jq, json.tool, or a browser formatter? How I pretty-print curl JSON

The actual problem

Every developer I know runs the same loop several times a day:

curl https://api.example.com/some-endpoint

The response comes back as one minified line of JSON. You squint, scroll, give up, and reach for a formatter.

I have ended up using three different formatters for this depending on the situation. None of these are novel — the interesting part is the picking. Below is the boring rule of thumb I actually follow, and the redaction step most posts about this skip entirely.

Approach 1: pipe through jq

This is the default and almost always the right answer:

curl -s https://api.example.com/users | jq .

• ✅ Fastest path to pretty output


• ✅ Tells you where the parse fails with a column reference


• ✅ Composable with filtering: jq '.users[] | select(.active)'
  


• ❌ Requires jq to be installed (not guaranteed on minimal containers or fresh CI)


• ❌ The filter mini-language has a learning curve

When to not reach for jq first: when you only need to read the response and you are already about to paste it somewhere else (a Slack thread, a GitHub issue, a ticket). At that point you are leaving the terminal anyway and the savings are marginal.

Approach 2: Python json.tool as a fallback

When jq is inconvenient to install — locked-down CI runners, remote SSH on a server you do not own, minimal Alpine images where you happen to have Python but not jq — the stdlib has you covered:

curl -s https://api.example.com/users | python3 -m json.tool

• ✅ Often available where installing jq is inconvenient


• ✅ Sufficient for pretty printing + parse validation


• ❌ Error messages are less precise than jq on truncated input


• ❌ No filter / select capability — it formats, that's it

I use this maybe twice a week. It is the "good enough" tool, not the "right" tool. Note that Python is not actually guaranteed either — distroless images and BusyBox containers ship with neither.

Approach 3: a browser-side formatter for the share step

I only paste curl output into a browser formatter when I am about to share the result with a teammate (Slack, GitHub issue, ticket review), and the payload is safe for that audience.

The reason that condition matters: a security firm disclosed last year that two popular online formatters had been retaining 80,000+ saved snippets, including AWS keys and JWTs. I covered the story separately in . It is a static site with no /api/* routes, the parser core is open source (