Why convert JSON to YAML?

YAML is the default format for DevOps configuration — Kubernetes manifests, Docker Compose files, Ansible playbooks and GitHub Actions workflows are all written in it. It drops braces, brackets and most quotes, which makes it much easier for people to read and edit than the equivalent JSON.

Example conversion

JSON

{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "kind": "Service",
  "metadata": { "name": "web" },
  "spec": {
    "ports": [
      { "port": 80, "targetPort": 8080 }
    ]
  }
}

YAML

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: web
spec:
  ports:
    - port: 80
      targetPort: 8080

JSON vs YAML syntax

Type	JSON	YAML
Object	`{"key": "value"}`	`key: value`
Array	`["a", "b"]`	`- a` / `- b` (one per line)
String	`"hello"`	`hello` (quotes optional)
Boolean	`true` / `false`	`true` / `false`
Null	`null`	`null` or `~`

Common use cases

Kubernetes manifests and Helm values files
Docker Compose files
CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
Ansible playbooks
OpenAPI / Swagger specs

Special characters in YAML

This converter automatically quotes strings that YAML could misread — values that look like numbers, contain a colon, match boolean words such as yes or no, or include characters like #, & and *.

Programmatic conversion

// Node.js (js-yaml)
const yaml = require('js-yaml');
console.log(yaml.dump(JSON.parse(text)));

# Python (PyYAML)
import json, yaml
print(yaml.dump(json.loads(text), sort_keys=False))

# Command line (yq)
yq -P file.json

Pro tips

Validate your JSON first — invalid input can't be converted.
Output uses 2-space indentation; YAML never allows tabs.
JSON has no comments, so add any YAML comments by hand after converting.

JSON to YAML Converter