Color in json.tool CLI

Feature or enhancement

Proposal:

apologies if this is not the right place to ask for enhancement requests. since python3.13 added support for colorization in repl, i was wondering if some basic colorization could be added for the python's cli json tool? jq[0] does this, the keys are bolded and have a different color from the values.

if this gets implemented i think a lot of people will be happy to just use python and not have to install yet another library to fulfill their needs :-)

[0] https://static1.howtogeekimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5-7.png

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

No response given

Links to previous discussion of this feature:

No response

Linked PRs

gh-131952: Add color to the json CLI #132126

@hugovk

cc @hugovk

I think that adding colors by default can possibly break piping on some shells / systems. But, I am not 100% sure.

Like get_json | python -m json.tool | expects_json_text

By default, the _colorize module does check if we're in a tty before enabling colour:

cpython/Lib/_colorize.py

Lines 109 to 112 in 3b3720f

    
           try: 
        
               return os.isatty(file.fileno()) 
        
           except io.UnsupportedOperation: 
        
               return hasattr(file, "isatty") and file.isatty()

Compare the output of python3.14 -m calendar and python3.14 -m calendar | cat

Compare the output of python3.14 -m calendar

Speaking of which, is that extra highlighted space before the 1 supposed to be there?

The assymetry looks a little funky to me.

Speaking of which, is that extra highlighted space before the 1 supposed to be there?

The assymetry looks a little funky to me.

I guess so. At least so-called cal does the same:

asymmetry happens on MacOS too.

The highlight includes the unprinted 0 prefix.

Like this?

@nineteendo

@nineteendo thank you for taking the time to look into it. couple of notes: 1) unlike jq and python's json tool, i see your solution is not recursive (objects and arrays inside a json object are not nicely displayed, but everything is in one line) 2) i'm not a fan of that shade of bright blue

your solution is not recursive

That's because -L1 sets --maximum-indent-level to 1.

i'm not a fan of that shade of bright blue

I'm using the same colours as jq, this is just how Powershell renders them.

gh-131952: Add colour to the ``json`` module CLI (#132126)

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Color in json.tool CLI #131952

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	try:
	return os.isatty(file.fileno())
	except io.UnsupportedOperation:
	return hasattr(file, "isatty") and file.isatty()

Color in json.tool CLI #131952

Description

Feature or enhancement

Proposal:

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

Links to previous discussion of this feature:

Linked PRs

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ZeroIntensity commented on Mar 31, 2025

sobolevn commented on Apr 1, 2025

hugovk commented on Apr 1, 2025

ZeroIntensity commented on Apr 1, 2025

Eclips4 commented on Apr 1, 2025

srinivasreddy commented on Apr 2, 2025

hugovk commented on Apr 2, 2025

nineteendo commented on Apr 2, 2025

raztd commented on Apr 6, 2025

nineteendo commented on Apr 6, 2025

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