheel or trackpad to scroll up and down

       o Click on list items to go deeper

       o Click on the left margin (column 0) to go back.

KEYS
       Keyboard gives more control.

       ? shows a help dialog listing all keys.  (Some of these also appear  in
       the  quick  help  at the bottom of each screen.)  Press ? again (or ES-
       CAPE, or LEFT, or q) to close it.  The  following  keys  work  on  most
       screens:

       The  cursor  keys navigate: RIGHT or ENTER goes deeper, LEFT returns to
       the  previous  screen,  UP/DOWN/PGUP/PGDN/HOME/END  move  up  and  down
       through  lists.  Emacs-style (CTRL-p/CTRL-n/CTRL-f/CTRL-b) and VI-style
       (k,j,l,h) movement keys are also supported.

       (Tip: movement speed is limited by your keyboard repeat rate,  to  move
       faster  you  may want to adjust it.  On a mac, the Karabiner app is one
       way to do that.)

       / lets you set a general filter query limiting the  data  shown,  using
       the  same query terms as in hledger and hledger-web.  While editing the
       query, you can use CTRL-a/e/d/k, BS, cursor keys; press  ENTER  to  set
       it, or ESCAPEto cancel.  There are also keys for quickly adjusting some
       common  filters  like account depth and transaction status (see below).
       BACKSPACE or DELETE removes all filters, showing all transactions.

       As mentioned above, by default hledger-ui hides future  transactions  -
       both ordinary transactions recorded in the journal, and periodic trans-
       actions  generated  by  rule.   F  toggles  forecast mode, in which fu-
       ture/forecasted transactions are shown.

       Pressing SHIFT-DOWN narrows the report period,  and  pressing  SHIFT-UP
       expands  it  again.   When  narrowed, the current report period is dis-
       played in the header line, pressing SHIFT-LEFT or SHIFT-RIGHT moves  to
       the previous or next period, and pressing T sets the period to "today".
       If  you  are  using -w/--watch and viewing a narrowed period containing
       today, the view will follow any changes in system date (moving  to  the
       period  containing the new date).  (These keys work only with the stan-
       dard Julian calendar year/quarter/month/week/day periods; they are  not
       affected by a custom report interval specified at the command line.)

       You can also specify a non-standard period with / and a date: query; in
       this case, the period is not movable with the arrow keys.

       (Tip:  arrow keys with Shift do not work out of the box in all terminal
       software.  Eg in Apple's Terminal, the  SHIFT-DOWN  and  SHIFT-UP  keys
       must  be  configured  as follows: in Terminal's preferences, click Pro-
       files, select your current profile on the left, click Keyboard  on  the
       right,  click + and add this for SHIFT-DOWN: \033[1;2B, click + and add
       this for SHIFT-UP: \033[1;2A.   In other terminals (Windows Terminal ?)
       you  might  need  to  configure  SHIFT-RIGHT  and  SHIFT-LEFT  to  emit
       \033[1;2C and \033[1;2D respectively.)

       ESCAPE  resets the UI state and jumps back to the top screen, restoring
       the app's initial state at startup.  Or, it cancels minibuffer data en-
       try or the help dialog.

       CTRL-l redraws the screen and centers the selection if possible (selec-
       tions near the top won't be centered, since we don't scroll  above  the
       top).

       g  reloads from the data file(s) and updates the current screen and any
       previous screens.  (With large files, this  could  cause  a  noticeable
       pause.)

       I  toggles  balance  assertion  checking.  Disabling balance assertions
       temporarily can be useful  for  troubleshooting.   (If  hledger-ui  was
       started  with a --pivot option, re-enabling balance assertions with the
       I key also reloads the journal, like g.)

       a runs command-line hledger's add  command,  and  reloads  the  updated
       file.  This allows some basic data entry.

       A  is like a, but runs the hledger-iadd tool, which provides a terminal
       interface.  This key will be available if hledger-iadd is installed  in
       $path.

       E  runs $HLEDGER_UI_EDITOR, or $EDITOR, or a default (emacsclient -a ""
       -nw) on the journal file.  With some editors (emacs,  vi),  the  cursor
       will  be  positioned  at  the current transaction when invoked from the
       register and transaction screens, and at the error location (if  possi-
       ble) when invoked from the error screen.

