JSON to YAML

What is JSON → YAML?

The JSON to YAML converter transforms a JSON document into equivalent YAML. Many configuration systems — Kubernetes manifests, GitHub Actions, Docker Compose, Ansible playbooks — use YAML, and a clean converter saves hours of hand-conversion (which is error-prone with indentation-sensitive YAML).

How it works

We parse the input with our hand-rolled JSON tokenizer and serialize with js-yaml, the canonical YAML library. We delegate to a battle-tested YAML engine because hand-rolling YAML serialization is fraught with edge cases — anchors, multi-line strings, the 'Norway problem' (where `NO` is parsed as a boolean false).

1. Paste JSON. Drop a JSON file or paste JSON text. The converter runs on every keystroke.
2. Configure indent and style. Pick 2 or 4 spaces and Block vs Flow style. Block is the standard indented form; Flow is compact (suitable for short config snippets).
3. Copy or download. Download as a .yaml file or copy to clipboard.

Examples

Kubernetes config snippet

Paste a JSON spec block and get YAML ready for kubectl apply — e.g. {"apiVersion":"v1","kind":"ConfigMap", ...} becomes apiVersion: v1, kind: ConfigMap, ...

Flow style for short arrays

Toggle Flow style to produce {a: 1, b: 2} instead of the block-style multi-line output.

Common mistakes

Comments in the JSON

JSON does not allow comments, and the source you paste is parsed strictly. Remove any // or /* */ comments before converting.

Lossy number formatting

JSON allows numbers js-yaml may emit with or without quotes depending on format. The YAML output is structurally equivalent and round-trips through a YAML parser.

Alternatives

YAML to JSON

The inverse direction — convert YAML back into JSON. Coming soon.

JSON Formatter

Stay in JSON with the Formatter; sometimes the simplest path is also the right one.

Frequently asked questions