JSON Viewer

Format, validate, repair and browse JSON as a tree, without pasting it into a website.

What you can do

• Run JSON: New Scratch Tab from the palette and paste JSON from a log, an API response or a message
• Format with two spaces, four spaces or tabs, or minify to one line
• See exactly where invalid JSON breaks, marked in the text with a sentence that says what is wrong
• Repair almost-JSON in one click: trailing commas, single quotes, comments, unquoted keys and Python's True, False and None
• Browse the tree beside the text, and click a row to select its source
• Copy a row's path ($.xl.sets[0][0]), its value or its key from the row's ⋯
• Read a string that holds JSON, such as "{\"user\":…}", as a tree of its own
• Search keys and values, or narrow the tree with a JSONPath such as $.items[?(@.price < 10)]
• Sort keys alphabetically at every depth, which makes two documents easy to compare
• Open JSON Lines (.jsonl, .ndjson) with one record per root, and a broken line reported by its number while the rest still show

Notes and limits

• Numbers keep their digits. A 20-digit id stays the same id after formatting, where tools built on JavaScript's own parser round it, and the status line says when a document holds such a number
• .json files stay with the code editor. Open one, then run JSON: Open in JSON Viewer to see it here; Cmd+S in that tab writes the file
• A scratch tab has no file until you save it, and Cmd+S asks where
• Every button is a normal edit, so Cmd+Z undoes it
• Nothing leaves your machine: the extension has no network access
• Very large texts open with the tree collapsed

Getting started

Open the command palette, choose JSON: New Scratch Tab and paste.