diff --git a/plugins/jsontools/README.md b/plugins/jsontools/README.md
index 9f07194c9..309ce9b5f 100644
--- a/plugins/jsontools/README.md
+++ b/plugins/jsontools/README.md
@@ -5,10 +5,11 @@ Handy command line tools for dealing with json data.
 ## Tools
 
 - **pp_json** - pretty prints json
+- **is_json** - returns true if valid json; false otherwise
 
-## Usage
+## Examples
 
-##### pp_json - examples
+##### pp_json
 
 ```sh
 # curl json data and pretty print the results
@@ -19,4 +20,16 @@ less data.json | pp_json
 
 # json data directly from the command line
 echo '{"b":2, "a":1}' | pp_json
+```
+
+##### is_json
+```sh
+# curl json data and pretty print the results
+curl https://coderwall.com/bobwilliams.json | is_json
+
+# pretty print the contents of an existing json file
+less data.json | is_json
+
+# json data directly from the command line
+echo '{"b":2, "a":1}' | is_json
 ```
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/plugins/jsontools/jsontools.plugin.zsh b/plugins/jsontools/jsontools.plugin.zsh
index 729763c33..b8b558807 100644
--- a/plugins/jsontools/jsontools.plugin.zsh
+++ b/plugins/jsontools/jsontools.plugin.zsh
@@ -2,15 +2,26 @@
 # Adds command line aliases useful for dealing with JSON
 
 if [[ $(whence $JSONTOOLS_METHOD) = "" ]]; then
-    JSONTOOLS_METHOD=""
+	JSONTOOLS_METHOD=""
 fi
 
 if [[ $(whence node) != "" && ( "x$JSONTOOLS_METHOD" = "x"  || "x$JSONTOOLS_METHOD" = "xnode" ) ]]; then
 	alias pp_json='xargs -0 node -e "console.log(JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(process.argv[1]), null, 4));"'
+	alias is_json='xargs -0 node -e "try {json = JSON.parse(process.argv[1]);} catch (e) { console.log(false); json = null; } if(json) { console.log(true); }"'
 elif [[ $(whence python) != "" && ( "x$JSONTOOLS_METHOD" = "x" || "x$JSONTOOLS_METHOD" = "xpython" ) ]]; then
 	alias pp_json='python -mjson.tool'
+	alias is_json='python -c "
+import json, sys;
+try: 
+	json.loads(sys.stdin.read())
+except ValueError, e: 
+	print False
+else:
+	print True
+sys.exit(0)"'
 elif [[ $(whence ruby) != "" && ( "x$JSONTOOLS_METHOD" = "x" || "x$JSONTOOLS_METHOD" = "xruby" ) ]]; then
 	alias pp_json='ruby -e "require \"json\"; require \"yaml\"; puts JSON.parse(STDIN.read).to_yaml"'
+	alias is_json='ruby -e "require \"json\"; begin; JSON.parse(STDIN.read); puts true; rescue Exception => e; puts false; end"'
 fi
 
-unset JSONTOOLS_METHOD
\ No newline at end of file
+unset JSONTOOLS_METHOD