Pretty-print JSON text

Minified, one-line, or inconsistently indented JSON is hard to read in code reviews, support tickets, and log dumps. This pretty-print JSON text tool accepts a raw JSON string, validates it with a strict parse, and re-serializes the value with consistent space indentation so nested objects and arrays line up predictably. When the payload is invalid, the task fails with invalid_input and reports the character position of the parse error so you can jump straight to the bad comma, quote, or trailing fragment. No key reordering side effects beyond standard JSON serialization, no network round trips, and no model tokens—just deterministic parse and stringify at the published $0.002 base price per successful call.

What pretty-printing a JSON string actually does

Pretty-printing JSON text means taking a string that claims to be JSON, parsing it into a value, and writing that value back out with a fixed number of spaces per nesting level. This capability takes your text field as the source string, runs a strict JSON parse, and returns a new text field with consistent indentation controlled by the optional indent parameter (an integer from zero through eight, defaulting to two spaces). The algorithm does not fetch remote schemas, does not repair broken JSON, and does not reorder object keys beyond the engine’s natural serialization order of the parsed object. That restraint keeps the contract simple: valid in, pretty out; invalid in, clear error with position.

Input contract, response fields, and parse error positions

Optionally send indent as an integer between zero and eight; omit it to use two spaces. When parse fails, the error message always includes a character position: engines that report “at position N” are echoed with that N, incomplete input is mapped to the end of the string, and other failures default to position zero so clients always have a cursor target. POST a JSON body with a required text string containing the document to format. Empty text, non-string text, and out-of-range indent values fail with invalid_input and are not billed. On success the response includes text (the pretty-printed document), indent (the effective spacing used), bytes_in (UTF-8 length of the source string), and bytes_out (UTF-8 length of the formatted result). Example: text equal to a minified object with nested arrays and indent equal to two returns multi-line JSON with two-space steps and matching braces. Example of failure: a truncated object missing a closing brace yields invalid_input mentioning the position near the end of the fragment. Pair this endpoint with your editor or log viewer by seeking to the reported offset; you do not need a second validation call.

Where pretty-print JSON text earns its keep

CI jobs can reject or rewrite config files that arrive minified from upstream generators, failing fast with a parse position when a release artifact is truncated mid-upload. Failed validation does not consume balance. Developers paste API responses into chat and tickets; pretty-print JSON text turns opaque one-liners into reviewable trees without installing a desktop formatter. Support tools show customers the exact offset of a malformed webhook body instead of a generic “invalid JSON” banner. Prefer this text-in, text-out contract when your pipeline already holds JSON as a string—logs, file contents, message bodies—rather than as a pre-parsed object.