JSON Tools

A toolkit for working with JSON data using Python standard library only.

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when the user needs to:

• Validate JSON syntax
• Format/pretty-print JSON
• Query JSON with path expressions
• Compare two JSON files
• Transform JSON data

Available Scripts

Always run scripts with --help first to see all available options.

Script	Purpose
validate_json.py	Check if JSON is valid
format_json.py	Pretty-print or minify JSON
query_json.py	Extract data using path expressions
diff_json.py	Compare two JSON files

Decision Tree

Task → What do you need?
    │
    ├─ Check if JSON is valid?
    │   └─ Use: validate_json.py <file>
    │
    ├─ Format/beautify JSON?
    │   └─ Use: format_json.py <file>
    │
    ├─ Extract specific data?
    │   └─ Use: query_json.py <file> <path>
    │
    └─ Compare two JSON files?
        └─ Use: diff_json.py <file1> <file2>

Quick Examples

Validate JSON:

python scripts/validate_json.py data.json
echo '{"key": "value"}' | python scripts/validate_json.py -

Format JSON:

python scripts/format_json.py data.json
python scripts/format_json.py data.json --indent 4
python scripts/format_json.py data.json --minify

Query JSON:

python scripts/query_json.py data.json "users"
python scripts/query_json.py data.json "users.0.name"
python scripts/query_json.py data.json "config.database.host"

Compare JSON:

python scripts/diff_json.py old.json new.json
python scripts/diff_json.py config1.json config2.json --keys-only

Path Expression Syntax

The query_json.py script uses dot-notation paths:

Path	Description
key	Access object key
0, 1, 2	Access array index
key.subkey	Nested access
items.0.name	Mixed access
. or empty	Root element

Examples

Given JSON:

{
  "users": [
    {"name": "Alice", "age": 30},
    {"name": "Bob", "age": 25}
  ],
  "config": {
    "debug": true
  }
}

Path	Result
users	The users array
users.0	First user object
users.0.name	"Alice"
users.1.age	25
config.debug	true

Input Sources

All scripts accept input from:

• File: script.py data.json
• Stdin: echo '{}' | script.py -
• String: script.py --string '{"key": "value"}'

Common Use Cases

1. Validate API response: validate_json.py response.json
2. Pretty-print minified JSON: format_json.py api_response.json
3. Extract config value: query_json.py config.json "database.host"
4. Find config differences: diff_json.py prod.json staging.json

Notes

• All scripts use Python standard library only (no external dependencies)
• Unicode is fully supported
• Large files are handled efficiently
• Exit codes: 0 = success, 1 = error/invalid, 2 = differences found (diff)