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dct-peek

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UpdatedFebruary 9, 2026 at 02:47

Use this skill when the user wants to preview or inspect the contents of a data file (CSV, JSON, NDJSON, Parquet). Triggers include "show me the data", "preview this file", "what's in this csv", "look at the first rows", "sample the data", or when needing to understand data structure before processing. This is often the first step before other data operations.

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andrew-a-hale

andrew-a-hale/dct

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Software DevelopersComputer and Mathematical Occupations·SOC 15-1252

SKILL.md

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name	dct-peek
description	Use this skill when the user wants to preview or inspect the contents of a data file (CSV, JSON, NDJSON, Parquet). Triggers include "show me the data", "preview this file", "what's in this csv", "look at the first rows", "sample the data", or when needing to understand data structure before processing. This is often the first step before other data operations.

DCT Peek - Preview File Contents

Preview the first N rows of any supported flat data file to understand its structure and content.

When to Use

Use this skill as the first step when working with unfamiliar data files:

Before running transformations or analysis
To verify file format and structure
To check data types and column names
To sample data for quick inspection

Installation

which dct || go build -o dct && chmod +x ./dct

Usage

dct peek <file> [flags]

Flags

-n, --lines <number>: Number of lines to display (default: 10)
-o, --output <file>: Output to file instead of stdout

Examples

Preview default 10 lines:

dct peek data.csv

Preview specific number of lines:

dct peek large.parquet -n 5

Save preview to CSV:

dct peek data.json -o preview.csv

Quick check if file is readable:

dct peek data.csv -n 1

Output Format

The output displays a formatted table showing:

Column names (header row)
Data types (second row)
Data rows (up to N rows)

Example:

╭──────┬────────┬───────╮
│  id  │  name  │ price │
│BIGINT│VARCHAR │DOUBLE │
│──────│────────│───────│
│  1   │  Alice │ 10.99 │
│  2   │   Bob  │ 24.50 │
╰──────┴────────┴────────╯

Best Practices

Always peek first when working with new data files
Use -n 1 to quickly verify a file is readable before processing
Use -o to save samples for documentation or testing
Check the data types row to understand the schema
Verify column names match expectations

Related Skills

After peeking, you may want to use:

dct-profile: For detailed data quality analysis
dct-infer: To generate SQL schema from the data
dct-diff: To compare with another file

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name	dct-peek
description	Use this skill when the user wants to preview or inspect the contents of a data file (CSV, JSON, NDJSON, Parquet). Triggers include "show me the data", "preview this file", "what's in this csv", "look at the first rows", "sample the data", or when needing to understand data structure before processing. This is often the first step before other data operations.

DCT Peek - Preview File Contents

Preview the first N rows of any supported flat data file to understand its structure and content.

When to Use

Use this skill as the first step when working with unfamiliar data files:

Before running transformations or analysis
To verify file format and structure
To check data types and column names
To sample data for quick inspection

Installation

which dct || go build -o dct && chmod +x ./dct

Usage

dct peek <file> [flags]

Flags

-n, --lines <number>: Number of lines to display (default: 10)
-o, --output <file>: Output to file instead of stdout

Examples

Preview default 10 lines:

dct peek data.csv

Preview specific number of lines:

dct peek large.parquet -n 5

Save preview to CSV:

dct peek data.json -o preview.csv

Quick check if file is readable:

dct peek data.csv -n 1

Output Format

The output displays a formatted table showing:

Column names (header row)
Data types (second row)
Data rows (up to N rows)

Example:

╭──────┬────────┬───────╮
│  id  │  name  │ price │
│BIGINT│VARCHAR │DOUBLE │
│──────│────────│───────│
│  1   │  Alice │ 10.99 │
│  2   │   Bob  │ 24.50 │
╰──────┴────────┴────────╯

Best Practices

Always peek first when working with new data files
Use -n 1 to quickly verify a file is readable before processing
Use -o to save samples for documentation or testing
Check the data types row to understand the schema
Verify column names match expectations

Related Skills

After peeking, you may want to use:

dct-profile: For detailed data quality analysis
dct-infer: To generate SQL schema from the data
dct-diff: To compare with another file