jq is like sed for JSON data - you can use it to slice and filter and map and transform structured data with the same ease that sed, awk, grep and friends let you play with text.

jq is written in portable C, and it has zero runtime dependencies. You can download a single binary, scp it to a far away machine of the same type, and expect it to work.

jq can mangle the data format that you have into the one that you want with very little effort, and the program to do so is often shorter and simpler than you'd expect.

Go read the tutorial for more, or the manual for way more.

Ask questions on stackoverflow using the jq tag, or on the #jq channel on Freenode.

News

  • 1 November 2018

    jq 1.6 released. See installation options on the download page, and the release notes for details.

  • 15 August 2015

    jq 1.5 released, including new datetime, math, and regexp functions, try/catch syntax, array and object destructuring, a streaming parser, and a module system. See installation options on the download page, and the release notes for details.

  • 26 July 2015

    jq 1.5rc2 is available. Get it on the releases page.

  • 01 January 2015

    jq 1.5rc1 is available. Get it on the releases page.

  • 09 June 2014

    jq 1.4 (finally) released! Get it on the download page.

  • 19 May 2013

    jq 1.3 released.