xan is a command line tool that can be used to process CSV files directly from the shell.
It has been written in Rust to be as fast as possible, use as little memory as possible, and can very easily handle large CSV files (Gigabytes). It leverages a novel SIMD CSV parser and is also able to parallelize some computations (through multithreading) to make some tasks complete as fast as your computer can allow.
It can easily preview, filter, slice, aggregate, sort, join CSV files, and exposes a large collection of composable commands that can be chained together to perform a wide variety of typical tasks.
xan also offers its own expression language so you can perform complex tasks that cannot be done by relying on the simplest commands. This minimalistic language has been tailored for CSV data and is way faster than evaluating typical dynamically-typed languages such as Python, Lua, JavaScript etc.
Note that this tool is originally a fork of BurntSushi's xsv, but has been nearly entirely rewritten at that point, to fit SciencesPo's médialab use-cases, rooted in web data collection and analysis geared towards social sciences (you might think CSV is outdated by now, but read our love letter to the format before judging too quickly).
xan therefore goes beyond typical data manipulation and expose utilities related to lexicometry, graph theory and even scraping.
Beyond CSV data, xan is able to process a large variety of CSV-adjacent data formats from many different disciplines such as web archival (.cdx) or bioinformatics (.vcf, .gtf, .sam, .bed etc.). xan is also able to convert to & from many data formats such as json, excel files, numpy arrays etc. using xan to and xan from. See this section for more detail.
Finally, xan can be used to display CSV files in the terminal, for easy exploration, and can even be used to draw basic data visualisations.
Publisher’s description
What is xan?
xan by médialab Sciences Po is open-source Windows software in the languages & sdks category. It is written in Rust.
Installation and requirements
The publisher provides Portable installers for 64-bit Windows. It runs without installation (portable).
Updates and version history
The current version is 0.61.0, released on September 11, 2026. The version history goes back to September 19, 2025: 11 releases, all linked to the official files.
Popularity and file types
The source code on GitHub (medialab/xan) has 4,540 stars. Similar programs include Go Programming Language, LLVM and Deno.
Project description on GitHub: “The CSV magician”
Pros / Cons
Pros
- Open source: the code can be inspected and built by anyone
- Portable: runs without installation
- Updated in the last two months
Cons
- No native ARM64 build
In short: xan is an open-source languages & sdk tool for 64-bit PCs.
Is xan safe to download?
- The file is served by github.com, the publisher’s own domain
- The download link uses HTTPS
- A SHA256 hash is published, so you can verify the file:
5F7BEF4DCFFBFB3A3A937AC180ED76CDF966CB13647251BEFFDDB84D01C1AE54· Open the VirusTotal report for this hash - The link has not been checked yet
- The source code is public
- ExeAtlas does not host, wrap or modify installers
Related guide: How to check a file’s SHA256 hash on Windows
Recent versions
All 11 versions ›| Version | Date | Size | Files |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.61.0Latest | September 11, 2026 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 0.60.0 | July 10, 2026 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 0.59.0 | June 17, 2026 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 0.58.0 | June 2, 2026 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 0.57.1 | April 15, 2026 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 0.57.0 | April 9, 2026 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 0.56.0 | February 20, 2026 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 0.55.0 | February 12, 2026 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
Install from the command line
Silent install ›winget install --id medialab.xan -escoop install extras/xanProgram files (.exe): xan.exe
Related guide: How to use winget: install and update apps
Also for other systems
brew install xanInformation
- Publisher
- médialab Sciences Po
- Category
- Languages & SDKs
- Licence
- Unlicense, MIT
- Price
- Free
- Source code
- github.com/medialab/xan
- Written in
- Rust
- Requires
- Windows 11 / 10
- Architecture
- 64-bit
- Installer
- Portable
- Version
- 0.61.0
- Released
- September 11, 2026
- Added to the catalogue
- November 16, 2025
- Versions listed
- 11
- GitHub stars
- 4,540
- GitHub forks
- 94
- Website
- github.com
- winget ID
- medialab.xan
- Scoop package
- extras/xan
Ratings and reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to rate it.
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Frequently asked questions
Is xan free?
Yes. xan is open-source software under the Unlicense, MIT licence.
Is xan safe to download?
The download comes from github.com, which belongs to the publisher; ExeAtlas does not host or change the file. Compare its SHA256 hash with the one shown here, or open the VirusTotal report for that hash.
How do I install xan with winget?
Open PowerShell or Windows Terminal and run the winget command shown on this page. winget downloads the official installer and checks its SHA256 hash before running it.
Does xan run on ARM (Windows on Arm)?
There is no ARM64 build; Windows 11 on Arm can run the 64-bit version through emulation.
Where can I download an older version of xan?
The versions page lists all 11 versions with links to their official installer files, back to September 19, 2025.
Can I use xan without administrator rights?
Yes, it is portable: unpack and run it.
What are alternatives to xan?
Go Programming Language, LLVM, Deno, CMake and Yarn. The alternatives page compares them.
