Will the YAML round-trip back to identical JSON?

Yes for standard types. Strings, numbers, booleans, arrays, and objects convert losslessly. Comments can't round-trip (JSON has no comments).

Block style by default — multi-line, hierarchical. Compact JSON-like flow style is available for one-liners.

How are multi-line strings handled?

Strings with newlines use YAML's `|` block literal (preserves newlines). Single-line strings stay inline.

Not from plain JSON — anchors require explicit references that JSON can't express. For anchor-using YAML, write it by hand.

A worked example, rendered from real sample data. Sign in to run the tool on your own input.

Input

{"server":{"host":"localhost","port":3000},"database":{"url":"postgres://localhost/mydb","pool":10}}

Output

server:
  host: localhost
  port: 3000
database:
  url: postgres://localhost/mydb
  pool: 10

Convert JSON to YAML format. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Converters collection.

Converting JSON to YAML is technically lossless since YAML is a superset of JSON and supports all JSON data types.
Kubernetes community tools like kustomize can accept both JSON and YAML, but YAML is overwhelmingly preferred for readability.
YAML's flow style syntax (using braces and brackets) is identical to JSON syntax, making inline conversion trivial.

Will the YAML round-trip back to identical JSON?: Yes for standard types. Strings, numbers, booleans, arrays, and objects convert losslessly. Comments can't round-trip (JSON has no comments).
Flow or block style?: Block style by default — multi-line, hierarchical. Compact JSON-like flow style is available for one-liners.
How are multi-line strings handled?: Strings with newlines use YAML's `|` block literal (preserves newlines). Single-line strings stay inline.
Does it support YAML anchors?: Not from plain JSON — anchors require explicit references that JSON can't express. For anchor-using YAML, write it by hand.

A worked example, rendered from real sample data. Sign in to run the tool on your own input.

Input

{"server":{"host":"localhost","port":3000},"database":{"url":"postgres://localhost/mydb","pool":10}}

Output

server:
  host: localhost
  port: 3000
database:
  url: postgres://localhost/mydb
  pool: 10

Convert JSON to YAML format. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Converters collection.

Converting JSON to YAML is technically lossless since YAML is a superset of JSON and supports all JSON data types.
Kubernetes community tools like kustomize can accept both JSON and YAML, but YAML is overwhelmingly preferred for readability.
YAML's flow style syntax (using braces and brackets) is identical to JSON syntax, making inline conversion trivial.

Will the YAML round-trip back to identical JSON?: Yes for standard types. Strings, numbers, booleans, arrays, and objects convert losslessly. Comments can't round-trip (JSON has no comments).
Flow or block style?: Block style by default — multi-line, hierarchical. Compact JSON-like flow style is available for one-liners.
How are multi-line strings handled?: Strings with newlines use YAML's `|` block literal (preserves newlines). Single-line strings stay inline.
Does it support YAML anchors?: Not from plain JSON — anchors require explicit references that JSON can't express. For anchor-using YAML, write it by hand.