stilts-cli

name: stilts-cli description: STILTS (Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library Tool Set) - Command-line tools for processing astronomical tabular data category: research/astronomy version: 3.5-4 author: Mark Taylor (University of Bristol) source: https://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/stilts/ manual_local: references/sun256.html

STILTS CLI Skill

STILTS is a set of command-line tools for processing tabular data, designed primarily for astronomical data but applicable to any tabular data.

Installation

1. Download STILTS

STILTS is distributed as a single Java .jar file. You need to download it yourself:

# Download to ~/code/ (recommended)
mkdir -p ~/code
curl -L -o ~/code/stilts.jar "https://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/stilts/stilts.jar"

2. Verify Installation

java -jar ~/code/stilts.jar -version

Expected output:

This is STILTS, the STIL Tool Set

    STILTS version 3.5-4
    STIL version 4.3-4
    Starjava revision: 7ea205595 (2025-09-12)
    ...

3. Create Alias (Optional)

Add to your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc:

alias stilts='java -jar ~/code/stilts.jar'

Then reload: source ~/.zshrc

4. Alternative: Add to PATH

# Create wrapper script
mkdir -p ~/bin
cat > ~/bin/stilts << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
exec java -jar ~/code/stilts.jar "$@"
EOF
chmod +x ~/bin/stilts

# Add ~/bin to PATH in ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"

Quick Reference

Current Version

• STILTS Version: 3.5-4 (released 2025-09-12)
• STIL Version: 4.3-4
• Java Requirement: JVM 1.8+
• Download URL: https://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/stilts/stilts.jar

Supported Table Formats

Core Table Processing Commands

1. tcopy - Format Conversion

Purpose: Convert between table formats

stilts tcopy in.fits out.vot
stilts tcopy cat.csv cat.fits ofmt=fits-plus

Key Parameters:

• ifmt=<format>: Input format (auto-detected if not specified)
• ofmt=<format>: Output format
• in=<table>: Input file
• out=<out-table>: Output file

Common Output Formats:

• fits, fits-plus (with metadata)
• votable, votable-binary, votable-binary2
• csv, csv-noheader
• text, ascii

2. tmatch1 - Internal Crossmatch

Purpose: Find matches within a single table (find duplicates, groups)

# Find duplicates within 2 arcsec
stilts tmatch1 in=objects.fits \
    matcher=sky \
    values='RA DEC' \
    params=2 \
    action=wide2 \
    out=duplicates.fits

# Keep only unique objects
stilts tmatch1 in=objects.fits \
    matcher=sky \
    values='RA DEC' \
    params=1 \
    action=keep0 \
    out=unique.fits

Actions:

• identify: Add group ID column
• keep0: Keep only ungrouped rows
• keep1: Keep one from each group
• wide2: Output pairwise matches
• wideN: Output all group members

Common Matchers:

• sky: Spherical sky positions (params=radius_arcsec)
• skyerr: Sky with per-object errors
• 1d, 2d, 3d: Cartesian matching
• exact: Exact string match
• ellipse: Elliptical regions on sky

3. tmatch2 - Two-Table Crossmatch

Purpose: Crossmatch two tables using flexible criteria

# Basic sky crossmatch
stilts tmatch2 in1=catalog1.fits in2=catalog2.fits \
    matcher=sky \
    values1='ra dec' \
    values2='RAJ2000 DEJ2000' \
    params=2 \
    join=1and2 \
    out=matched.fits

# Find best match only, keep all from table 1
stilts tmatch2 in1=survey.fits in2=specz.fits \
    matcher=sky \
    values1='ra dec' \
    values2='RA DEC' \
    params=5 \
    join=all1 \
    find=best2 \
    suffix1=_survey \
    suffix2=_specz \
    out=crossmatched.fits

Join Types:

• 1and2: Inner join (matches in both)
• 1or2: Outer union (all from both)
• all1: Keep all from table 1
• all2: Keep all from table 2
• 1not2: Table 1 rows without matches
• 2not1: Table 2 rows without matches
• 1xor2: Symmetric difference

Find Modes:

• all: All matches within radius
• best: Best match for each row
• best1: Best match from table 1 perspective
• best2: Best match from table 2 perspective

