internals

How jq's --stream Works: Inside the Streaming JSON Parser

April 11, 2026 jqlang/jq ↗

The --stream option activates incremental parsing that emits [path, value] pairs immediately as leaf values are discovered, enabling jq to process massive JSON documents without loading them entirely into memory.

By default, jq parses complete JSON documents into memory before applying filters. The --stream option fundamentally changes this behavior, engaging a specialized parser implementation in src/jv_parse.c that tracks location via a dynamic path array and yields values piecemeal. This mode, controlled by the JV_PARSE_STREAMING flag set in src/main.c, allows pipelines to begin

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