Shoto lightsabers, alternatively known as lightdaggers, were a type of lightsaber that had blades that were noticeably shorter than standard ones. These were often used by individuals of smaller stature, such as Yoda, Yaddle, or Even Piell, for whom a full-sized lightsaber was impractical. They were also used as secondary weapons by duelists who practiced twin-bladed combat techniques like Jar'Kai, such as Ahsoka Tano, the Tenth Brother, and Cal Kestis.
Due to his small size, the ancient Jedi Grand Master Yoda constructed his lightsaber as a shoto. Another member of Yoda's species, Master Yaddle, also possessed a shoto. Both Yoda and Yaddle used their lightsabers throughout the High Republic Era and into the later years of the Republic Era.
In 132 BBY during the High Republic Era, the Sith known as "the Stranger" wielded a lightsaber that could be split into a standard lightsaber and a lightdagger. During a battle with Jedi on Khofar, The Stranger used his lightdagger to kill the Padawan Jecki Lon after trapping her saber on his primary blade.
Even Piell, a Lannik Jedi Master who was only slightly taller than Yoda, owned a shoto. D'urban Wen-Hurd, a Tholothian Jedi Knight, wielded two shotos with blue and green blades, employing a distinctive lightsaber combat style that incorporated dual-wielding, acrobatic movements, and daggerlike thrusts.
Sometime before the Mission to Mortis, the Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano began practicing Jar'Kai and constructed a shoto lightsaber for this purpose. This weapon was essentially a smaller version of her original lightsaber, mirroring its design but with a shorter blade that had a greenish-yellow hue. Tano used this shoto throughout the Clone Wars until she left the Jedi Order and gave both her lightsabers to her former master, Anakin Skywalker. Skywalker later returned Tano's weapons when she agreed to lead a 501st division in the Siege of Mandalore, replacing the crystals with blue ones, which he jokingly claimed were an improvement.
After Order 66, Tano abandoned her original lightsabers to fake her death from the Galactic Empire. A year later, during the uprising on Raada, she built a second pair of lightsabers, which also included a shoto.
The Imperial Inquisitor known as the Tenth Brother, formerly the Jedi Master Prosset Dibs, used a pair of shotos, unlike the double-bladed spinning lightsabers favored by other Inquisitors.
Yoda's lightsaber in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones marked the first appearance of a shoto lightsaber. The weapon's name was first established in canon through the mobile game Star Wars Journeys: Beginnings, while the alternative name "lightdagger" was introduced in the Disney+ audio description for The Acolyte episode "Night." In Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, Ahsoka Tano received a shoto lightsaber as her second weapon in her third season redesign. Ashley Eckstein, Tano's voice actress, expressed her enthusiasm for the new weapon, describing it as a "lightsaber dagger" that she found very cool.