Converting JSON To JSONL Without Losing Original Object Structure

[pihish]

I have JSON that looks like:

{
  "18003432343": {
    "04:00:25": {....},
    "12:00:25": {....},
  }, 
  "18005553332": {
    "18:11:25": {....},
    "23:00:25": {....},
  }
}

If I convert the above to JSONL using jq -c '.[]' input.json > output.jsonl , I get the following in the output JSONL:

{"04:00:25": {....}, "12:00:25": {....}}
{"18:11:25": {....}, "23:00:25": {....}}

I lose the top level keys that were in my original JSON file. I am looking for output that preserves those keys - which would look like:

{"18003432343": {"04:00:25": {....}, "12:00:25": {....}}}
{"18005553332": {"18:11:25": {....}, "23:00:25": {....}}}

What is the appropriate JQ command for this?

[ShreeChaturvedi]

.[] iterates over the values only, so the top-level keys are dropped. To emit one object per top-level key (JSONL), rebuild a single-key object for each entry:

jq -c 'to_entries[] | {(.key): .value}' input.json > output.jsonl

Or the equivalent with keys_unsorted (slightly clearer if you prefer):

jq -c 'keys_unsorted[] as $k | {($k): .[$k]}' input.json > output.jsonl

Example:

$ jq -c 'to_entries[] | {(.key): .value}' <<'JSON'
{
  "18003432343": {"04:00:25": {"x": 1}},
  "18005553332": {"18:11:25": {"y": 2}}
}
JSON

{"18003432343":{"04:00:25":{"x":1}}}
{"18005553332":{"18:11:25":{"y":2}}}

Notes:

• -c (compact) is what makes each object one line (JSONL)
• {(.key): .value} uses a computed key; the parentheses around .key are required