# 📦 jq-lite
A lightweight CLI tool built in Rust for querying JSON data using simple dot notation.
---
## 🚀 Current Features
- ✅ Read JSON from a file
- ✅ Query top-level fields
- ✅ Query nested JSON using dot notation
- ✅ Multiple queries in a single command (space-separated)
- ✅ Uses `serde_json` for parsing
---
## 📖 Usage
```bash
jq-lite <query> <file-path>
```
## 🧪 Examples
- Basic query
```bash
jq-lite "name" data.json
```
- Nested query
```bash
jq-lite "user.name" data.json
```
- Multiple queries
```bash
jq-lite "name age user.email" data.json
```
## 🛠️ How It Works
* Queries are split by whitespace
* Nested queries (user.name) are converted into JSON Pointer format:
```bash
user.name → /user/name
```
### Uses
- `Value::get()` for top-level fields
- `Value::pointer()` for nested access
## ⚠️ Current Limitations
- ❌ No array indexing (users[0])
- ❌ No stdin support
- ❌ No pretty printing
- ❌ Basic error handling
- ❌ No query validation
- ❌ No support for pipes or filters
- ❌ Not streaming (loads full JSON into memory)
## Recent Addons
1. **Add stdin support for JSON input**
Allow piping JSON into jq-lite:
```bash
cat data.json | jq-lite "name"
```
2. **Support raw JSON string as input**
Allow users to pass JSON directly instead of file path:
```bash
jq-lite "name" '{"name":"John"}'
```
3. **Improve CLI argument validation**
- Handle missing arguments
- Show usage instructions
- Prevent panics on missing inputs
4. **Add `--help `flag**
Display usage, examples, and available options
5. **Support array indexing in queries**
```bash
jq-lite "users[0].name" data.json
```
6. **Support wildcard array queries**
```bash
jq-lite "users[].name" data.json
```
7. **Refactor query parsing logic**
Replace simple `.split(".")` with a proper parser to support:
- Arrays
- Future filters
- Better extensibility
8. **Validate query syntax before execution**
Return meaningful errors for invalid queries
## 🧭 Roadmap (GitHub Issues)
## 🔵 Output & Formatting
9. **Add `--pretty` flag for formatted output**
Pretty-print JSON results
10. **Add `--compact` flag**
Return minified JSON output
11. **Add `--raw` flag**
Print raw values without JSON quotes
## 🔴 Error Handling
12. **Improve error handling and messaging**
- File not found
- Invalid JSON
- Missing fields
- Invalid queries
13. **Add strict mode for query failures**
- Fail when a query returns no result
- Return non-zero exit code
## ⚡ Performance & Architecture
14. **Optimize memory usage in query parsing**
Avoid unnecessary allocations and cloning
15. **Implement query AST (Abstract Syntax Tree)**
Example:
```bash
users[0].name → Field("users") → Index(0) → Field("name")
```
16. **Add streaming JSON parsing**
Handle large JSON files without loading entire file into memory
## 🧪 Testing
17. **Add unit tests**
- Nested queries
- Missing fields
- Invalid JSON
18. **Add CLI integration tests**
Test full command execution
## 💡 Future Enhancements (Stretch Goals)
19. **Support pipe operator (|)**
```bash
20. **Add simple filtering support**
```bash
jq-lite "users[?age>18]" data.json
```
21. **Add interactive REPL mode**
```bash
jq-lite
> user.name
```
## 🏗️ Building
```bash
cargo build --release
```
## 📄 License
MIT
## 🤝 Contributing
Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue before submitting a PR.