diff --git a/src/read.jl b/src/read.jl
index 3da5254..d6f8ad0 100644
--- a/src/read.jl
+++ b/src/read.jl
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ end
 Base.codeunits(x::VectorString) = x.bytes
 
 # high-level user API functions
-read(io::IO; kw...) = read(Base.read(io, String); kw...)
+read(io::Union{IO, Base.AbstractCmd}; kw...) = read(Base.read(io, String); kw...)
 read(bytes::AbstractVector{UInt8}; kw...) = read(VectorString(bytes); kw...)
 
 function read(str::AbstractString; jsonlines::Bool=false, kw...)
diff --git a/test/json.jl b/test/json.jl
index 7fe3617..1495526 100644
--- a/test/json.jl
+++ b/test/json.jl
@@ -729,6 +729,10 @@ let iob = IOBuffer()
     @test (JSON3.read(String(take!(iob)))).i == 1
 end
 
+# issue #127 support AbstractCmd
+@test (JSON3.read(`echo \{\"i\":1\}`)).i == 1
+@test (JSON3.read(`echo` & `echo \{\"i\":1\}`)).i == 1
+
 @test_broken JSON3.write([Int64[] Int64[]]) == "[[],[]]" #TODO
 @test JSON3.write([Int64[] Int64[]]') == "[]"