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.json

Low risk

JavaScript Object Notation

A lightweight data-interchange format. The de-facto standard for config files, API payloads, and database dumps.

MIME types

  • application/json

Category

data

What opens this file

  • VS Code
  • jq
  • Notepad++
  • Browser DevTools

How to open by OS

Windows

  • Notepad (slow on big files), VS Code, jq for Windows.

Mac

  • VS Code, TextEdit (avoid for huge files), jq.

Linux

  • jq, bat (syntax-highlighted cat).

Ios

  • Koder, Working Copy.

Android

  • Acode.

Safety notes

  • Legacy code that evals JSON invites arbitrary code execution. Always use JSON.parse.
  • Whole-file parsing of huge payloads exhausts memory. Use streaming parsers like ijson or clarinet.

Common mistakes

  • Trailing commas and single quotes are invalid. If you need those, use JSON5 or JSONC and label it clearly.
  • JSON has no comments. If you need configuration with comments, prefer YAML or TOML.

Related extensions

References