Jq

lastmod 2026-06-10created 2020-12-0415 edits

jq is a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor.

About

jq is like sed for JSON data.

That is, just as tools like sed, awk, and grep handle text, jq lets you easily slice, filter, map, and transform structured data.
jq is written in portable C and has no runtime dependencies. You can download a single binary, scp it to a remote machine of the same type, and it works right away.
jq can convert your current data format into the format you want with minimal effort, and the programs to do so are often short and concise.

cat fruits.json | jq '. += {"vegetable" : { "name" : "brinjal" }}'

echo '{"name": "merry", "friends": ["mia","ava"]}' | jq -c '{(.name): .friends}'

Result:

{"merry":["mia","ava"]}

echo '{"job_id": "1234"}' | jq '.job_id'

The result is "1234", printed with quotes. To remove the quotes, add the -r (Raw Output) option:

echo '{"job_id": "1234"}' | jq -r '.job_id'

The result is printed as 1234.

[
  {"key": "name", "value": "John"},
  {"key": "age", "value": 30},
  {"key": "city", "value": "New York"}
]

cat data.json | jq -r '.[] | "\(.key)=\(.value)"'

Result:

name=John
age=30
city=New York

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