Question 1

Does this resolve YAML anchors and aliases (&name and *name)?

Accepted Answer

Yes — an anchor like &base defines a reusable value, and every *base alias elsewhere in the document is expanded to a full copy of that value in the JSON output, including when anchors are nested inside lists or used multiple times.

Question 2

What happens to comments in my YAML file?

Accepted Answer

They are dropped — JSON has no comment syntax, so there is nowhere for them to go. Both leading (# on their own line) and inline (# after a value) comments are stripped during conversion; only the actual data survives.

Question 3

I pasted a YAML file with multiple --- separated documents — what happens?

Accepted Answer

Each document is parsed separately and the results are combined into a single JSON array, one entry per document, in order. This is a one-way convenience: converting that array back to YAML (via JSON to YAML) will not reconstruct multiple --- documents, since a JSON array has no way to signal that intent.

Question 4

Is this safe to paste an untrusted or unfamiliar YAML file into?

Accepted Answer

It is protected against the classic YAML "anchor bomb" (billion-laughs) attack, where a small file defines nested anchors that alias each other exponentially to exhaust memory — the parser caps the number of alias expansions and rejects files that exceed it rather than hanging or crashing the tab. A YAML file with a genuinely circular anchor (referencing itself) is also caught and reported as an error instead of causing an infinite loop.

YAML to JSON

Anchors & Aliases Resolved

Clear Error Messages

Local Processing

Frequently Asked Questions