diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 528cbd3..2031ea4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ and more, written in pure Go, and inspired by [skate](https://github.com/charmbr
 
 <p align="center"></p><!-- spacer -->
 
-`pda!` stores key-value pairs natively as [newline-delimited JSON](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON_streaming#Newline-delimited_JSON) files. The `list` command outputs tabular data by default, but also supports [CSV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values), [TSV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab-separated_values), [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) and [HTML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_element#Tables) tables, and raw NDJSON. Because every store is in plaintext, Git versioning is pretty easy: auto-committing, pushing, and fetching can be enabled in the config to automatically version changes, or just `pda sync` regularly.
+`pda!` stores key-value pairs natively as [newline-delimited JSON](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON_streaming#Newline-delimited_JSON) files. The `list` command outputs tabular data by default, but also supports [CSV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values), [TSV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab-separated_values), [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) and [HTML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_element#Tables) tables, JSON, and raw NDJSON. Because every store is in plaintext, Git versioning is pretty easy: auto-committing, pushing, and fetching can be enabled in the config to automatically version changes, or just `pda sync` regularly.
 
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@@ -229,7 +229,11 @@ pda ls --format csv
 # name,Alice,no expiry
 # dogs,four legged mammals,no expiry
 
-# Or TSV, or Markdown, or HTML.
+# Or as a JSON array.
+pda ls --format json
+# [{"key":"name","value":"Alice","encoding":"text"},{"key":"dogs","value":"four legged mammals","encoding":"text"}]
+
+# Or TSV, Markdown, HTML, NDJSON.
 
 # Just the count of entries.
 pda ls --count
diff --git a/cmd/list.go b/cmd/list.go
index 8c4539d..b8c0a98 100644
--- a/cmd/list.go
+++ b/cmd/list.go
@@ -46,11 +46,11 @@ func (e *formatEnum) String() string { return string(*e) }
 
 func (e *formatEnum) Set(v string) error {
 	switch v {
-	case "table", "tsv", "csv", "html", "markdown", "ndjson":
+	case "table", "tsv", "csv", "html", "markdown", "ndjson", "json":
 		*e = formatEnum(v)
 		return nil
 	default:
-		return fmt.Errorf("must be one of 'table', 'tsv', 'csv', 'html', 'markdown', or 'ndjson'")
+		return fmt.Errorf("must be one of 'table', 'tsv', 'csv', 'html', 'markdown', 'ndjson', or 'json'")
 	}
 }
 
@@ -196,6 +196,24 @@ func list(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	// JSON format: emit a single JSON array
+	if listFormat.String() == "json" {
+		var entries []jsonEntry
+		for _, e := range filtered {
+			je, err := encodeJsonEntry(e, recipient)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("cannot ls '%s': %v", targetDB, err)
+			}
+			entries = append(entries, je)
+		}
+		data, err := json.Marshal(entries)
+		if err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("cannot ls '%s': %v", targetDB, err)
+		}
+		fmt.Fprintln(output, string(data))
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	// Table-based formats
 	showValues := !listNoValues
 	tw := table.NewWriter()
@@ -485,7 +503,7 @@ func init() {
 	listCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&listNoTTL, "no-ttl", false, "suppress the TTL column")
 	listCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&listFull, "full", "f", false, "show full values without truncation")
 	listCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&listNoHeader, "no-header", false, "suppress the header row")
-	listCmd.Flags().VarP(&listFormat, "format", "o", "output format (table|tsv|csv|markdown|html|ndjson)")
+	listCmd.Flags().VarP(&listFormat, "format", "o", "output format (table|tsv|csv|markdown|html|ndjson|json)")
 	listCmd.Flags().StringSliceP("key", "k", nil, "filter keys with glob pattern (repeatable)")
 	listCmd.Flags().StringSliceP("value", "v", nil, "filter values with glob pattern (repeatable)")
 	rootCmd.AddCommand(listCmd)
diff --git a/testdata/help-list.ct b/testdata/help-list.ct
index 80e64f5..f513a64 100644
--- a/testdata/help-list.ct
+++ b/testdata/help-list.ct
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Aliases:
 Flags:
   -b, --base64          view binary data as base64
   -c, --count           print only the count of matching entries
-  -o, --format format   output format (table|tsv|csv|markdown|html|ndjson) (default table)
+  -o, --format format   output format (table|tsv|csv|markdown|html|ndjson|json) (default table)
   -f, --full            show full values without truncation
   -h, --help            help for list
   -k, --key strings     filter keys with glob pattern (repeatable)
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ Aliases:
 Flags:
   -b, --base64          view binary data as base64
   -c, --count           print only the count of matching entries
-  -o, --format format   output format (table|tsv|csv|markdown|html|ndjson) (default table)
+  -o, --format format   output format (table|tsv|csv|markdown|html|ndjson|json) (default table)
   -f, --full            show full values without truncation
   -h, --help            help for list
   -k, --key strings     filter keys with glob pattern (repeatable)
diff --git a/testdata/list-format-json.ct b/testdata/list-format-json.ct
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c2cd85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testdata/list-format-json.ct
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# JSON array format output via list
+$ pda set a@jf 1
+$ pda set b@jf 2
+$ pda ls jf --format json
+[{"key":"a","value":"1","encoding":"text"},{"key":"b","value":"2","encoding":"text"}]