> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands.md).

# Commands

- [Read](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/read.md): Returns matching nodes/values of a path expression for a given yaml document
- [Validate](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/validate.md): Validate a given yaml file
- [Compare](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/compare.md): Deeply compare two yaml documents
- [Write](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/write-update.md): Updates all the matching nodes of path expression in a yaml file to the supplied value.
- [Create](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/create.md)
- [Delete](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/delete.md): Deletes all the matching nodes for the path expression in the given yaml input
- [Merge](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/merge.md): Merge multiple yaml files into a one
- [Prefix](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/prefix.md): Prefixes a yaml document with the given path expression. The complete yaml content will be nested inside the new prefix path.
- [Shell Completion](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v3.x/commands/shell-completion.md): Generate a shell completion file for supported shells (bash/fish/zsh/powershell)