# Install jsawk with Homebrew

Like awk, but for JSON, using JavaScript objects and arrays. Version 1.4 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:jsawk
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install jsawk
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:jsawk
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.4
- **Source summary:** Like awk, but for JSON, using JavaScript objects and arrays
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/micha/jsawk>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/micha/jsawk>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- jsawk (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.4
## Project history and usage

jsawk is a small command-line filter that applies awk-like pipeline habits to JSON data by evaluating JavaScript over objects read from standard input.

### Project history

The GitHub repository was created in May 2009. Its README frames the tool as awk for JSON: input is parsed into arrays and objects, JavaScript expressions filter or transform the data, and output returns to stdout for shell pipelines.

### Adoption history

jsawk remained a compact Unix-style tool rather than a large ecosystem. Homebrew packages version 1.4 from the GitHub tag archive, and the repository has enough stars and forks to show durable interest among shell users who wanted JSON manipulation before jq became the default answer.

### How it is used

Typical usage is piping REST API JSON into jsawk, selecting or transforming fields with JavaScript, and either emitting JSON again or printing custom text for another command in the pipeline.

### Why package nerds care

jsawk is a useful historical waypoint in the JSON-on-the-command-line story: it shows the pre-jq period when developers tried to extend familiar text filters with JavaScript object access instead of adopting a purpose-built JSON query language.

### Timeline

- 2009: GitHub repository created.
- 2010s: Homebrew packaged jsawk as a JSON-aware shell filter.
- 2026: Homebrew continued to package the 1.4 tag archive.

### Related projects

- Related tools include awk, jq, gron, JSON.sh, fx, jc, and the author's resty command-line REST client.

### Sources

- <https://api.github.com/repos/micha/jsawk>
- <https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/jsawk>
- <https://github.com/micha/jsawk>
- <https://github.com/micha/resty>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/jsawk.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/jsawk.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- cross-ecosystem install command graph