Another tool to look at is `jc`, which parses the output of about 80 classic Unix utilities and converts it to JSON.
It’s been submitted a few times, some with significant discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33448204 (132 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28266193 (146 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38569240 (159 comments)