Where can I test jq filters online?
Search "jq playground" and you'll find tools that each get about 60% of the way there. play.jqlang.org has trusted execution but no examples and no history. Port's AI playground looks modern but won't let you share a link. Jqkungfu nails WASM accuracy but the interface hasn't changed since 2018. Jqbin puts all of it in one client-side tool -- real jq 1.8 via WebAssembly, directly in your browser, no server calls, no installs.
Paste JSON on the left, write a filter in the center, see output on the right. It executes as you type with about 300ms of debounce. That's the whole workflow. No "Run" button, no page reload.
The WASM module lazy-loads after the UI renders, so you see the editor immediately while jq initializes in the background. On a typical connection, jq is ready before you've finished pasting your JSON. The bundle ships with Brotli compression, which brings the WASM payload down from roughly 2MB to under 700KB.
What are common jq filter examples I can copy?
You know group_by exists. You know to_entries is the answer. But the exact syntax slips away every time, and you end up on Stack Overflow again. Jqbin ships with 20+ jq recipes across five categories: Basics, Arrays, Objects, String and Math, and Real-World Patterns.
Click an example and it loads into the editor and runs immediately -- JSON input, filter, and output all visible at once. The library is searchable. Type "group" and only matching examples show up. It's a cheatsheet that actually runs the code.
The Real-World Patterns category is the one worth browsing first. Not textbook exercises. Actual workflow patterns: flattening nested API responses, pivoting key-value pairs, extracting unique values from arrays of objects. The kind of thing you write in a CI pipeline at 11pm and forget by morning.
How do I share a jq filter with my team?
Click "Share" and Jqbin encodes your JSON input, jq filter, and options into a single URL on your clipboard. Send it to a teammate and they see exactly what you see -- same JSON, same filter, same output, same flags. No accounts, no sign-up, no server.
The URL uses LZ-string compression, so even moderately large JSON payloads produce reasonable links. Everything decodes client-side. There's no backend at any step, which means permalinks don't expire. No database row to age out, no "this link has expired" screen.
Compare that to the current way most developers share jq filters: paste the filter in Slack, paste the JSON blob, then type "run this with the -s flag." Three messages for one thing. A permalink collapses all of that into a URL that reproduces the exact state.
This also makes Jqbin useful for documentation. If you're writing a runbook or an onboarding guide that involves jq, you can link directly to a working example instead of asking the reader to copy, paste, and assemble three pieces themselves.
What is the best free jq playground with examples?
Right now, no single tool combines WASM execution accuracy, a curated example library, shareable permalinks, and local query history. Every competitor has at least one. None has all four.
Jqbin compiles jq 1.8 to WebAssembly. Your filters run against the real jq binary, not a JavaScript reimplementation. The output matches what you'd get on the command line -- including edge cases with reduce, @base64, and nested select calls where JS approximations tend to diverge.
The options panel has the same flags you use in the terminal: slurp (-s), raw output (-r), null input (-n), compact output (-c). Toggle any of them and output updates immediately. These get encoded into permalinks too, so sharing a link with slurp enabled means the recipient sees it with slurp enabled.
Query history lives in localStorage. Filters save automatically, deduplicated, capped at 50 entries with timestamps. Come back tomorrow and your recent work is still there. No account. No cloud sync. You can clear history with a single click if you want a fresh start, but otherwise it just accumulates quietly.
The timing matters too. jq 1.8.0 shipped in mid-2025 after years of near-dormancy, and traffic to play.jqlang.org surged over 34% month-over-month in early 2026. More people are writing jq than ever, and the tooling still hasn't caught up.
How do I use jq group_by, select, and map functions?
These three functions cover most of what people actually do with jq, and most of what trips them up. Jqbin's example library has dedicated entries for each, with real JSON input you can modify live.
group_by(.field) groups objects by a shared key. Pair it with map({key: .[0].field, count: length}) for a frequency count. This is the pattern everyone rewrites from scratch. In Jqbin, it's one click in the Arrays category.
select(.field > N) filters elements by condition. [.[] | select(.status == "active") | .name] gives you active names. The pipelines read left to right, but nesting rules trip people up. Modifying the filter in a live execution environment and watching the output change beats staring at documentation.
map(f) applies a filter to every array element. It's shorthand for [.[] | f]. The difference between map(.name) and .[] | .name is subtle -- one wraps results in an array, the other streams values. Seeing both side-by-side in the output pane makes it obvious.
And then there are the compound patterns -- to_entries | map(select(.value > 10)) | from_entries for filtering object keys by value, or [.[] | {(.id|tostring): .name}] | add for building lookup tables. These are the kind of one-liners that take five minutes to reconstruct from the jq manual and about three seconds to load from the example library.
The tool, not the pitch
Jqbin is free, client-side, and that's it. No accounts, no backend, no AI, no premium tier. Real jq 1.8 via WebAssembly, a curated example library, shareable permalinks, and local query history.
If you use jq regularly, try it: appcrib.com/jqbin.