v3.5

v3.5 is mostly a fix-and-polish release after the big v3.4. We burned down the open issues backlog, and out of that came a rebuilt PostgreSQL loader, a new native DuckDB loader, and three security fixes.

Security fixes

Nine people reported three security issues in VisiData (eight of them found the same zip slip):

• pandas: .pickle files are no longer loaded unless the new pandas_allow_pickle option is set (default off). Unpickling runs arbitrary code from the file, so opening an untrusted .pickle could execute it. CVE pending, reported by @Santoshkumarpuppala.
• unzip_http: refuse zip members whose path resolves outside the extraction directory (Zip Slip). CVE-2026-41958, reported by @MaxFreedomPollard, and independently by @robsherw of Cisco Talos and six others. Also fixed in unzip-http 0.8.
• eml: gx refuses attachment filenames that resolve outside the extraction directory (path traversal). CVE-2026-42532, reported by @robsherw of Cisco Talos.

You should upgrade if you open files from sources you don't trust.

Data changes

• Dict and list cells now save as JSON by default in text formats. (#2944)
• On the Describe sheet, all null forms count as one distinct value. (#3223)

Interface changes

• Join type concat matches columns by position and keeps the first sheet's column names (and type as before). Use append to match by name. (#3208)
• Macros record literal {braces} safely (f-strings and regexes no longer turn into parameters), and {{ }} escapes braces in parameterized macros. (#2785)
• Command line args are now added in order @midichef (#3225)
• Options: reading an undefined option warns and returns None, instead of raising.

New commands

• set-envvar to record environment changes for replay (for e.g. $LC_ALL reproducibility). (#3195)
• addcol-incr-key, like addcol-incr but increment restarts at each change in key columns
• select-col-duplicates to select duplicate cells in one column @midichef
• resize-col-max-all and resize-cols-max-all to resize columns looking at all rows (#2780)
• syscopy-sql (#2393)
• undo-redo-input (zU) undoes the last change and reruns it with its input prefilled, for e.g. fixing a typo in a long expression. (#3031)
• llm-query-sheet and llm-query-selected send rows as one query to an Anthropic LLM; stream replies into the sheet (#2947)

Highlighted features

• PostgreSQL loader overhaul: open a table directly with postgres://host/dbname/tablename, run exec-sql/edit-sql, and browse large tables that load lazily and stream rows. Connection details come from libpq (via $PGUSER, $PGHOST, ~/.pgpass, etc). Tables are readonly for now; write support is deferred to a later release. (#282 #586 #727 #2989)
• Native DuckDB loader for .duckdb files, including saver. (#3035 #3237)
• Decimal type: type-decimal parses currency and (1,234.50) accounting negatives and keeps the source precision. Unbound by default; bind it to $ to try it. (#2396)
• Command-server client: include the vdx script to interact with a live vd command-server (LLMs can drive vd now too!)
• .vds format: several improvements to VisiData's own save format

Spit and Polish

• Hidden columns keep their width across hide/unhide; sheet edge requires extra go-right before stepping into hidden columns. (#3214 #3215)
• Better wide-character support: fix terminal display issues with emoji and wide characters, and also better wrapping for same. (#2416 #2685)
• Archives: members decompress by suffix, nested tars open, and zEnter opens a member as a chosen filetype. (#3212)
• macOS: respect XDG_DATA_HOME/XDG_STATE_HOME on macOS

Thanks to @midichef for many bugfixes and reviews, and to @VXNCXNX, @danielwe, @chutzimir, @mpr1255, @horizonbymuneeb, @chiliec, @dacodas, @maxfain, and @khughitt for their contributions.

Please see the CHANGELOG for the full list of changes.