YAML to JSON Converter

Convert YAML to JSON with a safe parser — anchors and merge keys expanded, no code execution, errors reported with line and column. Ideal for debugging configs as JSON.

YAML detangled into JSON

YAML is pleasant to write and tricky to reason about — anchors, aliases, merge keys, implicit typing. Converting to JSON flattens all of that into plain, explicit data: aliases expand, merge keys resolve, and what you see is literally what a program would get. Parsing uses js-yaml’s safe schema: no custom tags, no code execution, so pasting untrusted YAML is safe — and it never leaves your browser anyway.

Worked example

defaults: &base
  retries: 2
job:
  <<: *base
  name: nightly-sync

becomes:

{
  "defaults": { "retries": 2 },
  "job": { "retries": 2, "name": "nightly-sync" }
}

When to use it

• Debugging a manifest by seeing exactly what the parser sees.
• Feeding YAML-authored config into JSON-only tooling.
• Checking what an anchor/merge-key construction actually resolves to.

Limitations to know

• One document per run — files with — separators are rejected with a clear message instead of silently dropping documents.
• YAML implicit typing has sharp edges: unquoted no or 1.20 may not be the type you meant. When a value must be a string, quote it in the YAML source.

Common errors and fixes

• “Invalid YAML (line X, column Y)” — usually indentation: YAML nesting is whitespace-based and tabs are not allowed for indentation.
• Validate the result — run the output through the JSON Validator or explore it in the JSON Viewer.

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