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A practical guide to converting YAML to JSON safely (with Kubernetes examples)

jsonviewertool 9mo ago
YAML is great for human-readable configuration, but many APIs and tools expect JSON. I wrote this short guide to explain when YAML → JSON conversion is required, common pitfalls (indentation, duplicate keys, anchors), and how this shows up in real Kubernetes and API workflows. Feedback welcome.
- alpb 9mo ago
  Is there an actual guide? It seems you've mainly pasted something along the lines of a ChatGPT output to a Github Pages html.
  - jsonviewertool 9mo ago
    Fair question. The GitHub Pages article is intentionally minimal, but it’s not meant to be a generic LLM dump. The examples come from real issues I’ve hit while working with Kubernetes manifests and CI pipelines — especially duplicate keys, implicit type coercion, and indentation edge cases that silently break JSON conversion. I’m actively expanding it with: - concrete Kubernetes + API payload examples - cases where YAML parses but produces invalid JSON - notes on tooling differences (yq, js-yaml, browser-based parsers) The online converter exists mainly as a reference implementation that runs fully client-side and exposes these edge cases clearly: https://jsonviewertool.com/yaml-to-json https://jsonviewertool.com/yaml-to-json Happy to improve the guide based on feedback — appreciate the pushback.
jsonviewertool 9mo ago
One thing I learned while writing this is how often YAML duplicate keys silently break JSON conversion in CI pipelines. Curious if others have run into similar issues.
ramraj07 9mo ago
If someone can write something to convert between json and xml ill bless your offspring.
- BadBadJellyBean 9mo ago
  JSON to XML should be easy but XML to JSON can not really be done 1 to 1 because of attributes. There is no clear way how to map them. You can establish a mapping for yourself but it will just be a convention on top of JSON.
  - BadBadJellyBean 9mo ago
    https://git.screebo.net/cperrin/XMLJSONConverter https://git.screebo.net/cperrin/XMLJSONConverter Courtesy of Junie/Claude
- swores 9mo ago
  Are LLMs too expensive, or not reliable enough at not making mistakes, or just something you haven't considered? It's not something I generally need to do, so I haven't been keeping up with how good LLMs are at this sort of conversion, but seeing your question I was curious so I took a couple of examples from https://www.json.org/example.html https://www.json.org/example.html and gave them to the default model in the ChatGPT app (GPT 5.2 - at least that's the default for my ChatGPT Plus account) and it seemed to get each of them right on the first attempt.
alpb 9mo ago
Have you tried: cat file.yaml | yq -ojson

YAML is great for human-readable configuration, but many APIs and tools expect JSON. I wrote this short guide to explain when YAML → JSON conversion is required, common pitfalls (indentation, duplicate keys, anchors), and how this shows up in real Kubernetes and API workflows. Feedback welcome.

alpb 9mo ago
Is there an actual guide? It seems you've mainly pasted something along the lines of a ChatGPT output to a Github Pages html.
- jsonviewertool 9mo ago
  Fair question. The GitHub Pages article is intentionally minimal, but it’s not meant to be a generic LLM dump. The examples come from real issues I’ve hit while working with Kubernetes manifests and CI pipelines — especially duplicate keys, implicit type coercion, and indentation edge cases that silently break JSON conversion. I’m actively expanding it with: - concrete Kubernetes + API payload examples - cases where YAML parses but produces invalid JSON - notes on tooling differences (yq, js-yaml, browser-based parsers) The online converter exists mainly as a reference implementation that runs fully client-side and exposes these edge cases clearly: https://jsonviewertool.com/yaml-to-json https://jsonviewertool.com/yaml-to-json Happy to improve the guide based on feedback — appreciate the pushback.

jsonviewertool 9mo ago

One thing I learned while writing this is how often YAML duplicate keys silently break JSON conversion in CI pipelines. Curious if others have run into similar issues.

ramraj07 9mo ago

If someone can write something to convert between json and xml ill bless your offspring.

BadBadJellyBean 9mo ago
JSON to XML should be easy but XML to JSON can not really be done 1 to 1 because of attributes. There is no clear way how to map them. You can establish a mapping for yourself but it will just be a convention on top of JSON.
- BadBadJellyBean 9mo ago
  https://git.screebo.net/cperrin/XMLJSONConverter https://git.screebo.net/cperrin/XMLJSONConverter Courtesy of Junie/Claude
swores 9mo ago
Are LLMs too expensive, or not reliable enough at not making mistakes, or just something you haven't considered? It's not something I generally need to do, so I haven't been keeping up with how good LLMs are at this sort of conversion, but seeing your question I was curious so I took a couple of examples from https://www.json.org/example.html https://www.json.org/example.html and gave them to the default model in the ChatGPT app (GPT 5.2 - at least that's the default for my ChatGPT Plus account) and it seemed to get each of them right on the first attempt.

alpb 9mo ago

Have you tried: cat file.yaml | yq -ojson