4. tmatchn - N-Table Crossmatch

Purpose: Crossmatch multiple tables simultaneously

stilts tmatchn nin=3 \
    in1=optical.fits in2=ir.fits in3=xray.fits \
    matcher=sky \
    values1='ra dec' \
    values2='RA DEC' \
    values3='raj2000 dej2000' \
    params=3 \
    multimode=group \
    join1=match join2=match join3=match \
    out=multimatched.fits

Multi-Mode:

• pairs: Match all pairs of tables
• group: Find groups across all tables

Join Options per Table:

• default: Use multimode setting
• match: Row must match
• nomatch: Row must not match
• always: Include regardless

5. tskymatch2 - Optimized Sky Crossmatch

Purpose: Fast 2-table sky position crossmatch using HEALPix

stilts tskymatch2 in1=survey.fits in2=catalog.fits \
    ra1=RA dec1=DEC \
    ra2=raj2000 dec2=dej2000 \
    error=5 \
    join=1and2 \
    tuning=10 \
    out=matched.fits

Parameters:

• ra1, dec1: Column expressions for table 1
• ra2, dec2: Column expressions for table 2
• error=<arcsec>: Maximum separation
• tuning=<k>: HEALPix resolution (default: 10)

When to use: Large catalogs where tmatch2 matcher=sky is too slow. Uses HEALPix sky pixelization for efficient pre-filtering.

6. tjoin - Side-by-Side Join

Purpose: Join multiple tables horizontally by row index

stilts tjoin nin=2 \
    in1=ids.fits in2=magnitudes.fits \
    fixcols=dups \
    suffix1=_id suffix2=_mag \
    out=joined.fits

Note: Tables must have same number of rows. For keyed joins, use tmatch2 with join=1and2.

7. arrayjoin - Per-Row Table Join

Purpose: Add table-per-row data as array-valued columns

stilts arrayjoin in=galaxies.fits \
    atable='spectra/${ID}.fits' \
    afmt=fits \
    aparams='wavelength flux' \
    out=galaxy_spectra.fits

Use case: Each galaxy has a spectrum in a separate file; add spectrum arrays to the catalog.

8. tcat - Concatenate Tables

Purpose: Stack similar tables vertically (same columns)

stilts tcat in="obs1.fits obs2.fits obs3.fits" \
    seqcol=OBSID \
    out=stacked.fits

Key Parameters:

• seqcol=<name>: Add column with sequence number
• loccol=<name>: Add column with source file path
• uloccol=<name>: Add column with unique file identifier
• lazy=true: Don't check column compatibility upfront

9. tcatn - Concatenate N Tables

Purpose: Stack multiple tables with explicit enumeration

stilts tcatn nin=3 \
    in1=part1.fits in2=part2.fits in3=part3.fits \
    seqcol=CHUNK \
    out=combined.fits

When to use: When you need more control over inputs than tcat provides.

Virtual Observatory Commands

10. cone - Cone Search Query

Purpose: Execute a single cone search query

stilts cone \
    serviceurl='http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/I/355/gaiadr3?' \
    lon=150.0 lat=2.0 \
    radius=0.1 \
    out=local_gaia.fits

Service Types:

• cone: Simple Cone Search
• sia: Simple Image Access
• ssa: Simple Spectral Access

11. tapquery - TAP Server Query

Purpose: Query Table Access Protocol servers with ADQL

# Simple query
stilts tapquery \
    tapurl='http://TAPVizieR.u-strasbg.fr/TAPVizieR/tap' \
    adql='SELECT * FROM "I/355/gaiadr3" WHERE CONTAINS(POINT(150, 2), CIRCLE(ra, dec, 0.1))=1' \
    sync=true \
    maxrec=10000 \
    out=gaia_cone.fits

# Upload and crossmatch
stilts tapquery \
    tapurl='http://TAPVizieR.u-strasbg.fr/TAPVizieR/tap' \
    upload1=mytable.fits \
    upname1=mytable \
    adql='SELECT t.*, g.* FROM mytable AS t JOIN "I/355/gaiadr3" AS g ON 1=CONTAINS(POINT(t.ra, t.dec), CIRCLE(g.ra, g.dec, 0.001))' \
    out=crossmatched.fits

Execution Modes:

• sync=true: Synchronous (fast, small results)
• sync=false: Asynchronous (large results, long queries)

12. cdsskymatch - CDS Crossmatch

Purpose: Crossmatch against VizieR/SIMBAD tables

stilts cdsskymatch in=survey.fits \
    ra=RA dec=DEC \
    radius=3 \
    cdstable='I/355/gaiadr3' \
    find=best \
    maxrec=1000000 \
    out=survey_gaia.fits

