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All apps/cheat

cheat

cheat allows you to create and view interactive cheatsheets on the command-line.

Runs as cheat|macOS, Linux, Windows|github.com

Open form in Otty otty.toml

Sync rules

What travels, what stays, what never leaves

cheat in your home directory Every rule on this page, by file

cheatpaths.*.path

Each machine keeps its own copy of these.

cheatpaths.*.path

Each machine keeps its own copy of these.

Only what the catalog names. A directory that syncs brings everything inside it except what is listed as excluded here.

apps/cheat/otty.tomlThe file this page is generated from

id = "cheat"

name = "cheat"

homepage = "https://github.com/cheat/cheat"

description = "cheat allows you to create and view interactive cheatsheets on the command-line."

executables = ["cheat"]

[dotfiles]

# internal/config/paths.go, Paths(): $CHEAT_CONFIG_PATH wins outright; failing

# that the search order on aix/android/darwin/dragonfly/freebsd/illumos/ios/

# linux/netbsd/openbsd/plan9/solaris is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cheat/conf.yml,

# $HOME/.config/cheat/conf.yml, $HOME/.cheat/conf.yml, /etc/cheat/conf.yml, and

# on windows it is %APPDATA%\cheat\conf.yml then %PROGRAMDATA%\cheat\conf.yml.

# INSTALLING.md says the same in prose: "By default, the config file is assumed

# to exist on an XDG-compliant configuration path like ~/.config/cheat/conf.yml".

# The XDG lookup is a real $XDG_CONFIG_HOME read, so it is [configHome]; macOS

# takes the same dotted path, not ~/Library. %APPDATA% is a location of its own

# and keeps its literal spelling. The system-wide /etc and %PROGRAMDATA% copies

# are not user-level and are not listed.

paths = [

"[configHome]/cheat/conf.yml",

"~/.cheat/conf.yml",

"%APPDATA%/cheat/conf.yml",

]

exclude = []

# cheat reads and writes plain-text cheatsheets; it authenticates against

# nothing.

secret = []

# Read once at startup on every invocation.

side_effect = false

# `cheatpaths` is a list of directories on this disk — the community checkout

# and the personal sheets both carry an absolute path, and the same config on

# another machine points at a home directory that does not exist there. Every

# spelling of the file, or the lines only stay behind on the platform that

# happens to be listed first. `editor`, `colorize`, `style` and `formatter` are

# deliberately absent: those are the preferences a user wants carried. The

# cheatpaths are where the user's own sheets live, so they are kept for a

# rebuild of this machine rather than discarded: backup.

[[dotfiles.machine_lines]]

file = ["[configHome]/cheat/conf.yml", "~/.cheat/conf.yml", "%APPDATA%/cheat/conf.yml"]

match = { key_path = ["cheatpaths.*.path"] }

scope = "backup"

[commands]

format = 1

label = "View or search cheatsheets"

description = "View a cheatsheet, list sheets or search their contents. Editing, removing, updating and config/completion modes are left out."

quality = "ai-draft"

parser = { end_of_options = "--", interleave = "permute", long_equals = true, short_attached = true, short_bundles = true }

[[commands.source]]

id = "man"

kind = "manual"

url = "https://github.com/cheat/cheat/blob/master/doc/cheat.1.md"

revision = "2026-10-27"

evidence = """

cheat [options] [CHEATSHEET]

-a, --all

-b, --brief

-c, --colorize

-l, --list

-p, --path=PATH

-r, --regex

-s, --search=PHRASE

-t, --tag=TAG

"""

[[commands.field]]

id = "sheet"

label = "Cheatsheet"

type = "string"

position = 0

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "search"

label = "Search phrase"

type = "string"

option = ["--search", "-s"]

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "regex"

label = "Phrase is a regular expression"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--regex", "-r"]

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "list"

label = "List cheatsheets"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--list", "-l"]

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "brief"

label = "Brief listing"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--brief", "-b"]

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "all"

label = "Search all cheatpaths"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--all", "-a"]

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "colorize"

label = "Colorize output"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--colorize", "-c"]

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "path_filter"

label = "Cheatpath"

type = "string"

option = ["--path", "-p"]

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "tag"

label = "Tag"

type = "string"

option = ["--tag", "-t"]

sources = ["man"]

[[commands.task]]

id = "view"

label = "View a cheatsheet"

fields = ["sheet"]

required = ["sheet"]

[[commands.task]]

id = "search_all"

label = "Search all sheets"

fields = ["search", "regex", "colorize", "all"]

required = ["search"]

set = { colorize = [true] }

[[commands.task]]

id = "list_sheets"

label = "List sheets"

fields = ["list", "brief", "tag", "path_filter"]

required = ["list"]

set = { list = [true] }

[[commands.group]]

id = "basic"

label = "Basic"

fields = ["sheet", "search", "regex", "list", "brief"]

[[commands.group]]

id = "advanced"

label = "Advanced"

fields = ["all", "colorize", "path_filter", "tag"]

Use it with your dotfile manager

Same data, in the shape your tool already reads

Opens Otty and adds this tool to what it syncs

Opens otty://sync/add/cheat. Otty ships with this catalog, so the link only has to name the tool — nothing is downloaded.

Every one of these is generated from the same rules as this page. None of them splits cheatpaths.*.path and cheatpaths.*.path for you — that part is Otty’s own sync, or a template you write by hand.