JSON Explorer

The JSON Explorer is an interactive viewer for JSON responses and files. Open it from a JSON response, from a .json, .jsonl, or .ndjson file in VS Code, from the standalone JSON Explorer extension, or by pasting JSON into the explorer. JSONL and NDJSON inputs are parsed as arrays with one element per non-blank line; a malformed line reports an error with its line number.

Opening the Explorer

From a response: Click Open in JSON Explorer in the response toolbar when viewing a JSON response. The explorer opens with request context, enabling you to create assertions and save variables back to the originating request.
From a file in the API client extension: Right click any .json file in the VS Code explorer and select Open in JSON Explorer. Files up to 20 MB are supported.
From the JSON Explorer extension: Use Open with JSON Explorer, Open JSON File from Disk, or the JSON Explorer sidebar.
By pasting: When the explorer is open and no input field is focused, paste JSON from your clipboard with Ctrl+V. The explorer parses and loads it automatically.

Tree View

The default view displays JSON as a collapsible, color-coded hierarchy.

Color-coded types: strings (orange), numbers (green), booleans (blue), null (gray italic), object keys (yellow badge), array keys (purple badge)
Inline previews for collapsed nodes: { 3 keys }, [ 42 items ]
Click a node to expand or collapse it
Double-click to expand or collapse recursively
Expand All, Collapse All, and expand to depth buttons for levels 1 through 5 in the toolbar
Virtual scrolling for large documents
Copy value on hover
Keyboard navigation: arrow keys, Home/End
Timestamp hints: numbers and strings recognized as Unix seconds, Unix milliseconds, or ISO 8601 show an inline formatted date next to the value, with the full date on hover
Embedded JSON: string values that parse as a JSON object or array show an inline JSON badge; a context menu action opens the parsed value in a new panel
Sort keys: a toolbar toggle reorders object keys alphabetically in the tree without changing the document; table view, search, diff, and copy keep the original order
Multi-select: Ctrl/Cmd+click to toggle nodes, Shift+click to select a range, Ctrl+A to select all visible nodes, Escape to clear. The status bar shows the selection count

Table View

When the root is an array of objects, switch to table view with the toolbar toggle or Ctrl+Shift+T.

Auto-detected columns from all array items
Click column headers to sort ascending or descending
Drag column borders to resize; double-click to auto-fit
Row numbers stay pinned, and you can pin any column in place from its header
Timestamp hints in cells for recognized Unix and ISO 8601 date values
Rows matching the query filter are highlighted
Pagination with “Show more”
CSV export button in the table toolbar

Search

Press Ctrl+F to search across keys and values.

Case-sensitive, regex, and fuzzy (fzf) modes
Scope to keys only, values only, or a subtree
Filter mode: toggle between highlighting matches and hiding non-matches
Navigate with Enter / Shift+Enter
Inline text highlighting in both tree and table views

JSONPath Filter

Press Ctrl+/ to open the JSONPath filter. Enter an expression like $.data[*].name to filter the view to matching nodes. Click the ? button in the filter bar to open a reference panel covering JSONPath syntax, filter operators, and examples.

Query Filter

Press Ctrl+Shift+K to open the query filter. Unlike the JSONPath filter above, it uses field comparisons rather than path expressions: status = "active", age > 30, name contains "john". Conditions combine with AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses, and field paths use dot notation such as address.city. Matches are highlighted in both tree and table views, with controls to step through them.

Click the ? button in the filter bar to open a reference panel covering operators, combinators, and example queries. See Query Filter for the full operator reference.

Right-click any node:

Action	Description
Copy Value	Copy the value at this node
Copy Path	Copy the JSONPath expression to reach this node
Copy Key	Copy the key name
Bookmark	Add this path to the bookmarks panel
Pin	Add this path to the always-visible Pinned strip above the tree
Search in this node	Scope search to this subtree
Expand Recursively	Expand this node and all children
View as Table	Show this array of objects in table view
Open Subtree in New Tab	Open this object or array in its own explorer panel (VS Code)
Open Embedded JSON in New Tab	Parse a JSON string value and open it in its own panel (VS Code)
Create Assertion	Auto-generate a JSON Path assertion targeting this value (from response context)
Save as Variable	Save this value to your active environment (from response context)
Copy N values	Copy every selected value (appears when more than one node is selected)
Bookmark N nodes	Bookmark every selected node (appears when more than one node is selected)

Compare

Click Compare (the diff icon) in the toolbar to diff the open document against another JSON document. Paste the second document into the compare panel, or click Choose file… to pick a JSON file from disk (VS Code), and the explorer reports how many paths were added, removed, changed, and left unchanged, then marks each one in a merged tree.

See Compare for details. This is separate from Response Diff, which compares a response against the previous response for the same request.

Generate Types

Click Generate Types in the toolbar to turn the loaded JSON into type definitions in TypeScript, Zod, Rust, Go, Python, or JSON Schema. With a node selected, only that subtree is used. See Generate Types.

Schema Validation

Click the schema button (the verified icon) in the toolbar to open the schema panel. Paste a JSON Schema and click Validate. Nodes that fail validation are marked in the tree, and the panel lists each violation with its path and message; click a violation to jump to the node. Clear schema removes all marks.

Statistics

Click the statistics button in the toolbar for a breakdown of the loaded document: total keys, objects, arrays, values, and maximum nesting depth; a type distribution bar covering strings, numbers, booleans, nulls, objects, and arrays with counts and percentages; array length and string length summaries; and a list of unique keys.

Copy As / Export

Copy the current document or selected node in these formats:

Formatted JSON
Minified JSON
YAML
TypeScript
Python
PHP array
CSV (arrays only)
Markdown table (arrays only)

When several nodes are multi-selected, the copy applies to the whole selection.

Save to File

The same menu can save the document straight to disk as JSON, YAML, or CSV. In the VS Code extensions this opens the native save dialog.

More Features

Breadcrumb navigation: Clickable path bar showing your current location in the document
Bookmarks panel: A panel you open from the toolbar to save and jump to frequently accessed paths
Pinned nodes: Pin a node from its hover button or the context menu and it joins an always-visible Pinned strip above the tree, showing a live preview of each pinned value. Click a pin to jump to it, remove pins individually, or clear them all. Pins persist between sessions. Pinning differs from bookmarking: the Pinned strip stays on screen with value previews, while Bookmarks is a panel you open on demand
Minimap: Toolbar toggle showing a canvas overview of the document with a viewport indicator you can click to scroll. It appears for documents with more than 20 visible nodes, and is separate from the response viewer’s minimap, which maps the raw response text
Node count: Toolbar badge showing the number of nodes in the loaded document
Word wrap: Toggle with Alt+Z

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+F`	Toggle search
`Ctrl+/`	Toggle JSONPath filter
`Ctrl+Shift+K`	Toggle query filter
`Ctrl+Shift+T`	Toggle tree / table view
`Alt+Z`	Toggle word wrap
Arrow keys	Navigate tree nodes
`Enter`	Expand / collapse selected node
`Ctrl`/`Cmd`+click	Add or remove a node from the selection
`Shift`+click	Select a range of nodes
`Ctrl+A`	Select all visible nodes
`Escape`	Clear the selection