Nushell is a modern, cross-platform shell that treats data as structured (tables, records) rather than raw text streams. It features a pipeline-based architecture where commands process structured data and can be composed using the pipe operator. The shell is built as a modular Rust workspace with distinct crates for the core engine, parsing, command implementation, plugin system, and CLI interface. Nushell emphasizes extensibility through a plugin system where plugins run as separate processes communicating via JSON-RPC, providing isolation and language flexibility. Key features include built-in support for various data formats (JSON, CSV, Excel, Parquet), SQL-like querying capabilities, interactive exploration, and cross-platform compatibility with Windows, macOS, and Linux.