Extracting Objects Recursively with Jq

Not particularly. I don't use a Mac, but I'd be happy to separate out the function into it's own script so it can be downloaded and put in your $PATH. I personally use zinit to manage individual files from random repos.

An introductory script showing the jq, REST, and JSON trinity:

https://github.com/DaveJarvis/github-email/blob/master/githu...

JSON data is also a valid Prolog term, and the declarative programming language Prolog is ideally suited for handling tree-shaped data.

Using for example Scryer Prolog, we can conveniently relate the data to a flat list of items with Prolog's built-in grammar mechanism, definite clause grammars (DCGs):

    flat_json(JSON) -->
            { JSON = {A,B,C,D,E,F,_:Cs} },
            [{A,B,C,D,E,F}],
            flat_items(Cs).

    flat_items([]) --> [].
    flat_items([I|Is]) -->
            { I = {(A,B,C,D,E,_:Cs)} },
            [{A,B,C,D,E}],
            flat_items(Cs),
            flat_items(Is).

Sample query, using the example JSON data from the article:

     ?- JSON = {
        "id": 27941108,
        "created_at": "2021-07-24T14:15:05.000Z",
        "type": "story",
        "author": "edward",
        "title": "Fun with Unix domain sockets",
        "url": "https://simonwillison.net/2021/Jul/13/unix-domain-sockets/",
        "children": [
            {
                "id": 27942287,
                "created_at": "2021-07-24T16:31:18.000Z",
                "type": "comment",
                "author": "DesiLurker",
                "text": "
one lesser known...",
                "children": []
            },
            {
                "id": 27944615,
                "created_at": "2021-07-24T21:26:33.000Z",
                "type": "comment",
                "author": "galaxyLogic",
                "text": "
I read this from Wikipedia...",
                "children": [
                    {
                        "id": 27944746,
                        "created_at": "2021-07-24T21:49:07.000Z",
                        "type": "comment",
                        "author": "hughrr",
                        "text": "
Yes although I ...",
                        "children": []
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    },
       phrase(flat_json(JSON), Cs),
       maplist(portray_clause, Cs).

yielding the flat list of entries, as desired:

    [{("id":27941108,"created_at":"2021-07-24T14:15:05.000Z","type":"story","author":"edward",...)},
     {("id":27942287,"created_at":"2021-07-24T16:31:18.000Z","type":"comment",...)},
     {("id":27944615,"created_at":"2021-07-24T21:26:33.000Z","type":"comment",...)},
     {("id":27944746,"created_at":"2021-07-24T21:49:07.000Z","type":"comment",...)}]

It doesn't seem to provide a command-line tool, which is the point of jq