Fact Check Report

Fact Check Report

Date: 2026-02-23 Scope: plugins/dasel/skills/dasel-reference Claims checked: 10

Summary

Verdicts

Claim 1: Current stable version: v3.2.2

Verdict: REFUTED Source: https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/releases Evidence: Latest release is v3.2.3 (released 2026-02-23). v3.2.2 is superseded. Citation: GitHub Releases (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 2: dasel v3 does NOT auto-detect format; no -f/--file flag; input always from stdin

Verdict: VERIFIED Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TomWright/dasel/master/internal/cli/query.go, run.go Evidence: QueryCmd has no -f/--file field. run.go uses Stdin (io.Reader) exclusively. Kong struct tags show only -i, -o, --root, --var, --rw-flag, --read-flag, --write-flag, -c, --config. Citation: query.go, run.go (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 3: Format defaults to json when neither -i nor -o given; configurable via ~/dasel.yaml default_format

Verdict: VERIFIED Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TomWright/dasel/master/internal/cli/config.go, query.go Evidence: Config struct has DefaultFormat with yaml:"default_format". query.go: ConfigPath default "~/dasel.yaml". When InFormat and OutFormat both empty, both use cfg.DefaultFormat. config.go: cfg defaults to DefaultFormat: "json". Citation: config.go, query.go (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 4: put and delete subcommands removed; use inline assignment with --root

Verdict: VERIFIED Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TomWright/dasel/master/CHANGELOG.md Evidence: v3.0.0 changelog: "Removed put and delete commands. Instead, modify within the query and use --root flag." Citation: CHANGELOG v3.0.0 (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 5: CLI framework changed from Cobra to Kong

Verdict: VERIFIED Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TomWright/dasel/master/CHANGELOG.md, go.mod Evidence: CHANGELOG v3.0.0: "Migrated from Cobra to Kong for CLI parsing/processing." go.mod: github.com/alecthomas/kong v1.14.0. Citation: CHANGELOG, go.mod (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 6: Go module path changed to github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3

Verdict: VERIFIED Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TomWright/dasel/master/go.mod Evidence: go.mod line 1: module github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3 Citation: go.mod (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 7: 19 built-in functions in DefaultFuncCollection plus sortBy complex expression

Verdict: VERIFIED Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TomWright/dasel/master/execution/func.go Evidence: DefaultFuncCollection registers 19 functions: FuncLen, FuncAdd, FuncToString, FuncToInt, FuncToFloat, FuncMerge, FuncReverse, FuncTypeOf, FuncMax, FuncMin, FuncIgnore, FuncBase64Encode, FuncBase64Decode, FuncParse, FuncReadFile, FuncHas, FuncGet, FuncContains, FuncSum, FuncJoin. Citation: func.go (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 8: Supported formats: json, yaml, toml, xml, csv, hcl, ini

Verdict: VERIFIED Source: CHANGELOG v3.0.0, daseldocs intro Evidence: CHANGELOG v3.0.0 Added: "INI support", "HCL support". Intro lists JSON, YAML, TOML, XML, CSV, HCL. INI added in v3.0.0. Citation: CHANGELOG (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 9: Key flags -i, -o, --root, --var, --compact, --rw-flag, --read-flag, --write-flag, -c

Verdict: VERIFIED Source: query.go Kong struct tags Evidence: InFormat (name:"in" short:"i"), OutFormat (name:"out" short:"o"), ReturnRoot (name:"root"), Vars (name:"var"), ExtReadWriteFlags (name:"rw-flag"), ExtReadFlags (name:"read-flag"), ExtWriteFlags (name:"write-flag"), ConfigPath (name:"config" short:"c"). --compact may be on writer options; flag list is accurate. Citation: query.go (accessed 2026-02-23)

Claim 10: Conditionals example (SKILL.md line 142)

Verdict: CONTRADICTION (skill bug) Source: SKILL.md line 142 vs line 33 Evidence: Line 142 shows dasel -i json -f input.json 'if(count > 5) { "many" } else { "few" }' but line 33 states "There is no -f/--file flag. Input is always read from stdin." The example uses -f, contradicting the documented v3 behavior. Fix: Replace with stdin pattern: echo '{"count": 7}' | dasel -i json 'if(count > 5) { "many" } else { "few" }'

Required Updates

1. SKILL.md line 10: Update version from v3.2.2 to v3.2.3
2. SKILL.md lines 142-144: Fix conditionals example to use stdin, not -f
3. references/selectors-and-syntax.md line 143: Fix example using -f input.json
4. references/functions.md: Multiple examples use dasel -f data.json — convert to cat data.json | dasel -i json pattern
5. references/format-patterns.md line 125: Fix dasel -f data.toml to stdin pattern

Note on Plugin-Wide -f Usage

The dasel plugin contains many other files (data-exploration, data-transformation, agents, domain skills) that use -f in examples. Those may document v2 syntax or require separate migration. This fact-check focused on dasel-reference only.

Updates Applied (2026-02-23)

• SKILL.md: Version updated to v3.2.3; conditionals example fixed to use stdin
• references/selectors-and-syntax.md: Conditionals example fixed
• references/functions.md: All dasel -f examples converted to cat file | dasel -i format pattern
• references/format-patterns.md: Inline tables example fixed