Jollyson

What is this?

Jollyson is a CLI tool for Linux that converts Joker files, Balatro’s serialization format, to JSON.

Examples of Joker files are settings.jkr, meta.jkr, and profile.jkr.

Why do I need this?

This tool will give you meaningful diff output if you manage your Balatro save files and profiles using Git.

It plugs into Git’s textconv facility.

If you have no idea what this means, then this tool is possibly not going to be useful to you.

Installation

Installing manually

Clone this repository to any directory you like.

Make sure the following packages are installed on your system:

• bash
• jq
• lua
• The cson Lua rock (or the lua-cson system package)
• python

Installing from the AUR

Direct your favorite AUR helper to the jollyson package.

Usage

jollyson JKR_FILE

Examples

jollyson ~/.local/share/love/balatro/settings.jkr

jollyson ~/.local/share/love/balatro/1/meta.jkr

jollyson ~/.local/share/love/balatro/1/profile.jkr

Security

Jollyson has no protection against maliciously crafted Joker files. Jollyson uses Lua code injection to parse the contents of the given Joker file directly.

Therefore, you should run Jollyson only on files that you trust. It is safe to run Jollyson on files generated by the copy of Balatro that you have installed.

If you want to parse Joker files that you downloaded or received from a third party, use another tool instead of Jollyson, e.g. one of the Balatro Save Editor tools mentioned in the See also section.

Contributing to Jollyson

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

See also

• Balatro Save Editor by Nan Huang, a Python script that can read and modify Joker files

• Balatro Save Editor by WilsontheWolf (GitHub project), an online tool that can read and modify Joker files

• textconv section in the gitattributes documentation

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Claudia Pellegrino

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. For a copy of the License, see LICENSE.