Documentation

Everything you need to master the toolkit.

Short, practical guides for every tool in GRID/JSON. Skim it in under 10 minutes.

Getting started

GRID/JSON is a free collection of developer utilities that runs entirely in your browser. There is no signup, no queue, and none of the data you paste is transmitted to a server. Bookmark the tools you use most, or press ⌘ K from anywhere to open the global search.

The home page loads the full JSON Toolkit — use the tabs at the top of the tool to switch between Format & Validate, Minify, Tree Viewer, Grid Viewer, JSONPath, Diff and Sample Generator.

Requirements

  • Any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox, Arc, Brave)
  • No internet connection required once the page is loaded
  • No account, no cookie required for tool functionality

Keyboard shortcuts

  • ⌘ K / Ctrl K — Open the global tool search
  • Tab inside code panels — Move focus (browser default)
  • ⌘ A / Ctrl A — Select all in the active panel
  • ⌘ C — Copy selection; or click the Copy icon in the panel header

Privacy & security

Every tool executes 100% in your browser. There is no upload step and no request is made carrying your input. This is not just a policy — it is architectural: the parsers, hashers and encoders are compiled into the JavaScript bundle you already downloaded.

Analytics and advertising, when enabled by the operator, are limited to aggregate page-level information (URL, referrer, coarse country) and never include tool inputs.

JSON Formatter, Validator, Tree & Grid Viewer

The flagship tool of GRID/JSON. Paste JSON into the left panel and choose the operation from the tab bar.

Format & Validate

Pretty-prints JSON with 2-space, 4-space or tab indentation. Errors show the exact line and column. A Valid or Invalid badge appears on the input panel header.

Minify

Strips all whitespace to produce the smallest possible JSON string. Useful for embedding in URLs, environment variables or HTTP payloads.

Tree Viewer

An interactive collapsible tree with type-colored values. Objects and arrays are expandable; primitives are color-coded (strings green, numbers amber, booleans pink, null muted).

Grid Viewer

Two modes: if the root is an array of homogeneous objects it renders as a real table; otherwise the JSON is flattened into a path → value grid. Great for eyeballing large payloads.

JSONPath

Query with expressions such as $..name, $.users[*].role, or $.stats.stars. Results appear live in the right panel.

Diff

Semantic diff between two JSON documents. Additions are marked +, removals -, and changes ~. It compares by structure — not lines — so key ordering and whitespace do not create false positives.

Sample Generator

Generate realistic samples for common payloads (user, product, API response, config, order). Choose a template and count, then click Generate.

Base64 Encoder / Decoder

Standard Base64 or URL-safe (RFC 4648 §5). The Swap button moves the output back into the input for round-trip testing.

  • Encode: converts UTF-8 text to Base64
  • Decode: converts Base64 to UTF-8 text
  • URL-safe: uses - and _, drops padding

JWT Decoder

Paste a JWT (three dot-separated Base64URL segments) to inspect its header, payload and standard claims (iss, sub, aud, iat, nbf, exp). Expired tokens are highlighted.

The signature is displayed but not verified. Verification requires the issuer’s HMAC secret or public key; sharing those with a web tool would be insecure.

UUID Generator

Generates v1, v4 or v7 UUIDs using the Web Crypto API. Bulk-generate up to 1000 IDs, optionally uppercase or strip hyphens.

  • v4 — fully random; the safe default
  • v7 — time-ordered; ideal for database primary keys
  • v1 — timestamp + node; useful for compatibility

Hash Generator

Computes MD5, SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 hashes of the input text. Copy any single hash or download all as a text file.

MD5 and SHA-1 are cryptographically broken. Use SHA-256 or higher for security-sensitive contexts. For passwords, use a KDF such as Argon2, scrypt or bcrypt — never raw hashes.

API reference

GRID/JSON exposes two endpoints for the contact form and the newsletter. Both accept and return JSON.

POST /api/contact

{
  "name":    "Jane Developer",
  "email":   "jane@example.com",
  "subject": "Feature request",
  "message": "..."
}

Validates the payload, stores it in MongoDB, and (when SMTP is configured) delivers it via email.

POST /api/newsletter

{ "email": "jane@example.com" }

Idempotent — subscribing the same email twice returns success without duplicating rows.

Self-hosting

GRID/JSON is a standard Next.js app. Clone it, set the environment variables in .env, then build and serve:

yarn install
cp .env.example .env
yarn build
yarn start   # or deploy to Vercel / Netlify / Docker

See the README.md in the repository for the full list of environment variables and deployment tips.

Tool reference cards