diff --git a/cmd/archivistactl/cmd/search.go b/cmd/archivistactl/cmd/search.go
index 55f9bfd8..bf419519 100644
--- a/cmd/archivistactl/cmd/search.go
+++ b/cmd/archivistactl/cmd/search.go
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@
 package cmd
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
+	"fmt"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/in-toto/archivista/pkg/api"
@@ -42,6 +44,10 @@ Digests are expected to be in the form algorithm:digest, for instance: sha256:45
 		return nil
 	},
 	RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
+		if format != "table" && format != "json" {
+			return fmt.Errorf("unsupported format %q: supported formats are table, json", format)
+		}
+
 		algo, digest, err := validateDigestString(args[0])
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -52,13 +58,25 @@ Digests are expected to be in the form algorithm:digest, for instance: sha256:45
 			return err
 		}
 
+		if format == "json" {
+			jsonData, err := json.MarshalIndent(results, "", "  ")
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal results to JSON: %w", err)
+			}
+			fmt.Fprintln(cmd.OutOrStdout(), string(jsonData))
+			return nil
+		}
+
 		printResults(results)
 		return nil
 	},
 }
 
+var format string
+
 func init() {
 	rootCmd.AddCommand(searchCmd)
+	searchCmd.Flags().StringVarP(&format, "format", "f", "table", "Output format (table|json)")
 }
 
 func validateDigestString(ds string) (algo, digest string, err error) {
diff --git a/cmd/archivistactl/cmd/search_test.go b/cmd/archivistactl/cmd/search_test.go
index 6b2e7523..3fd4f69b 100644
--- a/cmd/archivistactl/cmd/search_test.go
+++ b/cmd/archivistactl/cmd/search_test.go
@@ -56,6 +56,19 @@ func (ut *UTSearchSuite) Test_SearchInvalidDigestString() {
 	}
 }
 
+func (ut *UTSearchSuite) Test_SearchInvalidFormat() {
+	output := bytes.NewBufferString("")
+	rootCmd.SetOut(output)
+	rootCmd.SetErr(output)
+	rootCmd.SetArgs([]string{"search", "sha256:test", "--format", "yaml"})
+	err := rootCmd.Execute()
+	if err != nil {
+		ut.ErrorContains(err, "unsupported format")
+	} else {
+		ut.FailNow("Expected: error")
+	}
+}
+
 func (ut *UTSearchSuite) Test_NoDB() {
 	output := bytes.NewBufferString("")
 	rootCmd.SetOut(output)