# Preview

The Quilt catalog renders previews of the following file types. Whenever possible, Quilt streams the smallest possible subset of the data needed to generate the preview.

Previews are supported for uncompressed files as well as for gzip archives (.gz).

### Plain text previews

Quilt can display any plaintext file format, including the following.

* Most programming languages, with syntax highlighting (.cpp, .json, .js, .py, .sh, .sql, etc.)
* Biological file formats (.bed, .cef, .gff, .fasta, .fastq, .sam, .pdbqt, .vcf, etc.)
* Text files (.csv, .md, .readme, .tsv, .txt, etc.)

### Binary and special file format previews

* Excel (.xls, .xlsx)
* FCS Flow Cytometry files (.fcs)
* Images (.gif, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, etc.)
* Media (.mp4, .webm, .flac, .m2t, .mp3, .mp4, .ogg, .ts, .tsa, .tsv, .wav)
* .ipynb (Jupyter and Voila dashboards)
* .parquet


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.quilt.bio/version-4.1.x/catalog/preview.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.