jq-lite — Design Goals

🎯 Purpose

jq-lite is a lightweight jq-compatible engine (CLI + Perl module) for filtering and transforming structured data.

Its purpose is simple:

Make JSON processing possible on systems where installing jq is not.

That constraint shapes everything below: portability, small dependencies, predictable behavior, and long-term stability.

🪶 1. Why lightweight matters

JSON is everywhere: APIs, observability, configuration, and automation. But many real environments still have hard constraints:

• Strict change control (no new binaries)
• Legacy or long-lived systems
• Minimal base images and offline deployments

jq-lite aims to be the tool you can bring into those places: small, portable, and easy to audit.

🔁 2. A common interface for structured data

jq-lite treats JSON as a stable interface between systems and people.

• JSON-in / JSON-out processing
• Works naturally in UNIX pipelines
• Consistent behavior as both a CLI and a library

This makes it suitable for workflows where structured data flows between scripts, services, automation tools, and humans.

🧭 3. Design principles

jq-lite follows a conservative, long-term design approach:

• Prefer clarity over cleverness
• Favor portability over performance tricks
• Avoid unnecessary dependencies
• Maintain predictable behavior across versions

The goal is not to chase trends, but to provide a stable, dependable utility that keeps working across time and platforms.

🌐 4. Open and reproducible workflows

jq-lite is built for workflows that can be inspected, reviewed, and reproduced.

• Fully open source
• No vendor lock-in
• No cloud dependency
• Usable in restricted or offline environments

This enables reproducible transformations that can be versioned, audited, and shared.

📝 5. Structured data as text

Text-based workflows remain essential for infrastructure, observability, and automation.

• Git-friendly transformations
• Reviewable filter logic
• Simple integration with scripts and CI

jq-lite keeps data processing transparent, reviewable, and automatable.

🔗 6. Ecosystem compatibility

jq-lite is designed to integrate naturally with existing tools and workflows.

Example data flow:

JSON producer
    ↓
jq-lite        (filter / transform)
    ↓
script / CLI / automation

It does not prescribe how data should be used — it simply keeps extracting and shaping JSON easy and reliable.

✨ Summary