diff --git a/src/cli.ts b/src/cli.ts
index ae4ffea..5dbae91 100644
--- a/src/cli.ts
+++ b/src/cli.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env node
 import { Command } from "commander";
 import { record } from "./record.js";
-import { replay } from "./replay.js";
-import { inspectTranscript } from "./inspect.js";
+import { replay, loadTranscript } from "./replay.js";
+import { inspectTranscript, transcriptStats } from "./inspect.js";
 import { diffTranscriptFiles, formatDiff } from "./diff.js";
 import { replayHttp } from "./http.js";
 import { recordHttp } from "./record_http.js";
@@ -49,7 +49,13 @@ program
     "--filter <method>",
     "only show frames whose method key contains this substring (e.g. 'tools/call', 'tools/call[search_issues]')",
   )
-  .action(async (file: string, opts: { filter?: string }) => {
+  .option("--json", "output transcript stats as machine-readable JSON instead of colored text")
+  .action(async (file: string, opts: { filter?: string; json?: boolean }) => {
+    if (opts.json) {
+      const frames = await loadTranscript(file);
+      process.stdout.write(JSON.stringify(transcriptStats(frames), null, 2) + "\n");
+      return;
+    }
     const out = await inspectTranscript(file, { filter: opts.filter });
     process.stdout.write(out + "\n");
   });
diff --git a/test/inspect.json.test.ts b/test/inspect.json.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e55e8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/inspect.json.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+import { describe, it, expect } from "vitest";
+import { transcriptStats } from "../src/inspect.js";
+import type { Frame, JsonRpcMessage } from "../src/types.js";
+
+function req(id: number, method: string, t = 0, params?: unknown): Frame {
+  return {
+    t,
+    dir: "→",
+    msg: {
+      jsonrpc: "2.0",
+      id,
+      method,
+      ...(params !== undefined ? { params } : {}),
+    } as JsonRpcMessage,
+  };
+}
+
+function res(id: number, result: unknown, t = 0.1): Frame {
+  return {
+    t,
+    dir: "←",
+    msg: { jsonrpc: "2.0", id, result } as JsonRpcMessage,
+  };
+}
+
+describe("transcriptStats JSON output shape", () => {
+  it("has exactly the expected top-level keys", () => {
+    const stats = transcriptStats([]);
+    expect(Object.keys(stats).sort()).toEqual([
+      "durationSeconds",
+      "frameCount",
+      "methods",
+      "pairCount",
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it("round-trips through JSON.parse(JSON.stringify()) without loss", () => {
+    const frames = [
+      req(1, "initialize", 0.0),
+      res(1, { capabilities: {} }, 0.01),
+      req(2, "tools/list", 0.02),
+      res(2, [], 0.03),
+      req(3, "tools/call", 0.04, { name: "search_issues" }),
+      res(3, { content: [] }, 0.89),
+    ];
+    const stats = transcriptStats(frames);
+    expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(stats))).toEqual(stats);
+  });
+
+  it("contains no undefined values (JSON.stringify would silently drop them)", () => {
+    const frames = [req(1, "ping", 0), res(1, "pong", 0.1)];
+    const stats = transcriptStats(frames);
+    const before = JSON.stringify(stats);
+    // If any value were undefined, JSON.parse would see fewer keys than stats
+    const parsed = JSON.parse(before) as typeof stats;
+    expect(Object.keys(parsed)).toEqual(Object.keys(stats));
+  });
+
+  it("durationSeconds is a finite number in all cases", () => {
+    expect(Number.isFinite(transcriptStats([]).durationSeconds)).toBe(true);
+    expect(
+      Number.isFinite(
+        transcriptStats([req(1, "a", 1.0), res(1, {}, 2.5)]).durationSeconds,
+      ),
+    ).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("all method count values are positive integers", () => {
+    const frames = [
+      req(1, "initialize", 0),
+      res(1, {}, 0.01),
+      req(2, "tools/call", 0.02, { name: "search" }),
+      res(2, {}, 0.03),
+    ];
+    const { methods } = transcriptStats(frames);
+    for (const [, count] of Object.entries(methods)) {
+      expect(Number.isInteger(count)).toBe(true);
+      expect(count).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("methods object keys are ordered by count descending", () => {
+    const frames = [
+      req(1, "tools/call", 0.0, { name: "busy" }),
+      res(1, {}, 0.1),
+      req(2, "tools/call", 0.2, { name: "busy" }),
+      res(2, {}, 0.3),
+      req(3, "tools/call", 0.4, { name: "busy" }),
+      res(3, {}, 0.5),
+      req(4, "tools/call", 0.6, { name: "rare" }),
+      res(4, {}, 0.7),
+      req(5, "initialize", 0.8),
+      res(5, {}, 0.9),
+    ];
+    const { methods } = transcriptStats(frames);
+    const keys = Object.keys(methods);
+    // "tools/call[busy]" (3) must appear before "tools/call[rare]" (1) and
+    // "initialize" (1).
+    expect(keys[0]).toBe("tools/call[busy]");
+    expect(methods[keys[0]!]!).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(
+      methods[keys[1]!] ?? 0,
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("tied-count methods all appear before methods with lower counts", () => {
+    const frames = [
+      req(1, "tools/list", 0.0),
+      res(1, [], 0.01),
+      req(2, "tools/list", 0.02),
+      res(2, [], 0.03),
+      req(3, "initialize", 0.04),
+      res(3, {}, 0.05),
+    ];
+    const { methods } = transcriptStats(frames);
+    const entries = Object.entries(methods) as [string, number][];
+    for (let i = 0; i < entries.length - 1; i++) {
+      expect(entries[i]![1]).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(entries[i + 1]![1]);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("methods is an empty object for an empty transcript", () => {
+    const { methods } = transcriptStats([]);
+    expect(methods).toEqual({});
+  });
+
+  it("methods is an empty object when transcript has only response frames", () => {
+    const frames = [res(1, "orphan", 0.5)];
+    const { methods } = transcriptStats(frames);
+    expect(methods).toEqual({});
+  });
+});