# fq

> MIT jq for binary formats — decode, query, REPL

**Category:** DevOps  
**Pricing:** open-source  
**URL:** https://wader.github.io/fq/  
**GitHub:** https://github.com/wader/fq  
**Added:** 2026-09-13

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## The Hook

fq is jq for packets, images, and media when the file is binary and JSON filters are the wrong first tool.

## What's Good

MIT. wader/fq. Go tool + jq-shaped language + decoders for binary (and nested) formats: inspect trees, slice, transform, REPL with completion. Manual at wader.github.io/fq; source github.com/wader/fq.

## The Catch

Vs jq (JSON filter), jless (JSON pager), gron (flatten-for-grep), and jc (CLI stdout→JSON): fq is the *binary-format* cousin, not a JSON-only pipe and not a packet capture GUI. Decoder coverage is wide but not every vendor blob; unknown formats still need a spec.

## Verdict

MIT binary jq. Free forever; query the bytes when the file is not JSON.