jq++

jq++ (binary: jqpp) is a robust TUI for interactively exploring JSON with jq-like queries, powered by jaq.

While tools like jqp provide a great interactive TUI for jq, they lack intelligent assistance during query authoring. jq++ bridges this gap by adding deep intellisense features that make authoring complex jq filters significantly faster and more accurate:

• JSON-context field completions: jq++ walks your live JSON input (up to 4 levels deep) to suggest actual field names and array indices at your current cursor position.
• Type-aware builtin catalog: Suggestions for jq's ~90 built-in functions are filtered by the runtime type flowing into the pipe. For example, ascii_upcase is only suggested after a string-producing expression.
• LSP Integration: Automatic integration with jq-lsp if it is found on your PATH — provides real-time diagnostics and function signatures directly in the TUI footer.

• Live evaluation — results update as you type (80ms debounce).
• Dual-pane layout — input JSON on the left, query output on the right.
• Mid-query editing — completions work at any cursor position, not just at the end.
• Format operators — native support for @csv and @tsv (which jaq lacks).
• Non-blocking execution — heavy queries run in the background; the UI stays responsive.
• Query history — Navigate previous queries with Up/Down.
• Clipboard copy — Ctrl+Y copies the focused pane's content.

brew tap sukkola/tap
brew install sukkola/tap/jqpp

cargo install jqpp

# Read from a file
jqpp data.json

# Read from stdin
cat data.json | jqpp

# Disable LSP even if jq-lsp is on PATH
jqpp data.json --no-lsp

# Print selected content to stdout on exit
jqpp data.json --print-output
jqpp data.json --print-query
jqpp data.json --print-input

# Explore interactively, then pipe final result
jqpp data.json --print-output | jq -r '.[0].name'

# Reuse the final query in another command
jqpp data.json --print-query | xargs -I{} jq '{}' data.json

# Pass the original input through another tool after interactive editing
jqpp data.json --print-input | jq 'keys'

Input and output panes also support scrollbar interaction with the mouse: use wheel/trackpad over the pane under the pointer, or click and drag directly on the pane scrollbar.

jqpp looks for a TOML config file at ~/.config/jqpp/config.toml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/jqpp/config.toml).

[keys]
quit = "F10"
copy-clipboard = "Ctrl+C"
save-output = "Ctrl+S"
next-pane = "Ctrl+Right"
prev-pane = "Ctrl+Left"

Use jqpp --print-config to see the full list of remappable actions and their current bindings.

jq++ automatically detects and uses jq-lsp if it is present on your PATH. Install it with:

go install github.com/wader/jq-lsp@latest

Once installed, jq-lsp starts automatically when you launch jqpp — no flags needed. It adds real-time parse diagnostics shown in the footer.

To disable LSP for a session, pass --no-lsp. To use a binary at a custom path, set JQPP_LSP_BIN:

JQPP_LSP_BIN=/usr/local/bin/jq-lsp jqpp data.json

jqpp provides three levels of intellisense for jq/jaq built-in functions:

These standard jq features are not available in jqpp because jaq does not implement them. They are intentionally absent from the completion catalog so jqpp never suggests something that would produce a runtime or compile error.

• jaq — The Rust jq implementation powering jq++.
• jqp — The original Go TUI inspiration for this project.
• jq-lsp — The language server providing diagnostics.

cargo build --release

Requires Rust 1.90.0 or later.