jid is a simple and powerful interactive tool for querying and exploring JSON data. It allows you to filter and browse through JSON objects in real-time using an intuitive interface, making it easier to work with complex JSON data structures.

Overview

jid lets you:

  • Incrementally filter JSON data in a live interactive shell.
  • Navigate through large JSON structures with simple keyboard shortcuts.
  • Pretty print or query JSON data.
  • Load JSON directly from a file or a command output.

It’s especially useful for developers and data wranglers working with APIs or any system that outputs JSON.

Installation

Ubuntu

To install jid on Ubuntu, follow these steps:

  1. Update your package list:

    sudo apt update

  2. Install jid using the following command:

    sudo apt install jid

  3. Verify the installation:

    jid -version

MacOS

For Mac users, you can install jid using Homebrew:

  1. Install jid via Homebrew:

    brew install jid

  2. Confirm the installation:

    jid -version

Basic Usage

Load JSON from a File

To explore a JSON file, simply use the following command:

jid < file.json

This will load the JSON data and open the interactive query shell.

Filter JSON in Real-Time

You can filter the JSON interactively. Here’s a rundown of some important keyboard shortcuts:

  • TAB / CTRL-I: Show available items and choose them.
  • CTRL-F / Right Arrow: Move cursor right by one character.
  • CTRL-B / Left Arrow: Move cursor left by one character.
  • CTRL-A: Move to the beginning of the current filter.
  • CTRL-E: Move to the end of the current filter.

Editing

  • CTRL-W: Delete from cursor to the start of the word.
  • CTRL-U: Clear the entire query.

Scrolling

  • CTRL-J: Scroll the JSON buffer one line down.
  • CTRL-K: Scroll the JSON buffer one line up.
  • CTRL-G: Scroll to the bottom of the JSON buffer.
  • CTRL-T: Scroll to the top of the JSON buffer.
  • CTRL-N: Page down through the JSON.
  • CTRL-P: Page up through the JSON.

View Modes

  • CTRL-L: Toggle between viewing the whole JSON or just keys (for objects).
  • ESC: Hide the suggestion box.

Command-Line Options

Here are the main options you can pass when running jid:

  -M        Enable monochrome output mode (no color).
  -h        Display help information.
  -p        Pretty-print the JSON result.
  -q        Enable output query mode.
  -version  Show version info and exit.