Find Modes:

• all: All matches within radius
• best: Best match only
• best-remote: Best match per remote object
• each: One match per input row

CDS Tables (VizieR):

• I/355/gaiadr3: Gaia DR3
• I/350/gaiaedr3: Gaia EDR3
• V/147/sdss12: SDSS DR12
• II/328/allwise: AllWISE

13. coneskymatch - Generic Cone Crossmatch

Purpose: Crossmatch table against remote cone service

stilts coneskymatch in=sources.fits \
    ra=RA dec=DEC \
    sr=0.1 \
    serviceurl='http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/I/355/gaiadr3?' \
    find=best \
    suffix0=_input suffix1=_gaia \
    out=matched.fits

vs cdsskymatch: More generic - works with any Cone Search service, not just CDS.

Common Workflows

Convert FITS to VOTable with Binary Encoding

stilts tcopy in.fits out.vot ofmt=votable-binary2

Crossmatch Two Catalogs on Sky Position

stilts tmatch2 in1=sdss.fits in2=wise.fits \
    matcher=sky \
    values1='ra dec' \
    values2='ra dec' \
    params=2 \
    join=1and2 \
    find=best \
    suffix1=_sdss suffix2=_wise \
    out=sdss_wise.fits

Remove Duplicate Sources from Catalog

stilts tmatch1 in=catalog.fits \
    matcher=sky \
    values='ra dec' \
    params=1 \
    action=keep0 \
    out=unique.fits

Stack Multiple Observation Files

stilts tcat "obs_*.fits" seqcol=OBSID loccol=FILE out=all_obs.fits

Query Gaia DR3 Around Positions

stilts cdsskymatch in=targets.fits \
    ra=RA dec=DEC radius=5 \
    cdstable='I/355/gaiadr3' \
    find=best \
    out=targets_gaia.fits

Expression Syntax

Column References

# Simple column name
stilts tpipe in=cat.fits cmd='select magnitude < 20'

# Expression with units
stilts tpipe in=cat.fits cmd='addcol mag_ab mag_vega + 0.1'

# Array access
stilts tpipe in=cat.fits cmd='select MAG[0] < 20'

Common Functions

• NULL: Null value
• NaN: Not-a-number
• PI, DEGREE: Constants
• abs(x), sqrt(x), log(x), log10(x), exp(x)
• sin(x), cos(x), tan(x) (radians)
• degrees(x), radians(x)
• skyDistance(ra1, dec1, ra2, dec2): Arcsec separation

Table Filters (tpipe)

# Select rows
stilts tpipe in=cat.fits cmd='select mag < 20 && flag == 0'

# Add column
stilts tpipe in=cat.fits cmd='addcol log_flux log10(flux)'

# Delete column
stilts tpipe in=cat.fits cmd='delcol DETECTION_FLAG'

# Sort
stilts tpipe in=cat.fits cmd='sort mag'

# Head/tail
stilts tpipe in=cat.fits cmd='head 100'

Advanced Features

Parallel Processing

stilts tmatch2 ... runner=parallel4  # Use 4 threads
stilts tmatch2 ... runner=parallel   # Use all CPUs

Memory vs Disk

# Force disk-based processing for large tables
stilts -disk tmatch2 ...

# Force in-memory (default)
stilts -memory tmatch2 ...

Progress Reporting

stilts tmatch2 ... progress=time    # Show time estimates
stilts tmatch2 ... progress=log     # Log progress

Tips & Pitfalls

1. Column names with spaces: Use $'column name' syntax
2. Units in expressions: Convert to consistent units before calculations
3. Large tables: Use tskymatch2 instead of tmatch2 matcher=sky for speed
4. Output formatting: Use fits-plus to preserve metadata
5. Missing values: Use NULL in expressions, check with isNull(col)

Documentation References

• Local HTML Manual: references/sun256.html (2.6 MB, complete reference)
• Command Help: java -jar ~/code/stilts.jar <command> -help
• Parameter Help: java -jar ~/code/stilts.jar <command> -help <param>
• Online: https://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/stilts/

Version History

To update:

# Backup current
cp ~/code/stilts.jar ~/code/stilts-$(date +%Y%m%d).jar.bak

# Download new
curl -L -o ~/code/stilts.jar "https://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/stilts/stilts.jar"

# Verify
java -jar ~/code/stilts.jar -version