hiq(1)

hiq(1) — query the himitsu(7) key store, bestie! 💅

okay so this is hiq(1) from the General Commands Manual, and honestly? it's giving "I just need to peek at my keys real quick" energy. no cap.

NAME (yes we're doing this) ✨

hiq — query the himitsu(7) key store. that's it. that's the vibe. 💖

SYNOPSIS 🎀

hiq [-h1adelLQRs] [-c pair] [-F field] query...

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DESCRIPTION 🦋

hiq will query the Himitsu key store for keys matching the given query. for the full tea on the query format, go check himitsu(7) under QUERY SYNTAX. matching keys get printed to standard output in the format described by himitsu(7) under KEY FORMAT. slay.

and here's the iconic part: you do not need to use redundant shell quoting to escape keys or values with special characters. the command line arguments are interpreted as if they've already been quoted properly. so you can just type it like you mean it, no extra backslash drama. periodt.

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OPTIONS 💅

• -h — print help text. the "help me help you" button. 🫶
• -1 — causes hiq to exit with a non-zero status code if greater than one key matched the given query. so if you wanted exactly one match and you got more? it's gonna be loud about it. 😭
• -a — adds a new key to the key store. the query must be fully specified, such that each key has a value and there are no optional keys. if no command line arguments are provided, new keys are read from the standard input. and using the standard input is recommended when adding keys from an interactive shell, to prevent secret values from being stored in your shell history. yes bestie, protect your secrets from your own ~/.bash_history. 🙈
• -c pair — change a key/value pair of all matched entries. if the key has no value the pair will be removed from the entries. if it has a value it will be added or changed if exists. lowkey surgical. 🔥
• -d — request decryption of secret keys. unlock the tea. 🔓
• -e — edit all matched entries by providing changes via stdin. the changes must be provided as a query, where all keys without values will be removed from the entries and keys with values will change the values or of the matching keys or will add them if they don't exist. (yes the grammar is a little feral but the meaning is: no value = yeet, value = set/update/add.) ✨
• -F field — select a specific field to print. by default, the full key is printed in the format described by KEY FORMAT in himitsu(7). so if you only want one field, you can have just that one field. main character energy. 👑
• -l — soft locks the keyring by removing the secret key from memory. keeps non-private data of entries in memory. a gentle lock. like "not right now" but not "never." 🌸
• -L — hard locks the keyring by removing the secret key and all entries from memory. full yeet. 💀
• -Q — terminate the Himitsu daemon. only works if himitsud(1) was started with the -D flag. so don't just expect it to work, check the flags first. ⚠️
• -R — remove all keys from the key store matching the query. the user is prompted to consent before this operation is committed. so it's not gonna just delete everything without asking. thank god. 😅
• -s — enable strict query mode. entries must not have more keys than specified by the query in order to be matched. strict like your favorite teacher. 🎀

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EXAMPLES 🌈

to query for all keys matching proto=web:

$ hiq proto=web

to query for a key matching proto=web and host=example.org with a required username and password and an optional comment:

$ hiq proto=web host=example.org username password! comment?

to query for a key and decrypt it, returning the password field alone:

$ hiq -dFpassword proto=web host=example.org

to add a new key to the store:

$ hiq -a
proto=web host=example.org user=jdoe password!=hunter2

to delete all keys matching host=example.org:

$ hiq -R host=example.org

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SEE ALSO 👀

himitsu(7), himitsu-ipc(5)

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AUTHORS ✨

maintained by Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com>, who is assisted by other contributors. up-to-date source code can be found at https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/himitsu, and bugs/patches can be submitted by email to ~sircmpwn/himitsu-devel@lists.sr.ht. iconic. 🫶

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and that's the whole page, bestie! this was hiq(1) from the General Commands Manual, dated 2026-02-20. now go query those keys like the icon you are. 💖✨