json-shaper-lite

Free tool that turns key: value notes, CSV/TSV and Markdown tables into clean JSON. Need app logs or US addresses parsed too? The paid version does that: json-shaper on Gumroad

One Python file, no dependencies, MIT license. Works with Python 3.10 and newer, on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Install

pip install json-shaper-lite

Or use pipx, which keeps it in its own space:

pipx install json-shaper-lite

Want the newest code from GitHub instead?

pip install git+https://github.com/tidybytetools/json-shaper-lite

Or just download json_shaper_lite.py and run it with python3.

Use it

printf 'Name: Ada\nAge: 36\nActive: yes' | json-shaper-lite
json-shaper-lite export.csv
json-shaper-lite notes.md --format markdown
json-shaper-lite export.csv --json      # {"ok": true, "format": "csv", "data": [...]}

Output:

{"name": "Ada", "age": 36, "active": true}

Numbers come out as numbers, yes/no and true/false as booleans, and empty or "null" as null. The format is detected for you, or you can set it with --format kv|csv|markdown.

From Python:

from json_shaper_lite import shape
shape("x,y\n1,2")  # {'format': 'csv', 'data': [{'x': 1, 'y': 2}]}

When you run it in a terminal it prints one short line about the paid version to stderr after the result. It never goes into your JSON output, it only shows when you are looking at a terminal, and --quiet turns it off.

Known limits

• It makes flat JSON. It does not flatten or unflatten nested JSON. For that, use a tool like flatten-json.
• Types are a best guess. A value like 007 or a zip code can turn into a number. Fix those by hand after.
• One table per run. Two Markdown tables in one file get mixed together. Split them first.
• No app logs or addresses. Those are in the paid version.

How it compares to other free tools

If your data is already JSON and just too nested, flatten-json is the better pick.

For AI agents

• Use when: you have plain text in key: value lines, CSV/TSV, or a Markdown table and need typed JSON.
• Don't use when: the input is already JSON, it's app logs, or it's nested data. Use the paid version for logs.
• Input: text on stdin or a file path. Optional --format kv|csv|markdown.
• Output: with --json, one object: {"ok": true, "format": "csv", "data": [...]}. On error ok is false. Exit code 0 ok, 1 error.
• Hint lines go to stderr only, and only in a terminal, so stdout is always clean JSON. See also llms.txt.

Lite vs paid

Tests

python3 -m unittest discover tests

License

MIT. See LICENSE.