INI ⇄ JSON Converter

About this tool

INI files — .ini, .conf, .cfg, php.ini, .gitconfig, systemd units, tox.ini — are still everywhere, but almost nothing else speaks them. This converter turns that text into JSON your scripts, editors and APIs can read, turns JSON back into an INI file, and can read or rewrite one single setting without touching the rest of the file.

Everything runs locally in WebAssembly inside your own browser tab. Config files hold hostnames, ports and credentials, so nothing is uploaded, logged or stored.

Worked example — INI to JSON

Input:

# app config
app = demo

[server]
host = localhost
port = 8080  ; listen port

[db]
name = main

Output (with Detect booleans & numbers off, so every value stays a lossless string):

{
  "app": "demo",
  "server": {
    "host": "localhost",
    "port": "8080"
  },
  "db": {
    "name": "main"
  }
}

Keys above the first [section] header stay at the root of the object; each section becomes a nested object. Paste that JSON back in with mode JSON → INI and you get the INI form again.

Worked example — set one key in place

With mode Set, key server.port and value 9090, the same input comes back as:

# app config
app = demo

[server]
host = localhost
port = 9090  ; listen port

[db]
name = main

Only the one line changed. The comment header, the blank lines, the key order and the trailing ; listen port note all survive, because the edit modes rewrite a single line rather than re-serialising the document. Get returns just 8080, and Delete removes the key — or the whole [server] section when you name a section and leave the key blank.

Modes

• Auto-detect direction — input starting with { is treated as JSON, anything else as INI.
• INI → JSON / JSON → INI — force one direction.
• Get — return one key's value, or a whole section as JSON when the key is blank.
• Set — write a value to one key, creating the key (or the section) if it doesn't exist.
• Delete — remove one key, or a whole section when only the section is given.

Address a setting with the Section and Key fields, or with a dotted key alone — database.port means key port inside [database]. Get, set and delete all expect INI input.

Limits and edge cases

• Input is capped at 100,000 lines; JSON nesting is capped at 64 levels.
• A key repeated inside one section becomes a JSON array, so nothing is silently dropped. Going the other way, a JSON array of scalars is written back as repeated key lines.
• Nested JSON deeper than one level becomes dotted section headers: {"a":{"b":{"y":"2"}}} writes [a] followed by [a.b].
• A JSON array or bare scalar at the top level has no INI form and is rejected — the top level must be an object. So are keys containing =, :, [ or a newline, and string values containing a newline.
• Values whose edges would not survive a read-back (leading/trailing spaces, a leading quote, or text that looks like a trailing comment) are quoted automatically on the way out.
• CRLF input keeps CRLF line endings; LF input keeps LF.
• Comments are stripped when converting to JSON — JSON has no comment syntax. Use the get / set / delete modes when you need to keep them.

FAQ