diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index c299945..e88f2f3 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -18,6 +18,10 @@ export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS := "--height 15 --cycle --bind 'ctrl-a:toggle-all' " + e
 # deal with concurrency
 export GIT := `command -v git-wait >/dev/null && echo "git-wait" || echo "git"`
 
+# select the fastest jq available, xq > gojq > jq, but xq is missing many features, and gojq is missing some features
+export JQ_GOJQ := `command -v "gojq" >/dev/null && echo gojq || echo "jq"`
+export JQ_XQ   := `command -v xq >/dev/null && echo "xq" || { command -v "gojq" >/dev/null && echo gojq || echo "jq" ;}`
+
 # trigger a direnv reload when entering $SHELL
 export DIRENV_WATCHES := ""
 
@@ -30,6 +34,7 @@ XARGS_NL := "-d'\\n' --no-run-if-empty"
 NIX_EVAL_OPTS := "--log-format raw --option warn-dirty false"
 
 # required programs: git nix nom gum fzf tee nix-update jq fd xe sd
+# optional programs: gojq xq
 
 @_default:
     cd "$invokedir"; just "$(gum filter $(just --summary --unsorted | tr ' ' '\n' | grep -vxE 'commit|fixup|list|build'))"
@@ -67,7 +72,7 @@ list-packages +$cut_args="-c1-": _packages_json
     #!/usr/bin/env -S bash -euo pipefail
     cachefile=/tmp/nixpkgs-packages.json.tsv
     if ! [[ -s "$cachefile" && "$cachefile" -nt packages.json ]]; then
-        jq <packages.json 'to_entries[] | select(.value.meta.position==null|not) | [.key, .value.meta.position] | @tsv' -r \
+        $JQ_XQ <packages.json 'to_entries[] | select(.value.meta.position==null|not) | [.key, .value.meta.position] | @tsv' -r \
             | tr '0123456789' '9876543210' | sort | tr '0123456789' '9876543210' \
             | sed -e 's#:\([0-9]*\)$#\t\1#' \
             | grep . >"$cachefile"
@@ -148,7 +153,7 @@ list-packages-by-maintainer *github_handles: _packages_json
     [[ "${#maintainers[@]}" -gt 0 ]]
     #grep </tmp/nixpkgs-maintainers.tsv -F "$(printf "%s\t\n" "${maintainers[@]}")"
     maintainers_json=$(printf "%s\n" "${maintainers[@]}" | jq -sR 'split("\n")|map(select(.==""|not))' -c)
-    jq <packages.json --argjson maintainers "$maintainers_json" 'to_entries[] | select([.value.meta.maintainers // [] | .[] | .github as $maintainer | $maintainers[] | . == $maintainer] | any) | .key' -r \
+    $JQ_GOJQ <packages.json --argjson maintainers "$maintainers_json" 'to_entries[] | select([.value.meta.maintainers // [] | .[] | .github as $maintainer | $maintainers[] | . == $maintainer] | any) | .key' -r \
       | tr '0123456789' '9876543210' | sort -u | tr '0123456789' '9876543210'
 
 [no-cd]
@@ -1082,7 +1087,7 @@ get-maintainers-for-packages *attrpaths: _packages_json
     [[ "${#attrpaths[@]}" -gt 0 ]]
     #grep </tmp/nixpkgs-maintainers.tsv -F "$(printf "%s\t\n" "${attrpaths[@]}")"
     attrpath_json=$(printf "%s\n" "${attrpaths[@]}" | jq -sR 'split("\n")|map(select(.==""|not))' -c)
-    jq <packages.json --argjson attrs "$attrpath_json" '. as $pkgs | $attrs[] | $pkgs[.].meta.maintainers // [] | .[] | .github' -r | sort -u
+    $JQ_GOJQ <packages.json --argjson attrs "$attrpath_json" '. as $pkgs | $attrs[] | $pkgs[.].meta.maintainers // [] | .[] | .github' -r | sort -u
 
 
 get-versions $attrpath=`just _a_package` *paths: setup