CLI options
| Option | Short | Description |
|---|---|---|
--help | -h | Show help (short form; --help prints the long form) |
--version | -V | Show version info and exit |
--print | -p | Force print mode (direct stdout) |
--plain | -P | Sterile output: no highlighting, pretty-printing, or colors |
--raw | -r | Output verbatim source (no pretty-print) |
--theme | -t | Syntax highlighting theme — see Themes |
--color | -C | Output color encoding (truecolor / 256 / 16 / grayscale / plain; default truecolor) — see Color modes |
--language | -L | Force syntax language |
--width | -w | Image rendering width in characters (0 = auto-fit, capped at 2048; default 0) |
--image-mode | -m | Image render mode (full / block / geo / ascii / contour; default full) |
--background | Image transparency background (auto / black / white / checkerboard, alias checker; default auto) | |
--margin | Image margin in transparent pixels (default 0) | |
--cell-aspect | Override terminal cell aspect ratio (height ÷ width) | |
--edge-density | Tune contour line count (image-mode contour; default 0.1) | |
--no-svg-anim | Force static render for animated SVG | |
--info | -i | Print file info and exit |
--json | Emit --info as JSON for pipelines (requires --info) | |
--list | -l | Print container TOC to stdout (archives, ISOs, directories, PDF / EPUB / DOCX / ODT / RTF / audio / comic embeds) |
--utc | Show timestamps in UTC (default: local + offset) | |
--line-numbers | -n | Enable line numbers (toggle with l in the viewer) |
--extract | -x | Extract a single inner item — see Extraction |
-o / --output | Output path for --extract (or - for stdout) | |
--extract-size | Output pixel size for animation / SVG frame extract | |
--no-tempfile | Keep archive extracts in RAM (skip the $TMPDIR spool path) | |
--yes | -y | Pre-grant slow ops: skip the load prompt for big compressed files |
--update | Check for newer release and re-run install.sh |
Notes
--plainis the single "sterile output" knob: implies--color plainand additionally disables syntax highlighting and structured pretty-printing. HTML and SVG drop their rendered / rasterized view and fall back to raw source; other rich views (image, PDF, DOCX, EPUB) still compose but render without color. Use it when piping into tools that expect bytes-as-typed.--rawis narrower: it skips pretty-printing of structured / SVG sources but keeps colors, font styles, and rich renders. Pair--raw --color plainif you want raw structure without colors but still want HTML / SVG rendered.--print/-pforces print mode regardless of TTY.--json(with--info) prints the info screen as a single JSON object for shell pipelines —peek file.pdf --info --json | jq .size_bytes. Core metadata is typed (numbers stay numbers, timestamps are ISO-8601 UTC); per-type stats are nested under a key named for the file type (peek book.pdf --info --json | jq .pdf.page_count).--yes/-ypre-grants slow operations. A big transparently-compressed file (.gz/.xz/.zst/ …), or a compressed-tar archive whose table of contents needs a full decompression pass (.tar.gz/.tar.xz/ …), opens on its Info screen with anEnter to …hint instead of doing the slow work up front;Enterruns it and unlocks the session (later large files in the same session won't re-ask). Extracting or descending into a large container entry (over 256 MB) likewise asks a yes/no confirm before spooling.--yesskips these prompts, and every non-interactive path (pipe,--print,--info,--list) is always pre-granted since it can't answer a prompt. Independent of the prompts, a hard 8 GiB ceiling on the tempfile-spill path makes a decompression bomb fail cleanly instead of filling$TMPDIR.--help --theme <name>doubles as a theme preview — the help screen is themed.
Help screens
-h(concise) — gradient logo, version + tagline, usage line, common options.--help(full) — everything in-h, plus rarely-used options (theme, color, language, width, image-mode, background, margin, utc) and the full theme listing with the active marker.
Both are custom-themed — not the default clap output.