[ishandotpage]

Have you tried `gron`?

It converts your nested json into a line by line format which plays better with tools like `grep`

From the project's README:

▶ gron "https://api.github.com/repos/tomnomnom/gron/commits?per_page..." | fgrep "commit.author"

json[0].commit.author = {};

json[0].commit.author.date = "2016-07-02T10:51:21Z";

json[0].commit.author.email = "[e-mail]";

json[0].commit.author.name = "Tom Hudson";

https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron

It was suggested to me in HN comments on an article I wrote about `jq`, and I have found myself using it a lot in my day to day workflow

[stronglikedan]

This is awesome, thanks! Not OP, but this will help me to write specifications for modifying existing JSON structures immensely. It's kind of a pain parsing JSON by (old man) eye to figure out which properties are arrays, and follow property names down a chain. This will definitely help eliminate mistakes!

[pdimitar]

Also try jless[0], it's amazingly convenient and it shows you a JSON path at the bottom of the screen as you navigate.

[0] https://jless.io/

[hu3]

Thank you so much. This seems like a saner approach for some simpler use cases.

It flattens the structure. And makes for easy diffing.

[evntdrvn]

There's also this awesome tool to make JSON interactively navigable in the terminal:

https://fx.wtf

[llimllib]

https://jless.io/ is similar, and will give you jq selectors so the two combine very well. (fx might have that feature too, I dunno)

[evntdrvn]

Ah thanks, jless is actually the one I was originally thinking of and trying to find! :D

[sn0wf1re]

You can also mimic gron, including support for yaml with

yq -o=props my-file.yaml

[majewsky]

Doesn't work in my terminal. When you recommend yq behavior, please specify which yq you're using. There are at least two incompatible implementations.

[jbverschoor]

This looks some much better as an ad-hoc tool. Would be cool if it supported more formats - plist, yaml, xml (hoow to do body, or conflicting attr/elements)