---
name: format
description: Format, validate, or minify JSON without external online services
---

## When to Use

Use when the user asks to:
- "prettify json"
- "format json"
- "pretty print json"
- "validate json"
- "clean up json"
- Or mentions wanting to format/prettify JSON data

## Tool Location

`~/.claude/skills/json-pretty/json-pretty.py`

Symlinked to `~/.local/bin/json-pretty` for PATH access.

## Usage

```bash
# From file
json-pretty input.json

# From stdin/pipe
cat data.json | json-pretty
echo '{"foo":"bar"}' | json-pretty

# Save to file
json-pretty input.json -o output.json

# Options
json-pretty input.json --indent 4      # Custom indentation
json-pretty input.json --sort-keys     # Sort object keys
json-pretty input.json --compact       # Minify instead of prettify
```

## Options

- `-o, --output FILE`: Write to file instead of stdout
- `-i, --indent N`: Indentation spaces (default: 2)
- `-s, --sort-keys`: Sort object keys alphabetically
- `-c, --compact`: Compact output (minify)

## Examples

**Prettify inline JSON:**
```bash
echo '{"name":"cal","items":[1,2,3]}' | json-pretty
```

**Format a file:**
```bash
json-pretty messy.json -o clean.json
```

**Sort keys and use 4-space indent:**
```bash
json-pretty data.json --indent 4 --sort-keys
```

## Privacy Note

Built specifically to avoid posting potentially sensitive JSON to online prettifier services.