Overview of commands
To see an overview of hledger's commands, run hledger commands or just hledger.
If you have hledger and just the hledger-ui and hledger-web addons installed,
it will look something like this:
$ hledger
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/_//_/_/\__/\_,_/\_, /\__/_/
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hledger 1.43.2-gedbf4d4f3-20250613, mac-aarch64
Usage: hledger [COMMAND] [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
Commands:
HELP (docs, demos..)
commands show the commands list (default)
demo [DEMO] show brief demos in the terminal
help [-i|-m|-p] [TOPIC] show the hledger manual with info/man/pager
--tldr [COMMAND] show command examples [for command] with tldr
--help/-h [COMMAND] show command line help [for command]
--info [COMMAND] show the hledger manual [for command] with info
--man [COMMAND] show the hledger manual [for command] with man
more help: https://hledger.org
USER INTERFACES (alternate UIs)
repl run commands from an interactive prompt
run run command scripts from files or arguments
ui run a terminal UI (hledger-ui)
web run a web UI (hledger-web)
ENTERING DATA (add or edit transactions)
add add transactions using interactive prompts
import add new transactions from other files, eg CSV files
BASIC REPORTS (simple lists)
accounts show account names
codes show transaction codes
commodities show commodity/currency symbols
descriptions show transaction descriptions
files show data files in use
notes show note part of transaction descriptions
payees show payee part of transaction descriptions
prices show historical market prices
stats show journal statistics
tags show tag names
STANDARD REPORTS (the most useful financial reports)
print show full transaction entries, or export journal data
aregister (areg) show transactions & running balance in one account
register (reg) show postings & running total in one or more accounts
balancesheet (bs) show assets and liabilities
balancesheetequity (bse) show assets, liabilities and equity
cashflow (cf) show changes in liquid assets
incomestatement (is) show revenues and expenses
ADVANCED REPORTS (more versatile/advanced reports)
balance (bal) show balance changes, end balances, gains, budgets..
roi show return on investments
CHARTS (bar charts, line graphs..)
activity show posting counts as a bar chart
GENERATING DATA (generate or download journal entries; less common)
close generate transactions to zero/restore/assert balances
rewrite add postings to transactions, like print --auto
MAINTENANCE (error checking, data management..)
check run any of hledger's built-in correctness checks
diff compare an account's transactions in two journals
setup check and show the status of the hledger installation
test run some self tests
OTHER ADDONS (more hledger-* commands found in PATH):
A few of them are commands which change data. But most are reports. They fall into these broad types:
- list reports, which list items of a particular type (accounts, commodities, payees...)
- print-like reports, which show whole transactions as journal entries (print, close...)
- register reports, which show transactions or postings compactly with a running total (register, aregister...)
- balance reports, which show total balance changes or end balances for multiple accounts (balance, balancesheet, incomestatement...)
- other kinds of report (activity, roi...)
Next, we'll explore some reports.
(Part of hledger by example.)