gron vs jaq

gron is a free, open-source command-line utility that turns JSON into separate assignments with visible paths. This representation helps users grep values in large or deeply nested JSON, including responses from poorly documented APIs. Input can come from a file, URL, or standard input. The --ungron option converts assignments back into JSON, while --json emits a JSON stream. Other options provide value-only output, colored or monochrome display, line-by-line streaming, insecure certificate handling, and sorting control. The output is valid JavaScript, and the project demonstrates comparing JSON files by diffing their gron output. If array entries are missing, ungron inserts null values to preserve keys. gron has no runtime dependencies. Installation instructions cover binary downloads, Homebrew, and Go install. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows; plan information also lists FreeBSD binaries. The repository uses the MIT license.

jaq is a free jq clone for querying and transforming data, available as both a command-line replacement and a Rust library for compiling and running jq programs. Alongside JSON, it handles YAML, CBOR, TOML, XML, CSV, and TSV, and can convert between those formats while applying a jq filter. Its jaq-core library supports multithreaded use and data types beyond JSON. jaq also accepts arbitrary values as object keys and can process strings containing arbitrary bytes, including invalid UTF-8. The project publishes benchmarks comparing jaq with jq and gojq, and reports faster results on many benchmarks. It states that jaq is memory-safe and prevents input data or filters from initiating I/O, although filters may read files before execution. The project also warns that it does not guard against resource exhaustion, so processing may use unlimited time, memory, or stack space. Binary downloads and installation instructions are provided for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and an online playground is available. jaq is MIT-licensed.