YAML Formatter — Normalize Indent & Minify YAML

YAML uses significant whitespace — unlike JSON, a tab or wrong indent level changes the parse tree. Copy-paste from PDFs, Slack code fences, or older branches introduces invisible drift. Normalization rewrites nesting with consistent spaces so diffs reflect semantic edits.

Platform teams often mandate two-space indent in Helm values while legacy files use four. Converting wholesale before lint gates prevents spurious CI failures on whitespace-only changes.

Normalize expands structure with readable line breaks and uniform indent steps per nesting level. Lists, mappings, and nested objects align so reviewers see block structure clearly — ideal for GitHub Actions and Compose review.

Minify compacts safe whitespace for snippets embedded in environment variables or documentation examples where line count matters. Minify is not always equivalent across all YAML features — verify anchors and multiline strings after minifying critical configs.

The formatter parses YAML into an object tree and reports syntax failures: unbalanced quotes, mapping keys without values, illegal tab indentation. That catches typos before kubectl or ansible-playbook emits cryptic line-column errors.

Semantic validation — required keys for a Deployment, valid resource limits — belongs in kubeconform, kubeval, or policy engines. Use this tool for syntax and indent hygiene first.

API response formatter converts JSON API bodies into YAML for readability when debugging mixed endpoints. It optimizes for quick translation, not re-indenting an existing YAML file pasted from a Git repo.

YAML formatter assumes YAML input and focuses on indent policy, minify, and multi-document --- sections. When starting from JSON, use API response formatter; when cleaning deployment.yaml, use this page.

Before opening a PR, paste manifest hunks here to align indent with team convention. Reviewers then focus on image tags and resource changes instead of arguing two versus four spaces.

GitHub Actions YAML with deep nesting benefits from normalization after merging dependabot branches — conflict markers removed but indent sometimes mangled.

YAML anchors (&) and aliases (*) reduce duplication in large configs. Normalization preserves anchor definitions when parser support allows; exotic alias chains may need eyeball review after transform.

Literal block scalars (| and >) keep newlines for scripts and certificates. The formatter respects block boundaries rather than folding them into quoted strings unless minify rules safely compact them.

Manifests reveal internal service names, replica counts, and image registries. Browser-only processing keeps that metadata off our servers — important for regulated environments and unreleased product codenames in image paths.

Do not paste live production secrets into any online tool without policy approval; this page does not persist input but clipboard content may remain in browser memory until cleared.

Many pipelines generate JSON from APIs then store YAML in Git. JSON formatter handles API logs; YAML formatter handles committed config. Some teams keep docker-compose.yml and config.json side by side — use the right tool per file type.

Converting JSON to YAML for new manifests is a job for API response formatter or dedicated converters — not this indent normalizer.

Tabs masquerading as spaces — editors show alignment but parsers reject tabs. Duplicate keys in mappings where later keys silently override earlier ones in some parsers — normalization may not dedupe keys; watch for that in reviews.

Unquoted colons in plain scalars, missing space after colon in key-value pairs, and inconsistent list indent under parent keys — parse errors often point near the first break.

Document chosen indent width in CONTRIBUTING.md and run samples through this formatter before merge. Pair with pre-commit hooks in repos for automated enforcement — this page validates ad hoc paste during development.

When backporting fixes across release branches, normalize both sides before diffing to see true semantic divergence instead of whitespace noise.