Developer Tools
Formatters, beautifiers and encoders for the data formats you deal with daily. Paste something messy in, get something readable back.
All 5 Developer Tools
Which developer tool do you need?
| Tool | Use it to | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| JSON Formatter | Read API output, shrink it, or check that it parses | Beautify with 2 or 4 spaces or a tab, minify, or validate only. An invalid document gets an error message. |
| HTML Beautifier | See the nesting in minified or pasted markup | Beautifies only. It re-indents what you give it and does not repair or validate the markup. |
| CSS Minifier | Strip comments and whitespace from a stylesheet, or expand a minified one | Minify or beautify, and reports how many bytes the minified version saves. The minifier is basic and regex-based, not syntax-aware, so test its output. |
| JS Beautifier | Read minified or messy JavaScript | Beautifies. A basic minify option strips comments and whitespace, but use your build tooling for production bundles. |
| URL Encode/Decode | Make a string safe to put in a URL, or read an encoded one | Percent-encodes and decodes in either direction. |
Beautify, minify and encode are different jobs
Beautifying adds line breaks and indentation so a person can read code or data that was written, generated or minified onto one line. It changes whitespace, not meaning.
Minifying does the reverse: it removes whitespace and comments to make a file smaller to send. Encoding is a third thing. It rewrites data into a form that survives where it is going, such as percent-encoding for a URL. Encoding does not hide anything, and none of these tools encrypts.
None of the five lints your code or scans it for security problems. The JSON Formatter checks that a document parses as JSON, and the other tools format what you paste.
Common developer workflows
- Debugging an API response: paste it into the JSON Formatter. If it fails to parse, the usual causes are trailing commas, single quotes, unquoted keys and comments, none of which are valid JSON.
- A query parameter that holds JSON or a redirect address: decode it with the URL Encoder and Decoder, then format the result.
- Reading a minified bundle: run it through the JS Beautifier. It restores the structure but not the original variable names, which only a source map can bring back.
- Trimming a stylesheet: the CSS Minifier is a quick way to strip comments and whitespace. Keep your readable source, and review and test the result before deploying it, because a basic regex minifier can alter whitespace-sensitive selectors such as ".card :hover" or the contents of strings. When reliability matters for production CSS, use syntax-aware build tooling.
- A value that arrives as Base64: the Base64 Encode/Decode tool in Utilities reads Base64 that holds text, and the result can go straight into the JSON Formatter. Base64 is an encoding, not encryption.
Common questions
Is my code or data sent anywhere?
No. All five tools run in your browser, which matters when a payload contains tokens or customer data.
Does beautifying or minifying change how my code behaves?
The JSON Formatter works on parsed JSON, so when it succeeds the data is unchanged. The CSS Minifier is a basic regex-based tool: it can alter whitespace-sensitive selectors (".card :hover" becomes ".card:hover") or text inside strings, so test its output before using it. In HTML, whitespace matters inside elements such as pre and textarea, so re-indenting can shift how those render. In JavaScript, code that relies on automatic semicolon insertion deserves a test after reformatting, and the basic minify option is not a substitute for a real minifier.
Do these tools check my code for errors?
Only the JSON Formatter, and only that the text parses as JSON. The HTML, CSS and JavaScript tools do not lint, validate or repair what you paste.
Related pages
- Utilities: Base64 Encode/Decode, the Hash Generator and the UUID Generator sit alongside these when you are working with data.
- Text to Slug: Designs a short readable URL slug, where URL Encode/Decode handles arbitrary text that must be escaped.