The Glazed help system supports a simple Domain Specific Language (DSL) for querying help sections. This page is a quick-start reference for authors and users who just need the essentials. For the full language reference (including operator precedence tables, metadata fields, and troubleshooting tips) run glaze help user-query-dsl.
| Task | Syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Filter by section type | type:<value> or shortcut word | type:example, tutorials |
| Filter by metadata | toplevel:true, default:false, template:true | toplevel:true |
| Match commands/flags | command:<name>, flag:--<flag> | command:json, flag:--output |
| Search topics/tags | topic:<tag> | topic:database |
| Text search | "quoted phrase" | "SQLite database" |
| Combine expressions | AND, OR, NOT, parentheses | examples AND topic:database, (tutorials OR examples) AND NOT topic:advanced |
Shortcuts (examples, tutorials, topics, applications, toplevel, defaults) are just readable aliases for the equivalent field:value queries.
type:tutorial
topic:templates
command:json
flag:--output
slug:help-system
Mix multiple filters with boolean operators to narrow results:
type:example AND topic:database
(examples OR tutorials) AND command:json
flag:--output AND NOT topic:advanced
toplevel:true # Only sections shown on the root help screen
default:true # Sections displayed without --all
template:true # Template sections
"SQLite database"
"error handling" AND tutorials
performance OR "throughput tuning"
# Show beginner-friendly getting-started docs
glaze help --query "defaults AND tutorials"
# Find every example that mentions SQLite or SQL performance tips
glaze help --query "(examples) AND (\"SQLite\" OR topic:sql) AND NOT topic:advanced"
# List all sections that talk about the json command
glaze help --query "command:json"
# Search for CLI flags across docs
glaze help --query 'flag:--output AND "table"'
glaze help --query "examples AND topic:database"
glaze help --query "(tutorials OR examples) AND toplevel:true"
glaze help --query 'flag:--output AND "JSON"' --short
Combine --query with the standard help flags:
--short for compact summaries--all to list every matching section--print-query / --print-sql (on the help command itself) when debugging complex expressionsglaze help user-query-dsl.glaze help using-the-query-api.