jq 133,477 is to JSON what sed and awk are to text: a single C binary (github.com/jqlang/jq (https://github.com/jqlang/jq 35,709 ), MIT, apt install jq) with a small functional language. Version 1.7 (September 2023) added pick, abs and an optional else; 1.8.0 (June 2025) added trim, trimstr, add/1, skip/2 and toboolean and preserves the precision of number literals; the current 1.8.2 (June 2026) is a security patch. This book runs 1.8.1.