querying-json

querying-json is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructions. It costs 39 tokens per session (867 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A method for extracting, filtering, or transforming values from JSON files with jq, a command-line tool for working with structured data. It is intended for targeted queries without reading a large file in full.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to read fields from configuration files, API responses, lockfiles, and other JSON data, or to filter and reshape that data.
Why use it?
It reduces the amount of file content you need to inspect when you only need certain fields, nested values, or matching records.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to read fields from configuration files, API responses, lockfiles, and other JSON data, or to filter and reshape that data.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/sebastiendegodez/copilot-instructions/querying-json
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructions --skill querying-json
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructions

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for querying-json

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sebastiendegodez/copilot-instructions/querying-json.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/sebastiendegodez/copilot-instructions/querying-json)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/sebastiendegodez/copilot-instructions/querying-json"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sebastiendegodez/copilot-instructions/querying-json.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 39 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 867 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00039 $0.00867
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00434
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00173
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00087

Measured 8d ago against content hash 2898bacc02f3, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

querying-json scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 8d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/minimal-context-tools/skills/querying-json/SKILL.md · 107 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 107 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

jq: JSON Data Extraction Tool

Always invoke querying-json skill to extract JSON fields - do not execute bash commands directly.

Use jq to extract specific fields from JSON files without loading entire file contents into context.

When to Use jq vs Read

Use jq when:

  • Need specific field(s) from structured data file
  • File is large (>50 lines) and only need subset
  • Querying nested structures
  • Filtering/transforming data
  • Saves 80-95% context vs reading entire file

Just use Read when:

  • File is small (<50 lines)
  • Need to understand overall structure
  • Making edits (need full context anyway)

Common File Types

JSON files where jq excels:

  • package.json, tsconfig.json
  • Lock files (package-lock.json, yarn.lock in JSON format)
  • API responses
  • Configuration files

Default Strategy

Invoke querying-json skill for extracting specific fields from JSON files efficiently. Use instead of reading entire files to save 80-95% context.

Common workflow: finding-files skill → querying-json skill → other skills (fuzzy-selecting, replacing-text, viewing-files) for extraction and transformation.

Quick Examples

# Get version from package.json
jq -r .version package.json

# Get nested dependency version
jq -r '.dependencies.react' package.json

# List all dependencies
jq -r '.dependencies | keys[]' package.json

Pipeline Combinations

  • querying-json | fuzzy-selecting: Interactive selection from JSON data
  • querying-json | replacing-text: Transform JSON to other formats
  • querying-json | viewing-files: View extracted JSON with syntax highlighting

Skill Combinations

For Discovery Phase

  • finding-files → querying-json: Find JSON config files and extract specific fields
  • searching-text → querying-json: Find JSON usage patterns and extract values
  • extracting-code-structure → querying-json: Understand API structures before extraction

For Analysis Phase

  • querying-json → fuzzy-selecting: Interactive selection from structured data
  • querying-json → viewing-files: View extracted data with syntax highlighting
  • querying-json → analyzing-code: Extract statistics from JSON output

Read the full file on GitHub · 107 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 8d ago First seen · 107 lines · 39 tokens per session scan A 2898bacc02f3

Subscribe to this mod's changes

querying-json is a skill published in the GitHub repository SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructions (192 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 39 tokens to every session and 867 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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