YAML to JSON / JSON to YAML

About YAML and JSON

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is the de-facto interchange format for web APIs — strict, machine-friendly, and trivially parsed in every language. YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) was designed for human readability: indentation replaces braces, comments are allowed, and complex strings can span multiple lines without escaping.

Why convert between them?

• Migrating between tools — Kubernetes manifests are YAML, but many APIs return JSON
• Hand-editing config — convert opaque JSON into readable YAML, edit, then convert back
• Documentation — embed JSON examples into YAML-based docs (or vice versa)
• Debugging API responses — YAML's hierarchy is easier to scan than dense JSON

YAML 1.2 features supported

The converter uses the js-yaml library implementing the YAML 1.2 spec. It correctly handles block and flow style, anchors (&name) and aliases (*name), explicit type tags, quoted vs unquoted strings, multi-line block scalars (| and >), and the merge key (<<:).

JSON output formatting

Choose between 2-space, 4-space, tab, or fully minified output. Minified is useful when shipping JSON over the wire or embedding in a single line. Tab indentation is friendlier for many editors with custom tab widths.

Common pitfalls

• Mixed tabs and spaces in YAML cause parse errors — pick one and stick with it (spaces preferred)
• Unquoted strings starting with :, #, ?, - can be misparsed — quote them
• Norway problem: in YAML 1.1, the country code NO parsed as false. YAML 1.2 (used here) requires explicit true / false, so this is no longer an issue
• Numbers with leading zeros: in YAML 1.1 012 was octal; in YAML 1.2 it is just the number 12