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Zerlo.net
Zerlo.net

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I built a JSON/YAML/TOML toolkit after wasting too much time validating configs

#json #productivity #devtools #webdev

Working with config files should be boring.

That’s exactly the problem: it usually isn’t.

I kept running into the same small annoyances over and over again:

  • a broken comma in JSON
  • YAML indentation issues
  • converting between formats just to test something quickly
  • opening three different tools for tasks that should take 20 seconds

None of this is difficult work. It’s just annoying work.
And that kind of friction adds up fast when you deal with configs regularly.

In my case, it happened often enough while working with API payloads, small web tools, AI-related settings, and general dev utilities that I got tired of constantly switching between validators, formatters, and converters.

So I built a small browser-based JSON Toolkit for my own workflow.

The goal was not to build “yet another formatter”.
The goal was to remove those tiny interruptions that break focus for no good reason.

What I wanted in one place:

  • format JSON quickly
  • validate it without extra clutter
  • minify it when needed
  • convert JSON ↔ YAML/TOML without weird surprises
  • keep the whole thing fast and simple

A typical example is when I have some ugly JSON like this:

{"name":"toolkit","enabled":true,"items":[1,2,3]}
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and I just want this instead:

{
  "name": "toolkit",
  "enabled": true,
  "items": [1, 2, 3]
}
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Or when I want to quickly turn it into YAML for a config test:

name: toolkit
enabled: true
items:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
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That’s not a hard problem.
It’s just the kind of thing that wastes time in small, repetitive chunks.

While building it, I tried to keep the tool focused:

  • no overloaded interface
  • no unnecessary steps
  • no “power user” nonsense for basic tasks
  • just a practical utility that does the job cleanly

That was the main idea from the start:
not a big platform, not a complicated parser playground — just something useful enough that I’d actually keep using it myself.

That’s usually my best filter for small tools:
if I don’t come back to it after building it, it probably wasn’t worth building.

So far, this one stayed.

You can try the JSON Toolkit here.

I’m curious how others handle this kind of workflow:
do you prefer one small all-in-one tool, or separate tools for validation, formatting, and conversion?

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