diff --git a/tui/tui.go b/tui/tui.go
index 562e11b..bcb955f 100644
--- a/tui/tui.go
+++ b/tui/tui.go
@@ -77,6 +77,9 @@ func Browse(ctx context.Context, opts BrowseOptions) error {
 		opts.Stdout = os.Stdout
 	}
 	if opts.JSON {
+		if opts.Rows == nil {
+			opts.Rows = []Row{}
+		}
 		enc := json.NewEncoder(opts.Stdout)
 		enc.SetIndent("", "  ")
 		return enc.Encode(opts.Rows)
diff --git a/tui/tui_test.go b/tui/tui_test.go
index 49fbbed..ff01d41 100644
--- a/tui/tui_test.go
+++ b/tui/tui_test.go
@@ -35,6 +35,16 @@ func TestBrowseJSONUsesUniversalRows(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestBrowseJSONEncodesNilRowsAsEmptyArray(t *testing.T) {
+	var out bytes.Buffer
+	if err := Browse(context.Background(), BrowseOptions{AppName: "discrawl", JSON: true, Stdout: &out}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Browse json: %v", err)
+	}
+	if strings.TrimSpace(out.String()) != "[]" {
+		t.Fatalf("json = %q, want []", out.String())
+	}
+}
+
 func TestRowItemUsesSharedArchiveShape(t *testing.T) {
 	item := Row{
 		Source:    "discord",