File formats

Filedge detects the format from the file extension (or the format: field in pipeline.yaml). Every read command — inspect, preview, validate, run — works the same way across formats.

Format	`format:` value	Extension	Install
CSV	`csv`	`.csv`	built-in
NDJSON	`ndjson`	`.ndjson`	built-in
Parquet	`parquet`	`.parquet`	`uv sync --extra parquet`
Excel	`excel`	`.xlsx`	`uv sync --extra excel`
Fixed-width	`fixed_width`	(any)	built-in

NDJSON is the canonical interchange format — companions such as filedge-fetch and filedge-materialize always materialize complete NDJSON Files.

Parquet

Install the optional extra, then point any read command at a .parquet file:

uv sync --extra parquet
filedge inspect events.parquet
filedge validate events.parquet --config pipeline.yaml

Excel

Install the excel extra. The first sheet is read by default; use --sheet <name-or-index> to choose another:

uv sync --extra excel
filedge inspect data.xlsx
filedge preview data.xlsx --sheet Orders

See the Inspect guide for the formula-cache and leading-zeros gotchas. Legacy .xls is not supported — re-save as .xlsx first.

Fixed-width

Fixed-width files carry no header or separator, so the column layout must be declared in pipeline.yaml. See the dedicated Fixed-width files guide.