diff --git a/acceptance_tests/basic.sh b/acceptance_tests/basic.sh
index d4d97141..1e19d0b7 100755
--- a/acceptance_tests/basic.sh
+++ b/acceptance_tests/basic.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@ testBasicEvalRoundTrip() {
   assertEquals 123 "$X"
 }
 
+testBasicEvalRoundTripNoEval() {
+  ./yq -n ".a = 123" > test.yml
+  X=$(./yq '.a' test.yml)
+  assertEquals 123 "$X"
+}
+
 testBasicStdInWithOneArg() {
   ./yq e -n ".a = 123" > test.yml
   X=$(cat test.yml | ./yq e ".a")
@@ -17,6 +23,9 @@ testBasicStdInWithOneArg() {
 
   X=$(cat test.yml | ./yq ea ".a")
   assertEquals 123 "$X"
+
+  X=$(cat test.yml | ./yq ".a")
+  assertEquals 123 "$X"
 }
 
 testBasicUpdateInPlaceSequence() {
@@ -28,6 +37,15 @@ EOL
   assertEquals "10" "$X"
 }
 
+testBasicUpdateInPlaceSequenceNoEval() {
+  cat >test.yml <<EOL
+a: 0
+EOL
+  ./yq -i ".a = 10" test.yml
+  X=$(./yq '.a' test.yml)
+  assertEquals "10" "$X"
+}
+
 testBasicUpdateInPlaceSequenceEvalAll() {
   cat >test.yml <<EOL
 a: 0
@@ -49,6 +67,12 @@ testBasicExitStatus() {
   assertEquals 1 "$?"
 }
 
+testBasicExitStatusNoEval() {
+  echo "a: cat" > test.yml
+  X=$(./yq -e '.z' test.yml 2&>/dev/null)
+  assertEquals 1 "$?"
+}
+
 testBasicExtractFieldWithSeperator() {
     cat >test.yml <<EOL
 ---
diff --git a/cmd/evalute_sequence_command.go b/cmd/evalute_sequence_command.go
index ee9478e8..c4cbc002 100644
--- a/cmd/evalute_sequence_command.go
+++ b/cmd/evalute_sequence_command.go
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ func createEvaluateSequenceCommand() *cobra.Command {
 	var cmdEvalSequence = &cobra.Command{
 		Use:     "eval [expression] [yaml_file1]...",
 		Aliases: []string{"e"},
-		Short:   "Apply the expression to each document in each yaml file in sequence",
+		Short:   "(default) Apply the expression to each document in each yaml file in sequence",
 		Example: `
 # Reads field under the given path for each file
 yq e '.a.b' f1.yml f2.yml 
diff --git a/cmd/root.go b/cmd/root.go
index ce2889d0..ac13c8fc 100644
--- a/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmd/root.go
@@ -14,6 +14,12 @@ func New() *cobra.Command {
 		Short: "yq is a lightweight and portable command-line YAML processor.",
 		Long: `yq is a portable command-line YAML processor (https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/) 
 See https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/ for detailed documentation and examples.`,
+		Example: `
+# yq defaults to 'eval' command if no command is specified. See "yq eval --help" for more examples.
+cat myfile.yml | yq '.stuff' # outputs the data at the "stuff" node from "myfile.yml"
+
+yq -i '.stuff = "foo"' myfile.yml # update myfile.yml inplace
+`,
 
 		RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 			if version {
diff --git a/yq.go b/yq.go
index f95d4dea..21e71284 100644
--- a/yq.go
+++ b/yq.go
@@ -8,6 +8,17 @@ import (
 
 func main() {
 	cmd := command.New()
+
+	args := os.Args[1:]
+
+	_, _, err := cmd.Find(args)
+	if err != nil {
+		// default command when nothing matches...
+		newArgs := []string{"eval"}
+		cmd.SetArgs(append(newArgs, os.Args[1:]...))
+
+	}
+
 	if err := cmd.Execute(); err != nil {
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}