diff --git a/cmd/lima-guestagent/main_linux.go b/cmd/lima-guestagent/main_linux.go
index 875880a60c1..1e203c4ce0b 100644
--- a/cmd/lima-guestagent/main_linux.go
+++ b/cmd/lima-guestagent/main_linux.go
@@ -9,11 +9,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 
+	"github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2/cmd/yq"
 	"github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2/pkg/debugutil"
 	"github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2/pkg/version"
 )
 
 func main() {
+	yq.MaybeRunYQ()
 	if err := newApp().Execute(); err != nil {
 		logrus.Fatal(err)
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/limactl/main.go b/cmd/limactl/main.go
index 8b5c5a51c22..05074f0f6b6 100644
--- a/cmd/limactl/main.go
+++ b/cmd/limactl/main.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 
+	"github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2/cmd/yq"
 	"github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2/pkg/debugutil"
 	"github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2/pkg/driver/external/server"
 	"github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2/pkg/fsutil"
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@ const (
 )
 
 func main() {
+	yq.MaybeRunYQ()
 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
 		extras, hasExtra := os.LookupEnv("_LIMA_WINDOWS_EXTRA_PATH")
 		if hasExtra && strings.TrimSpace(extras) != "" {
diff --git a/cmd/yq/yq.go b/cmd/yq/yq.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0203f16dc5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/yq/yq.go
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright The Lima Authors
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2017 Mike Farah
+
+// This file has been adapted from https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/blob/v4.47.1/yq.go
+
+package yq
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+
+	command "github.com/mikefarah/yq/v4/cmd"
+)
+
+func main() {
+	cmd := command.New()
+	args := os.Args[1:]
+	_, _, err := cmd.Find(args)
+	if err != nil && args[0] != "__complete" {
+		// default command when nothing matches...
+		newArgs := []string{"eval"}
+		cmd.SetArgs(append(newArgs, os.Args[1:]...))
+	}
+	code := 0
+	if err := cmd.Execute(); err != nil {
+		code = 1
+	}
+	os.Exit(code)
+}
+
+// MaybeRunYQ runs as `yq` if the program name or first argument is `yq`.
+// Only returns to caller if os.Args doesn't contain a `yq` command.
+func MaybeRunYQ() {
+	progName := filepath.Base(os.Args[0])
+	// remove all extensions, so we match "yq.lima.exe"
+	progName, _, _ = strings.Cut(progName, ".")
+	if progName == "yq" {
+		main()
+	}
+	if len(os.Args) > 1 && os.Args[1] == "yq" {
+		os.Args = os.Args[1:]
+		main()
+	}
+}