JSON Canopy for VS Code

Browse and edit JSON files as nested tables and forms, with JSON Schema support — right next to VS Code's text editor, on the same document.

JSON Canopy

Open a file

JSON Canopy doesn't replace the text editor; open a .json file with it when you want it:

the table icon in the title bar of a JSON text editor,
Open in JSON Canopy in the Explorer's context menu or the Command Palette,
or Open With… → JSON Canopy (View: Reopen Editor With… for an open file).

To always open .json files this way, add to your settings:

"workbench.editorAssociations": { "*.json": "jsonCanopy.editor" }

The file icon in Canopy's title bar opens the same file as text to the side.

What you get

Tables and forms. Objects and arrays as tables inside tables, or — with a schema — as a form with fields in schema order, an outline and a docs panel.
Editing in place, with an explicit type for every value; add and remove keys and items, or edit the whole document as Raw JSON.
Search that keeps the structure around each match.
A real editor. Canopy edits VS Code's own document: undo/redo, the unsaved-changes dot and save work as usual, and changes made in the text editor, by git or by other tools show up in Canopy right away.
Your theme. Light or dark, following VS Code's colour theme.

Schemas

The schema for a file is found the way you'd expect:

a local $schema in the file (relative to the file, an absolute path or a file: URI);
your json.schemas setting (folder, workspace or user), with fileMatch and a url or an inline schema;
a remote $schema or url is never downloaded without asking — the schema bar offers it, and nothing leaves your machine until you click Fetch schema.

Problems are marked on the values and listed in the schema bar; enums become dropdowns, absent optional keys are offered, and descriptions and constraints are a click away. The schema advises, it never blocks.

Good to know

Canopy writes the document back as JSON with two-space indentation: the first edit in Canopy reformats the file. Line endings and the final newline are kept. Files with comments (.jsonc) are not offered.
When several json.schemas entries match a file, Canopy uses the most specific one; VS Code's JSON support combines them. The SchemaStore catalogue is not consulted.
Files over 50 MB can't be opened in Canopy: VS Code doesn't hand documents that large to extensions.
Output → JSON Canopy logs what Canopy does; set its level to Trace to see every message between the page and the extension.