I can't stand jq. I realize this is an unpopular opinion, and our codebase at work has plenty of jq in the bash scripts, some of it even code that I wrote. I begrudgingly use it when it's the best option for me. But something about it rubs me the wrong way - I think it's the unintuitive query syntax and the need to search for every minute step of what I'm trying to do, and the frequency with which that leads to cryptic answers that I can only decipher if I am some sort of jq expert. But I have this instinctive reaction to all DSL languages that embed themselves into strings, like htmx and tailwind (both embedded in attribute string values). I realize some people like it, and it's a well-made piece of software, and I will even admit that sometimes there is no better choice. But I guess I just hate that it's necessary? I guess I could also admit it's the least-bad option, in the sense that it's a vast improvement over various sed/awk/cut monstrosities when it comes to parsing JSON in bash. Certainly once you find the right incantation, it's perfect - it transforms some raw stdin into parsed JSON that you can manipulate into exactly what you need. But for me, it ranks right next to regex in terms of "things I (don't) want to see in my code." I hate that the jq command is always some indecipherable string in the middle of the script. The only real alternative I've ever used is piping to a Python program that I define inline in a heredoc, but that ends up being at least as nasty as the JQ script.