bat

name	bat
description	Use this skill when the user wants to view files with syntax highlighting, read code with color formatting, or use a better alternative to cat.

bat Plugin

A cat(1) clone with syntax highlighting, git integration, automatic paging, and support for showing non-printable characters.

Commands

File Viewing

• bat file view — View file with syntax highlighting

Utility

• bat _ _ — Passthrough to bat CLI

Usage Examples

• "View this file with syntax highlighting"
• "Read the code with colors"
• "Show me the contents of this file"
• "Display file with line numbers"

Installation

brew install bat

Or via Cargo:

cargo install bat

Examples

# View file with syntax highlighting
bat file view main.py

# View multiple files
bat file view main.py src/utils.js

# Specify language for syntax highlighting
bat file view --language rust file.txt

# Show line numbers
bat file view --number main.py

# Show specific line range
bat file view --line-range 10:20 main.py

# Set output style (auto, full, plain, changes)
bat file view --style plain main.py

# Set color mode (auto, never, always)
bat file view --color never main.py

# Control paging (auto, never, always)
bat file view --paging never main.py

# Control text wrapping (auto, never, character)
bat file view --wrap never main.py

# Set syntax highlighting theme
bat file view --theme Monokai main.py

# Show non-printable characters
bat file view --show-all main.py

# Read from stdin
echo "hello" | bat file view -

# Any bat command with passthrough
bat _ _ --line-range 1:50 main.py
bat _ _ --style changes --number main.py

Key Features

• Syntax highlighting — Automatic detection for 200+ languages
• Git integration — Show git diff for modified lines
• Automatic paging — Page large files automatically
• Line numbers — Optional line number display
• File concatenation — View multiple files like cat
• Non-printable characters — Show special characters
• Themes — Customizable syntax highlighting themes
• Output styles — Full, plain, changes, or auto
• Color control — Enable/disable colors
• Text wrapping — Control text wrapping behavior
• Pipeline support — Read from stdin

Notes

• Automatically detects file type for syntax highlighting
• Uses less as pager by default
• Can be configured as git pager
• Supports custom themes and syntaxes
• Configuration file at ~/.config/bat/config