Again it is a convivence not a functional necessity, it would be nice if the KM tool file could be Exported and Imported as text. Makes editing easier. Selecting which tool file to use easier. Possibly an off line converted tool.km <> tool.txt.
A use argument:
Going from Ver 3 to Ver 4 we must change our drills from Taper to Drill. I have about 50 tools. One at a time is frustrating.
Thank you for listening, A whining user, Mitch
Hey, Mitch. When you use the tools export menu, it produces a .km file which is just a base64 encoded JSON string. You can parse it in node with a command like this:
let tools = JSON.parse(
Buffer.from( fs.readFileSync(filename).toString(), 'base64')
);
then you can modify the resulting object/array and re-encode and re-import it in the same tool dialog.
Also you could use base64 and jq at the command line. 
Thank you for pointing the way. Not yet a js programmer. My History is with C and a tiny tiny bit of python. I can proceed with the knowledge you provided. Found the .msi and started installing node.js. Much is being installed with it.
Must apologize for this pushback. You have made an indescribably great contribution to the CAD community. Here is goes.
Thought you should know, CADers are unlikely to know JS. Might not even know how to spell JS or node. They/ we would need a simple to use converter. I think of a DOS or Windows executable. Maybe a run in you browser converter page.
I am inclined to offer to produce such. I cannot. It would be a deep rabbit hole for me.
Thank you again, Mitch
mcdanlj:
Thank you for the alternate method. As a JS newbie, I typed jq in my windows DOS box. Got not found. I would need a large amount of study to get there. Thank you again for offering to assist.
Regards, Mitch
As it happens I am working (when time permits) on a python program to manage my tool library. If it reaches a usable state I will share it with the community.
it would be relatively easy to convert to/from CSV if someone wanted to edit tools in a spreadsheet.
It has been frustrating. I expect you do not know how ignorant of JS and its tools we are.
Took about 1/2hr to get to this.
C:\Users\mitch\Downloads>node
Welcome to Node.js v24.11.1.
Type “.help” for more information.
JSON.parse(Buffer.from( fs.readFileSync(“tools1.km”).toString(), ‘base64’));
{
version: ‘4.4.0’,
tools: [
{
id: 1694712819501,
number: 22,
name: ‘drill m300’,
type: ‘tapermill’,
shaft_diam: 3,
shaft_len: 12,
flute_diam: 3,
flute_len: 0.2028,
taper_tip: 0,
metric: true,
order: 0
},
…
CSV would be great. What commands get me to and from CVS.
Thank you for helping, Mitch
oops. CVS I know how to get to. CSV not so much.
CSV are comma separated lists which are easy to import / export in any spreadsheet program
@stewart I made a PR to add CSV import and export. it handles CSV validation, and escaping of characters.
Thank you so very much. When might it be live on the Kiri:Moto (grid.space/kiri/) page? I am also a github neophyte. Looking at github I see the request for inclusion in version 4.5. Also see the code present in grid-apps/web/kiri/index.html and others. Hoped I could use your CSV option. before a next release. How might I do that?
Thank you, Mitch
Happy to make your experience a bit better. I know that there’s a dev server at https://dev.grid.space but as far as I know, only @stewart can push to that. the only other option I know is for you to run it locally with nodejs/bun. you can find instructions to do so here. The only diffference is that you’ll have to run git switch tool-csv to switch into the branch with updated code.
