# JSON Formatter (`moving_beacon-owner1/json-formatter`) Actor

A powerful JSON Formatter tool to beautify, minify, validate, analyze, query, and convert JSON data into CSV with ease. Supports URL input, key sorting, and structured data extraction.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/moving\_beacon-owner1/json-formatter.md
- **Developed by:** [Jamshaid Arif](https://apify.com/moving_beacon-owner1) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, News, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## 🧩 JSON Formatter Tool

A versatile JSON processing tool that allows you to **beautify, minify, validate, analyze, query, and convert JSON to CSV** — all in one place.

***

### 🚀 Features

- ✨ Beautify JSON with customizable indentation
- 🗜️ Minify JSON for compact output
- ✅ Validate JSON structure
- 📊 Analyze JSON (keys, depth, size, etc.)
- 🔍 Query JSON using dot-notation paths
- 🔄 Convert JSON to CSV
- 🌐 Fetch JSON directly from a URL
- 🔤 Optional key sorting for consistent output

***

### ⚙️ Input Options

| Field       | Description |
|------------|------------|
| `json`     | Raw JSON string input |
| `url`      | Optional URL to fetch JSON |
| `action`   | Operation to perform |
| `indent`   | Spaces for formatting (beautify only) |
| `sortKeys` | Sort keys alphabetically |
| `queryPath`| Path for extracting specific data |

***

### 🧠 Supported Actions

- `beautify` → Format JSON with indentation
- `minify` → Remove whitespace
- `validate` → Check JSON validity
- `analyze` → Get structure insights
- `query` → Extract data via path (e.g. `data.users[0].name`)
- `to_csv` → Convert JSON to CSV

***

### 📌 Example

#### Input

```json
{
  "action": "beautify",
  "json": "{\"name\":\"Umar\",\"age\":22}"
}
```

#### Output

```json
{
  "name": "Umar",
  "age": 22
}
```

***

### 🏗️ Use Cases

- Developers debugging APIs
- Data cleaning & transformation
- Scraping pipelines (Apify, etc.)
- Backend preprocessing
- JSON → CSV export workflows

***

### ⚡ Notes

- If `url` is provided, it overrides `json` input
- `queryPath` is only used with `query` action
- `indent` is only used with `beautify` action

***

### 🛠️ Tech Stack (Example)

- Python / Node.js backend
- JSON parsing libraries
- Optional: JMESPath / JSONPath for querying

***

### 📄 License

MIT License

# Actor input Schema

## `json` (type: `string`):

Raw JSON string to format, validate, or analyze. Ignored if URL is provided.

## `action` (type: `string`):

Operation to perform on the JSON input.

## `indent` (type: `integer`):

Number of spaces used for indentation when beautifying JSON. Ignored for other actions.

## `sortKeys` (type: `boolean`):

Sort object keys alphabetically when beautifying JSON.

## `queryPath` (type: `string`):

Dot-notation path to extract specific data (e.g., 'data.users\[0].name'). Used only when action is 'query'.

## `url` (type: `string`):

Optional URL to fetch JSON from. If provided, this will override the JSON Input field.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "action": "beautify",
  "indent": 2,
  "sortKeys": false,
  "queryPath": "",
  "url": ""
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("moving_beacon-owner1/json-formatter").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("moving_beacon-owner1/json-formatter").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call moving_beacon-owner1/json-formatter --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=moving_beacon-owner1/json-formatter",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/5P0q1Rjfm7tnyLlTs/builds/hw60K8qQujkdlNX0N/openapi.json