       B  toggles cost mode, showing amounts converted to their cost's commod-
       ity (see hledger manual > Cost reporting.

       V toggles value mode, showing amounts converted to their  market  value
       (see hledger manual > Valuation flag).  More specifically,

       1. By  default, the V key toggles showing end value (--value=end) on or
          off.  The valuation date will be the report end date  if  specified,
          otherwise today.

       2. If  you  started  hledger-ui  with  some  other  valuation  (such as
          --value=then,EUR), the V key toggles that off or on.

       Cost/value tips: - When showing end value, you can  change  the  report
       end  date  without  restarting,  by  pressing / and adding a query like
       date:..YYYY-MM-DD.  - Either cost mode, or value mode, can  be  active,
       but  not  both at once.  Cost mode takes precedence.  - There's not yet
       any visual indicator that cost or value mode is active, other than  the
       amount values.

       q quits the application.

       Additional screen-specific keys are described below.

SCREENS
       At  startup,  hledger-ui shows a menu screen by default.  From here you
       can navigate to other screens using the cursor keys: UP/DOWN to select,
       RIGHT to move to the selected screen, LEFT to return  to  the  previous
       screen.  Or you can use ESC to return directly to the top menu screen.

       You  can  also  use a command line flag to specific a different startup
       screen (--cs, --bs, --is, --all, or --register=ACCT).

   Menu screen
       This is the top-most screen.  From here you  can  navigate  to  several
       screens  listing accounts of various types.  Note some of these may not
       show anything until you have configured account types.

   Cash accounts screen
       This screen shows "cash" (ie, liquid asset) accounts (like hledger bal-
       ancesheet type:c).  It always shows balances  (historical  ending  bal-
       ances on the date shown in the title line).

   Balance sheet accounts screen
       This  screen  shows  asset, liability and equity accounts (like hledger
       balancesheetequity).  It always shows balances.

   Income statement accounts screen
       This screen shows revenue and expense accounts (like  hledger  incomes-
       tatement).   It  always  shows  changes  (balance changes in the period
       shown in the title line).

   All accounts screen
       This screen shows all accounts in your journal (unless  filtered  by  a
       query;  like  hledger  balance).  It shows balances by default; you can
       toggle showing changes with the H key.

   Register screen
       This screen shows the  transactions  affecting  a  particular  account.
       Each line represents one transaction, and shows:

       o the  other  account(s)  involved, in abbreviated form.  (If there are
         both real and virtual postings, it shows only the  accounts  affected
         by real postings.)

       o the  overall change to the current account's balance; positive for an
         inflow to this account, negative for an outflow.

       o the running total after the transaction.  With the H key you can tog-
         gle between

         o the period total, which is from just the transactions displayed

         o or the historical total, which includes  any  undisplayed  transac-
           tions  before the start of the report period (and matching the fil-
           ter query if any).  This will be  the  running  historical  balance
           (what  you would see on a bank's website, eg) if not disturbed by a
           query.

       Note, this screen combines each transaction's in-period postings  to  a
       single  line  item,  dated  with  the earliest in-period transaction or
       posting date (like hledger's aregister).  So custom posting  dates  can
       cause  the  running balance to be temporarily inaccurate.  (See hledger
       manual > aregister and posting dates.)

       Transactions affecting this account's subaccounts will be  included  in
       the register if the accounts screen is in tree mode, or if it's in list
       mode  but  this  account  has  subaccounts which are not shown due to a
       depth limit.  In other words, the register always  shows  the  transac-
       tions  contributing  to the balance shown on the accounts screen.  Tree
       mode/list mode can be toggled with t here also.

       U toggles filtering by unmarked  status,  showing  or  hiding  unmarked
       transactions.  Similarly, P toggles pending transactions, and C toggles
       cleared  transactions.  (By default, transactions with all statuses are
       shown; if you activate one or two status filters, only  those  transac-
       tions are shown; and if you activate all three, the filter is removed.)

