jid — JSON Incremental Digger for Interactive Exploration

Introduction

jid is a command-line JSON explorer that provides instant visual feedback as you type filter queries. It helps developers navigate complex JSON structures interactively, making it faster to find the right jq-style path.

What jid Does

• Opens an interactive terminal UI for browsing JSON data
• Updates the displayed result in real-time as you type a filter expression
• Supports dot notation and bracket syntax for navigating nested objects and arrays
• Provides tab completion for object keys at each nesting level
• Outputs the final query result to stdout for piping to other tools

Architecture Overview

jid is written in Go and uses a custom terminal UI built with the termbox library. It reads JSON input from stdin, parses it into an in-memory tree, and evaluates the user's query incrementally on each keystroke. The rendering engine displays both the query input and the filtered result in a split view.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install via Homebrew, AUR, or go install github.com/simeji/jid/cmd/jid@latest
• No configuration file needed; works out of the box
• Accepts JSON input from stdin or from a file argument
• The final selected path is printed to stdout when you press Enter
• Works in any terminal that supports basic ANSI escape sequences

Key Features

• Real-time query feedback showing matching results as you type
• Tab completion for JSON object keys at any depth
• Support for array indexing and filtering
• Lightweight single binary with no dependencies
• Pipe-friendly output for integration with jq and other tools

Comparison with Similar Tools

• jq — batch query tool; jid is interactive with live feedback for discovering paths
• fx — interactive JSON viewer; jid focuses on incremental query building
• gron — makes JSON greppable; jid provides a TUI for visual exploration
• jless — JSON pager; jid combines navigation with query construction
• fq — binary format querying; jid is specifically designed for JSON data

FAQ

Q: Can jid handle large JSON files? A: It loads the entire file into memory, so performance depends on available RAM. For very large files, consider pre-filtering with jq.

Q: Does it support YAML? A: No. jid is designed specifically for JSON. Convert YAML to JSON first with a tool like yq.

Q: Can I use jq syntax? A: jid uses a similar dot-notation syntax but does not support the full jq expression language.

Q: How do I get the selected path as a jq filter? A: Press Enter to output the filtered result. The query you typed is a valid path expression.

Sources

• https://github.com/simeji/jid