Command signature

nu commands contains a signature section, take str distance as example, the signature is like this:

Signatures(Cell paths are supported):
  <string> | str distance <string> -> <int>

The first type name before | describes the type of input pipeline. The command name is followed by the required argument type(s) for the command. The output type is int and given after ->.

(Cell paths are supported) indicates that you can provide cell paths for str distance to apply an operation at the given cell path(s) in a nested structure or table, and replace the column or field with the result, like: ls | str distance 'nushell' 'name'

Here is another one example, str join:

Signatures:
  list<string> | str join <string?> -> <string>

It says that str join command expect input pipeline is a list of string, and take optional string type argument, finally the output type is string.

Some commands don't accept or require data through the input pipeline, thus the input type will be <nothing>. The same is true for the output type if the command returns null (e.g. rm).