unstringify for VS Code

Paste the mess. Read the structure. — now inside the editor.

The engine behind unstringify.com, where VS Code keeps such things: broken JSON fixed with named fixes on the lightbulb and in the Problems panel; CSV, NDJSON and logs read as records through the reading question; conversion into a new editor; comparison by structure in the diff editor; stringified JSON opened in place. Everything runs on your machine. Nothing you open is uploaded — the only request this extension ever makes is to the licence service, when you enter a licence key.

What it does

Each thing lives where VS Code keeps such things — a command, a quick fix on the lightbulb, a hover, the diff editor, the status bar — not in a panel of its own.

	Where	What happens
Fix JSON	command · context menu · the status bar	The fixes appear in the Refactor Preview, one per changed line — "line 12 · Single → double quotes", "line 31 · Python None → JSON null". Keep the ones you want, apply, and the editor's undo restores every byte. On a JSON Lines file each broken record is fixed alone.
Quick fixes	the lightbulb · the hover's Quick Fix… · the Problems panel	The fix for the line under the cursor, named after what it does, plus "Fix all N" — tied to the diagnostic it resolves, the way a linter with a fixer offers its fixes. Hovering VS Code's own JSON error meets the same fix.
Diagnostics	the gutter · the Problems panel	The lines the parser gives up on, marked with the sentence the fix would print, on JSON, JSONC and JSON Lines.
The fact	the status bar	"Not valid JSON yet · 6 fixable" on a document; "CSV · 1,284 rows", "NDJSON · 312 records · 3 broken", "Log · 1,277 records · 7 raw lines kept" on a rows file. Click it.
Read as records…	command · context menu · the status bar	The reading question, as QuickPick steps with the measured default first: separator · first row · the split decimal for CSV and TSV (asked only when the file holds one); which known shape — measured over the file — or a regex with named groups for a log. Then a target, and the records open beside the text. NDJSON and a Markdown table have nothing to decide and are not asked.
Convert to…	command · context menu	YAML · XML · CSV · NDJSON · Markdown table · TypeScript · JSON · minified, from a JSON, YAML or XML document or a selection — and from CSV, TSV, NDJSON, a Markdown table or a log, through the reading question — into a new editor beside it.
Python dict → JSON	command	The same fixes, for the `print(event)` you copied out of a log: single quotes, `True` / `False` / `None`, trailing commas.
Generate TypeScript interfaces	command	One interface per object, arrays typed from every element, a key missing in some elements optional.
Copy JSON path	command · context menu	`$.items[0].sku` for the value under the cursor, the way the tree writes it.
Sort keys · Minify	command · context menu	Every object's keys sorted, at the editor's indent; or the document on one line (JSON and XML). Undo restores the layout.
Open on unstringify.com	command · context menu	The document opens on the site, carried in the link's fragment — compressed, and never sent to a server, because a browser does not send a fragment. Refused past 16 kb compressed, with the size.
Unpack (Pro)	command · the hover	A string value that holds JSON, XML or YAML shows what it holds on hover, pretty, with the two Unpack doors; the command opens it in place — undo packs it back — or into a new editor. An SNS envelope reads as one tree.
Compare by structure with… (Pro)	command · context menu	Another open document, the clipboard or a file, in VS Code's own diff editor over the structural reading: keys sorted and whitespace normalised for a document, one record per line for a rows file — so a reordered key is no difference and a changed value is.

Coming to Pro: a records view of its own for CSV, NDJSON and logs (rows, level chips, filter, the record panel), and Fix across a workspace. Until then the rows open as a new document beside the text, and the site has the view.

Install

From the Extensions view — search unstringify — or from the Marketplace listing. Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium and code-server find it through Open VSX.

Trial, Free, Pro

Every install starts a 14-day trial of everything. When it ends:

Free, forever: Fix JSON and the quick fixes, Python dict → JSON, Read as records, Convert, Generate TypeScript, Copy path, Sort keys, Minify, diagnostics, Open on unstringify.com.
Pro: Unpack and Compare by structure, and what follows them — a one-time personal licence, $19, three activations, from unstringify.com/vscode.

unstringify: Pro: enter a licence key activates this machine; unstringify: Pro: deactivate this machine frees the seat. The key is kept in VS Code's secret storage and re-checked at most once a week, with a 30-day offline grace.

Privacy

No telemetry. No document ever leaves the editor. The one network call is api.lemonsqueezy.com — activate, validate, deactivate — carrying the licence key and this machine's name, and only when you use those commands or a weekly re-check is due. Open the network panel of the extension host and watch it stay empty otherwise.

Settings

unstringify.fix.preview — show the Refactor Preview (default) or apply all fixes at once.
unstringify.diagnostics.enabled — lint JSON and JSON Lines as you type.
unstringify.diagnostics.maxBytes — skip live linting, and the status-bar count, above this size (default 1 MB).

Languages

.csv and .tsv / .tab files get the csv and tsv language ids (another extension naming them the same merges, it does not clash); .ndjson joins VS Code's own JSON Lines. YAML and XML keep the diagnostics of the extensions that own them — our quick fixes attach to those squiggles.

Not open source

The extension and the engine are proprietary; see LICENSE. Questions to hello@unstringify.com.

unstringify

Unstringify