JSON isn’t difficult to read—until it is. Most of us have had that moment where an API payload shows up compressed into a single unreadable line, or an unexpected character breaks a parsing flow and leaves you hunting through brackets like you’re navigating a maze.
I’ve found that treating JSON formatting as a separate step in the debugging process keeps me from rushing through assumptions. When the data is expanded, properly indented, and visually structured, patterns become easier to spot: mismatched braces, inconsistent types, or fields that don’t belong where they appear.
It’s similar to reading logs: clarity reduces cognitive load. And when you’re deep into backend or integration work, that’s often what makes the difference between a five-minute fix and an hour of frustration.
There are plenty of ways to handle this inside editors, but when I want to isolate the data outside my environment, dropping it into a lightweight formatter helps me reset my perspective. Lately, I’ve been using the one at https://www.knowadvance.com/json-formatter
when I want quick validation without opening another project workspace.
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