Nifty XML

Evaluate XPath with namespaces, copy the XPath of any element, format, minify, check well-formedness and convert XML to JSON.

Maintained. No sign-in. No telemetry. Works in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium and other editors that use Open VSX.

Features

A one-line product export formatted with Format XML, then queried with //book[price < 10]/title and a match picked to jump to it

Evaluating //book[price < 10]/title on a product catalog: two matches with their line numbers

Finding the test dependencies in a Maven POM, which has a default namespace

A product catalog converted to JSON beside the XML

Evaluate XPath (Ctrl+Alt+X). Type an expression like //book[price < 10]/title and get every match with its line number; pick one to jump there, or copy them all. Computed expressions like count(//item) or sum(//price) show their value.
Namespaces just work. Prefixes declared in the document are registered automatically, and names written without a prefix match as they appear in the document, even under a default xmlns (e.g. //dependency/artifactId in a Maven POM). The default namespace is also available as ns: (e.g. //ns:book), so you don't have to fight XPath and xmlns.
Know where you are. The status bar shows the XPath of the element under the cursor. Click it (or run Copy XPath of Element) to copy it, including attributes: /catalog/book[2]/@id.
Format and minify the whole document or a selection, keeping comments.
Catch broken XML. Well-formedness errors appear in the Problems panel as you type. If Red Hat's XML extension is installed, this is left to it so you don't see errors twice.
Convert XML to JSON and JSON to XML (attributes become @name). Values become JSON numbers and booleans only when nothing is lost, so zip codes like 01234 stay strings.
Works for XML, XSLT, XSD, SVG, plist, XAML, WSDL, RSS/Atom and MSBuild files.
Works in the browser on vscode.dev and github.dev.

Command	Key	What it does
`Nifty XML: Evaluate XPath…`	`Ctrl+Alt+X`	Run an XPath expression, with history
`Nifty XML: Copy XPath of Element`		Copy the path of the element or attribute under the cursor
`Nifty XML: Format XML` / `Minify XML`		For the document or selection
`Nifty XML: Convert XML to JSON` / `Convert JSON to XML`		Opens the result beside

Setting	Default	What it does
`nifty.xml.defaultNamespacePrefix`	`ns`	XPath prefix for the default namespace
`nifty.xml.alwaysIndex`	`false`	Index every step when copying XPath
`nifty.xml.showXPathInStatusBar`	`true`	Show the current XPath in the status bar
`nifty.xml.validate`	`auto`	`auto`, `on` or `off`

VS Code: search for "Nifty XML" in the Extensions view, or install from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, Kiro, Antigravity: install from Open VSX.

This extension collects no telemetry, needs no account and makes no network requests.

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