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jless review

Free#24 of 29 in JSON Tools

A focused, open-source JSON viewer for interactive terminal exploration.

6.8/10Editor score
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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

jless is an open-source command-line viewer for reading, exploring, and searching JSON data in the terminal. It is aimed at developers and technical users who want to inspect structured data interactively rather than query or transform it with a broader JSON toolkit. The standalone binary runs on macOS and Linux, and the product is available under the MIT License.

Its strongest feature is interactive navigation through nested data. jless provides syntax-highlighted pretty printing, expandable and collapsible objects and arrays, Vim-inspired keyboard controls, regular-expression text search, and both data and line display modes. Absolute and relative line numbers support orientation in larger documents, while clipboard commands can copy values, keys, and paths. Reading from files and standard input makes it suitable for command-line workflows, and newline-delimited JSON and YAML input extend its usefulness beyond a single JSON presentation format.

jless is a focused viewer, not a full JSON query environment. The published category specifications show no jq querying, so users who need filtering or query construction should choose a tool built for that purpose. Platform coverage is also limited to macOS and Linux, with Windows support described as planned rather than current. Choose jless when the priority is readable, keyboard-driven inspection of JSON and related input in a terminal. Choose an alternative when you need jq-style querying, broader platform coverage, or capabilities beyond interactive viewing.

jless pros and cons

  • Where it wins
    • Syntax highlighting with expandable objects and arrays
    • Regex search, Vim-inspired navigation, and line numbers
    • Reads files, stdin, JSONL, and YAML input
  • Where it doesn't
    • Does not provide jq querying
    • Currently supports macOS and Linux
    • Focused on viewing rather than full JSON tooling

jless fact sheet, pricing and score →

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