How to Parse JSON in Bash with jq

Bash has no built-in JSON parser — use jq, the standard command-line JSON processor. Pipe JSON into jq with a filter to extract or transform values.

Extract a field

Pipe JSON to jq and select a path. Use -r for raw (unquoted) string output.

bash

echo '{"name":"Ada","roles":["admin","dev"]}' | jq -r '.name'
# Ada

curl -s https://api.example.com/user | jq -r '.roles[0]'

jq filters transform arrays inline — map fields, select by condition, and more.

bash

# names of active users
jq -r '.users[] | select(.active) | .name' data.json

# array of ids
jq '[.items[].id]' data.json

jq pretty-prints by default; use it to format or to check that a file is valid JSON.

bash

jq . data.json                 # pretty-print
jq empty data.json && echo OK  # exit 0 if valid JSON

Use your package manager: apt install jq, brew install jq, or download a static binary. It's a single self-contained executable.

The -r (raw output) flag prints string results without surrounding quotes, which is essential when assigning values to shell variables.

Yes. Use the jq Playground to build and debug filters against your JSON before putting them in a script.

jq Playground

Query and transform JSON with the full jq language

JSON Formatter

Beautify and format JSON with indentation

JSONPath Tester

Test JSONPath expressions and see all matches — or build one with no syntax

JSON Validator

Find syntax errors with line and column numbers

JSON Linter

Duplicate keys, mixed naming, inconsistent array shapes

JSON Minifier

Compress JSON and see exact bytes saved