---

name: json-tools description: JSON processing toolkit for validating, formatting, querying, and comparing JSON data. Use when working with JSON files, API responses, configuration files, or any structured JSON data that needs parsing, validation, transformation, or comparison. license: MIT metadata: author: dspy-skills version: "1.0"

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.

Decision Tree

CopyTask → 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:

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

Format JSON:

Copypython 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:

Copypython 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:

Copypython 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:

Examples

Given JSON:

Copy{
  "users": [
    {"name": "Alice", "age": 30},
    {"name": "Bob", "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)