JSON-query?

1_input.json

[
    {
        "id": 1,
        "name": "Item number 1"
    },
    {
        "id": 2,
        "name": "A second item"
    }
]

2_json-query.js

#!/usr/bin/env node

var vm = require('vm');

var input = '';
var command = process.argv.slice(2).join(' ');

process.stdin.setEncoding('utf8');

process.stdin.on('readable', function() {
    var chunk = process.stdin.read();
    if (chunk !== null) {
        input += chunk;
    }
});

process.stdin.on('end', function() {
    var sandbox = {
    	'$': JSON.parse(input),
    	'log': console.log
    };
    vm.runInNewContext(command, sandbox);
});

3_example.log

$ cat 1_input.json | ./2_json-query.js "$.forEach(function(val) { log('name: ' + val.name); })"
name: Item number 1
name: A second item