A team successfully rewrote the JSONata JSON expression language implementation from JavaScript to Go using AI assistance in just one day, achieving significant cost savings. The project leveraged JSONata's existing test suite to build a working Go version in 7 hours with only $400 in AI token costs. After a week of shadow deployment running both implementations in parallel, the team confirmed the new version matched the original behavior exactly while saving $500,000 annually.
Background
JSONata is a JSON query and transformation language similar to jq, commonly used in data processing workflows. The concept of 'vibe porting' refers to using AI tools to rapidly port code between programming languages while maintaining functionality.
- Source
- Simon Willison
- Published
- Mar 27, 2026 at 08:35 AM
- Score
- 7.0 / 10