Micah's Secret Blog

jsongrep is faster than {jq, jmespath, jsonpath-rust, jql}

2026-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

This article is both an introduction to a tool I have been working on called jsongrep</code></a>, as well as a technical explanation of the internal search engine it uses. I also discuss the benchmarking strategy used to compare the performance of jsongrep</code> against other JSON path-like query tools and implementations.

In this post I'll first show you the tool, then explain why it's fast (conceptually), then how it's fast (the automata theory), and finally prove it (benchmarks).

Upfront I would like to say that this article is heavily inspired by Andrew Gallant's amazing ripgrep</code></a> tool, and his associated blog post"ripgrep is faster than {grep, ag, git grep, ucg, pt, sift}"</a>. </blockquote>

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