jq-lite

name	jq-lite
description	Pipe JSON into a query CLI with intuitive dot-notation syntax. Use when you need to extract fields from JSON, filter arrays, transform objects, or format JSON output. Triggers include "query JSON", "extract from JSON", "filter JSON array", "jq", "process JSON in shell", "parse API response", or any task involving JSON data manipulation in the terminal.

jq-lite (jql)

Pipe any JSON into jql and extract, filter, or transform with dot-notation queries.

Quick Start

echo '{"name":"Alice","age":30}' | jql '.name'
# "Alice"

curl -s https://api.example.com/users | jql '.users[] | select(.active) | .email'

Common Patterns

# Extract a field
jql '.name' < data.json

# Array index
jql '.users[0].email' < users.json

# Spread array (each element on its own line)
jql '.users[].name' < users.json

# Filter array
jql '.users[] | select(.active == true)' < users.json

# Map: extract one field from each object
jql '.users | map(.name)' < users.json

# Sort and slice
jql '.items | sort_by(.price) | .[0:5]' < items.json

# Count
jql '.users | length' < users.json

# Object keys
jql 'keys' < config.json

# Group and aggregate
jql '.orders | group_by(.status) | map({status: .[0].status, count: length})' < orders.json

Output Formats

jql '.users'           # pretty-printed JSON with colors
jql -c '.users'        # compact single-line JSON
jql -r '.name'         # raw string (no quotes)
jql --csv '.users'     # CSV with auto-headers
jql --tsv '.users'     # TSV
jql --yaml '.config'   # YAML
jql --no-color '.'     # no ANSI color (for piping to files)

Built-in Functions

Function	Description
keys	Sorted array of object keys
values	Array of object values
length	Array/string/object size
type	JSON type as string
has(key)	Boolean: has property
map(expr)	Apply to each array element
select(expr)	Keep if expression is true
sort_by(f)	Sort by expression
group_by(f)	Group by expression
unique	Unique values
flatten	Flatten nested arrays
to_entries	[{key, value}] from object
from_entries	Object from [{key, value}]
add	Sum numbers or join strings/arrays
min, max	Array minimum/maximum
first, last	First/last element
test(regex)	Boolean regex match
ascii_downcase	Lowercase string
split(s)	Split string
join(s)	Join array

NDJSON Streaming

# One JSON object per line: processed independently
cat events.ndjson | jql 'select(.type == "error") | .user'

# --slurp: collect all lines into array
cat events.ndjson | jql -s 'length'

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
JQL_NO_COLOR	Disable color (0 or 1)	0
JQL_COMPACT	Always compact (0 or 1)	0
JQL_RAW	Always raw output (0 or 1)	0