This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by igtumt
If you work with APIs, you probably do this multiple times a day:
- Copy JSON
- Open a random JSON viewer website
- Paste it
- Scroll and search
It works. But it’s slow and repetitive.
The problem
Most JSON tools today are:
- Web-based (you paste your data into third-party sites)
- Slow and ad-heavy
- Not composable
Also, sometimes you’re dealing with sensitive data — and pasting it into random websites is not ideal.
A simpler way
Instead of sending your data to tools…
👉 bring the tools to your data.
I built a small project called IsoBrowse to explore this idea.
Example
/get https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts | /run jq "0.title"
That’s it.
No copy/paste. No extra tabs.
Why this feels better
- Everything runs locally
- No setup or dependencies
- You stay in one flow
- You can chain operations
Example:
/get https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts \
| /run jq "0.title" \
| /run uppercase
Where this helps
Small things you do every day:
- Checking API responses
- Extracting fields from JSON
- Debugging data
- Cleaning logs
Individually small — but they add up.
Final thought
We got used to sending our data to tools.
Maybe it’s time to flip that:
process everything locally, instantly
Repo + demo:
https://github.com/igtumt/isobrowse
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by igtumt
igtumt | Sciencx (2026-04-19T21:17:28+00:00) Stop Using Online JSON Viewers. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2026/04/19/stop-using-online-json-viewers-4/
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