keytidy

Tidy JSON key order — and sort package.json the way it's actually meant to look. Inconsistent key order is pure diff noise: one teammate's editor writes name first, another's tool writes it last, and every PR churns lines that didn't really change. keytidy gives every JSON file one deterministic order. Zero dependencies (pure standard library).

pip install keytidy

keytidy                 # sort ./package.json in place
keytidy --check         # CI gate: exit 1 if anything isn't sorted

It's not just "sort all the keys"

Sorting package.json alphabetically would be wrong — name belongs at the top, not wedged between module and optionalDependencies. So keytidy treats package.json specially:

• Top-level fields follow the conventional order (name, version, description, …, scripts, dependencies, devDependencies, …). Unknown fields (your tool.*, custom keys) sort alphabetically after the known ones.
• Dependency blocks (dependencies, devDependencies, peerDependencies, …) are sorted A→Z — the part you actually want sorted.
• scripts is left in your order, because script order is frequently meaningful (pretest → test → posttest, ordered build steps). Opt in with --sort-scripts if you disagree.

Every other .json file just gets a clean recursive alphabetical sort, with arrays left in their original order (an array is data, not config).

Example

// before
{ "version": "1.0.0", "scripts": { "test": "…", "build": "…" },
  "name": "demo", "dependencies": { "zod": "…", "axios": "…" } }

// after  →  keytidy
{
  "name": "demo",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": { "test": "…", "build": "…" },        // order preserved
  "dependencies": { "axios": "…", "zod": "…" }      // sorted A→Z
}

Usage

keytidy                    # sort ./package.json in place
keytidy package.json tsconfig.json
keytidy *.json             # your shell expands the glob
keytidy --check            # don't write; exit 1 if any file isn't sorted
keytidy --stdout pkg.json  # print the sorted result instead of writing
keytidy --indent 4         # force 4-space indent (default: detected, else 2)
keytidy --sort-scripts     # also sort the package.json scripts block
keytidy --all-keys         # ignore the conventional order, sort A→Z

You can also run it as a module: python -m keytidy.

Indentation is detected from the file and preserved, so keytidy doesn't fight your existing 2-space / 4-space / tab style. The trailing newline is kept as-is.

As a CI / pre-commit gate

# .pre-commit-config.yaml
- repo: local
  hooks:
    - id: keytidy
      name: keytidy
      entry: keytidy --check
      language: system
      files: package\.json$

Exit codes

Notes

• It rewrites by parsing and re-serializing, so it normalizes JSON formatting. It does not support comments or trailing commas (JSONC / tsconfig.json with comments will report invalid JSON rather than mangle them).
• The sort itself is pure and deterministic, shared with the Node port — for typical config files the two produce identical output.

Also available for Node

Same behavior, same flags: npx keytidy (source: keytidy).

License

MIT