       R toggles real mode, in which virtual postings are ignored.

       z  toggles  nonzero  mode, in which only transactions posting a nonzero
       change are shown (hledger-ui shows zero items by default,  unlike  com-
       mand-line hledger).

       Press RIGHT to view the selected transaction in detail.

   Transaction screen
       This  screen  shows  a  single transaction, as a general journal entry,
       similar to hledger's print command and  journal  format  (hledger_jour-
       nal(5)).

       The  transaction's  date(s) and any cleared flag, transaction code, de-
       scription, comments, along with all of its account postings are  shown.
       Simple  transactions  have  two  postings, but there can be more (or in
       certain cases, fewer).

       UP and DOWN will step through all transactions listed in  the  previous
       account  register screen.  In the title bar, the numbers in parentheses
       show your position within that account register.  They  will  vary  de-
       pending on which account register you came from (remember most transac-
       tions  appear  in multiple account registers).  The #N number preceding
       them is the transaction's position within the complete unfiltered jour-
       nal, which is a more stable id (at least until the next reload).

       On this screen (and the register screen), the E key will open your text
       editor with the cursor positioned at the current transaction if  possi-
       ble.

   Error screen
       This  screen  will appear if there is a problem, such as a parse error,
       when you press g to reload.  Once you have fixed the problem,  press  g
       again to reload and resume normal operation.  (Or, you can press escape
       to cancel the reload attempt.)

WATCH MODE
       One  of  hledger-ui's  best  features  is the auto-reloading -w/--watch
       mode.  With this flag, it will update the display  automatically  when-
       ever changes are saved to the data files.

       This  is very useful when reconciling.  A good workflow is to have your
       bank's online register open in a browser  window,  for  reference;  the
       journal  file open in an editor window; and hledger-ui in watch mode in
       a terminal window, eg:

              $ hledger-ui --watch --register checking -C

       As you mark things cleared in the editor, you can see the effect  imme-
       diately  without  having  to  context  switch.  This leaves more mental
       bandwidth for your accounting.  Of course you can still  interact  with
       hledger-ui  when  needed,  eg to toggle cleared mode, or to explore the
       history.

   --watch problems
       However. There are limitations/unresolved bugs with --watch:

       o It may not work at all for you, depending on platform or system  con-
         figuration.     On    some    unix    systems,   increasing   fs.ino-
         tify.max_user_watches or fs.file-max parameters  in  /etc/sysctl.conf
         might help.  (#836)

       o It  may not detect changes made from outside a virtual machine, ie by
         an editor running on the host system.

       o It may not detect file changes on certain less common filesystems.

       o It may use increasing CPU and RAM over time,  especially  with  large
         files.   (This  is  probably not --watch specific, you may be able to
         reproduce it by pressing g repeatedly.)  (#1825)

       Tips/workarounds:

       o If --watch won't work for you, press g to reload  data  manually  in-
         stead.

       o If  --watch is leaking resources over time, quit and restart (or sus-
         pend and resume) hledger-ui when you're not using it.

       o When running hledger-ui inside a VM, also make  file  changes  inside
         the VM.

       o When  working  with files mounted from another machine, make sure the
         system clocks on both machines are roughly in agreement.

ENVIRONMENT
       LEDGER_FILE The main journal  file  to  use  when  not  specified  with
       -f/--file.  Default: $HOME/.hledger.journal.

BUGS
       We    welcome    bug    reports    in   the   hledger   issue   tracker
       (https://bugs.hledger.org),  or  on  the  hledger  chat  or  mail  list
       (https://hledger.org/support).

       Some known issues:

       -f- doesn't work (hledger-ui can't read from stdin).

       --watch  is  not  robust,  especially  with large files (see WATCH MODE
       above).

       If you press g with large files, there could be a noticeable pause with
       the UI unresponsive.



AUTHORS
       Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors.
       See http://hledger.org/CREDITS.html


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2007-2023 Simon Michael and contributors.


LICENSE
       Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.


SEE ALSO
       hledger(1), hledger-ui(1), hledger-web(1), ledger(1)

hledger-ui-1.51.99               December 2025                   HLEDGER-UI(1)
