handyman
Hazuu Tools

YAML Formatter & Beautifier

Format, beautify, and validate your YAML data instantly in a secure, client-side environment.

Input YAML
Output
Formatted output will appear here...
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About YAML Formatter

YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a human-readable data serialization format used everywhere that configuration lives: Kubernetes manifests, Docker Compose files, GitHub Actions workflows, Ansible playbooks, Helm charts, and application config files. Because YAML is whitespace-sensitive, a single misaligned indent can silently break a deployment, make a CI job fail to parse, or cause a Kubernetes pod to refuse to start. The YAML Formatter takes raw YAML — whether hand-written, machine-generated, or pasted from a ticket — and re-serialises it with uniform, consistent indentation so the structure is immediately clear and correct.

Use this tool whenever you receive a YAML snippet that is formatted inconsistently: mixed tabs and spaces, flow-style inline blocks that are hard to read, or indentation that varies by section. You can switch between 2-space, 4-space, or tab indentation to match your team's style guide, and use the Minify button to collapse the document into compact flow notation when you need to embed a snippet in a script or environment variable. The formatter uses js-yaml under the hood, the same parser that Kubernetes tooling and many Node.js frameworks rely on, so the output is always spec-compliant YAML 1.2.

All formatting and validation runs entirely in your browser. Your Kubernetes secrets, database credentials, and CI/CD variables are never transmitted to a server or logged anywhere. The tool is free with no sign-up, no rate limits, and no file-size cap — paste a 10-line snippet or a 3,000-line Helm chart values file and it will process both in milliseconds.

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Key Features

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Configurable indentation

Choose 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or tabs to match your project's style guide. The setting is applied consistently across every nesting level, removing mixed-indent problems in one click.

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Flow-to-block expansion

Inline flow-style YAML like {host: "0.0.0.0", port: 8080} is automatically expanded into readable block style, making deeply nested configs easy to diff and review.

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Minify to flow notation

Collapse block YAML into compact single-line flow style for embedding in shell scripts, environment variables, or CI pipeline parameters where whitespace must be minimal.

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Live syntax validation

The formatter parses your YAML with js-yaml before outputting anything. If the input is invalid, a descriptive error message shows exactly which line failed and why, rather than producing silent garbage output.

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File upload and download

Load a .yaml or .yml file directly from disk and download the formatted result as formatted.yaml — no copy-paste required when working with large manifests or values files.

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Private by design

Formatting runs in your browser with no network requests. Kubernetes secrets, API keys, and database passwords in your YAML config stay on your machine.

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How to Use

01

Paste Your YAML

Copy your YAML data and paste it into the input editor on the left.

02

Format or Minify

Click "Format" to beautify with clean indentation, or "Minify" to compress into flow style.

03

Copy the Result

Use the copy button to grab your formatted YAML, or download it as a .yaml file.

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Example

Inline flow-style YAML is expanded into clean block notation. Nesting levels are re-indented consistently, and the structure becomes immediately readable for code review or editing.

Messy flow-style YAML
server: {host: "0.0.0.0", port: 8080, debug: true}
database: {driver: "postgres", host: "localhost", port: 5432, name: "myapp"}
logging: {level: "info", outputs: ["stdout", "file"]}
Formatted block YAML (2 spaces)
server:
  host: "0.0.0.0"
  port: 8080
  debug: true
database:
  driver: "postgres"
  host: "localhost"
  port: 5432
  name: "myapp"
logging:
  level: "info"
  outputs:
    - stdout
    - file
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Common Use Cases

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    Standardising Kubernetes and Helm manifests

    Kubernetes YAML is often written by multiple authors or generated by tools, resulting in mixed indentation. Paste a Deployment, Service, or Helm values file and reformat it to your team's 2-space standard before committing.

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    Cleaning up GitHub Actions and CI/CD workflows

    Action workflows copied from documentation or Stack Overflow often arrive with 4-space or tab indentation that conflicts with your repo's style. The formatter normalises indentation without altering step names or env vars.

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    Making machine-generated config human-readable

    Tools like Terraform, Ansible, and Helm templating engines can output dense flow-style YAML. Expand it into block notation so you can review what changed, spot duplicate keys, and understand the full structure.

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    Preparing YAML snippets for documentation

    Inline flow-style YAML is hard to read in README files and wikis. Reformat to block style with consistent indentation before pasting into Markdown, Confluence, or Notion pages.

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    Debugging indentation errors in config files

    When a YAML parser throws a vague "mapping values are not allowed here" error, paste the file here to see it reformatted correctly alongside the parser's error message, making the offending line easy to find.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a YAML Formatter? expand_more
A YAML Formatter is a tool that takes messy or inconsistently indented YAML data and restructures it with uniform indentation and clean formatting, making it easier to read and reducing the risk of indentation-related errors.
Does this tool validate YAML syntax? expand_more
Yes. The formatter parses your YAML data during formatting. If the YAML is invalid, it will display a clear error message indicating what went wrong and where the issue is.
Is my YAML data secure? expand_more
Yes. All processing happens locally in your browser using JavaScript. Your YAML data is never sent to any server, making it safe to use with sensitive configuration files, Kubernetes secrets, or API credentials.
Can I choose the indentation level? expand_more
Yes. Select between 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or tab-based indentation using the indent selector in the toolbar before formatting your YAML.
What does the Minify button do for YAML? expand_more
The Minify button converts your YAML to flow style (inline notation), which is more compact. This is useful for embedding YAML snippets in shell scripts, environment variables, or CI parameters where multi-line blocks are not allowed.
How is this different from a YAML Validator? expand_more
A YAML Validator only checks whether your YAML is syntactically correct and reports errors. This YAML Formatter does that too, but it also rewrites the document with clean, consistent indentation and lets you choose block or flow style — so you get a corrected, readable output, not just a pass/fail result.
How is this different from a YAML to JSON Converter? expand_more
The YAML to JSON Converter changes the file format entirely, turning YAML into a JSON document. This formatter keeps the output as valid YAML — it only fixes indentation and style. Use the formatter when you need to stay in YAML; use the converter when downstream tools require JSON.
Can I upload a .yml or .yaml file directly? expand_more
Yes. Click the upload button in the toolbar to load a .yaml, .yml, or .txt file from your disk. After formatting, use the download button to save the result as formatted.yaml without any copy-paste.
Does it preserve comments in YAML? expand_more
No. The formatter parses the YAML into a data structure and then serialises it back out, which strips comments. If you need to preserve comments, edit the raw file in a text editor after checking the structure here.