Copy · paste · pipe

jq one-liners you can actually paste.

Ready-to-run jq recipes for the JSON tasks you actually do — filter, reshape, sort/group, and output CSV — each with example input and output.

15 recipes

• Basics Access Fields & Nested Keys with jq (.a.b.c) Pull a single value out of JSON — top-level keys, nested objects, array elements — and avoid 'Cannot index null' errors. Copy-paste jq. 2 min →
• Basics Install jq (Linux, macOS, Windows) Install the jq JSON processor on every platform — apt, dnf, brew, winget, scoop — plus how to check the version. Copy-paste. 2 min →
• Basics Loop Over a JSON Array with jq (.[]) Iterate every element of a JSON array (or every value of an object) with .[], pull one field from each, and re-collect into an array. Copy-paste jq. 2 min →
• Basics Pretty-Print & Minify JSON with jq (. and -c) Format ugly JSON, minify it to one line, sort keys, and pretty-print a curl/API response. Copy-paste jq. 2 min →
• Filtering Filter an Array of Objects by a Nested Key (jq) Select objects by a value buried in a nested object or inner array with jq — including 'array contains' and 'any sub-item matches'. Copy-paste. 3 min →
• Filtering jq has(), contains() & test() (Key Exists, Substring, Regex) Check whether a key exists, whether a value contains another, and match strings with regex in jq. Copy-paste with examples. 3 min →
• Filtering Filter JSON with jq select() (by Value or Condition) Keep only the array elements that match a condition using jq select() — numbers, strings, booleans, AND/OR. Copy-paste with example output. 3 min →
• Transform Add, Delete & Rename Keys with jq Add a field, remove one or many keys with del(), and rename keys (single or by pattern) using jq. Copy-paste with output. 3 min →
• Transform Build a New Object with jq {a: .x, b: .y} Reshape JSON into a new object — pick fields, rename, compute values, shorthand keys, dynamic keys. Copy-paste jq with output. 3 min →
• Transform Transform Each Item with jq map() Apply an expression to every element of an array with jq map() — pull a field, do math, reshape each object. Copy-paste with output. 2 min →
• Arrays Array length, flatten & slice with jq Count elements, flatten nested arrays, slice ranges, grab first/last, and sum with jq. Copy-paste with output. 2 min →
• Arrays Sort, Unique & Group with jq (sort_by, unique, group_by) Sort an array of objects by a field, dedupe, and group records by a key with jq — plus count-per-group. Copy-paste with output. 3 min →
• Formats Raw String Output & Interpolation in jq (-r) Print strings without quotes (-r), build strings with interpolation \(.x), join arrays, and emit shell-ready lines with jq. Copy-paste. 2 min →
• Formats Convert JSON to CSV/TSV with jq (@csv, @tsv) Turn an array of JSON objects into CSV or TSV with jq — with a header row, selected columns, and proper quoting. Copy-paste. 3 min →
• Advanced jq --arg, slurp (-s) & recursive descent (..) Pass shell variables into jq safely with --arg/--argjson, combine multiple inputs with slurp (-s), and search any depth with recursive descent (..). Copy-paste. 3 min →

You know what you want. You don't remember the jq for it.

Each recipe is a focused, copy-paste filter for one real task, with sample input and the exact output it produces — so you can confirm it before running it on your data.

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