jq

jq is a command line JSON processor, often described as sed for JSON data. It lets you pick out fields, filter records and reshape structured data from the terminal.

jq reads JSON from files or pipes and applies a small filter language to it. You can extract values, transform arrays and build new objects from existing data. It is written in portable C and has no runtime dependencies, so a single binary is enough to run it.

• Slice, filter, map and reshape JSON
• Works in pipelines with other command line tools
• Single portable binary with no runtime dependencies
• Try expressions in the online version
• Pretty print JSON output

Developers, DevOps engineers and anyone who works with API responses, logs or configuration files in JSON. It is often used in shell scripts and continuous integration pipelines.

jq is open source and free to use. Binaries are available for common systems, and the project offers an online version for trying expressions. The filter language takes some practice, but the official tutorial and manual cover most common tasks. Support is mainly through the project's issue tracker, community chat and Stack Overflow.