INI Parser

What this tool does

Paste an INI or .conf file and this tool parses it into clean, structured JSON. It understands the everyday INI shape — [sections], key = value (or key: value), ;/# comments, quoted values, and section-less "global" keys before the first section — and, crucially, it reports duplicate keys instead of silently dropping them. It runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded, it works offline once the page has loaded, and there is no sign-up.

What it parses

Options

• Output as — Nested JSON (the default: globals at the root, each section a nested object), Flat dotted keys (server.host), or Report (adds a duplicates list and a stats block).
• Duplicate keys — when a key repeats inside one section, keep the last value (default), the first, collect all values into an array, or error out. Duplicates are always listed in the Report output.
• Detect booleans & numbers — off by default (every value stays a string, so nothing is lost). Turn it on to coerce true/false/yes/no/on/off to booleans and numeric values to numbers. Quoted values always stay strings.
• Comment prefixes — treat ; and # (default), only ;, or only # as comments. A disabled prefix is parsed as ordinary data.
• Strip inline comments — off by default. Turn it on to drop a trailing ; note / # note from a value (the comment mark must follow whitespace).

Worked example

Paste this and leave every option at its default:

app = demo

[server]
host = localhost
port = 8080

[db]
name = main

You get:

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

Now switch Output as to Report on a file with a repeated key:

[db]
host = primary
host = replica

{
  "globals": {},
  "sections": {
    "db": { "host": "replica" }
  },
  "duplicates": [
    { "scope": "db", "key": "host", "count": 2, "values": ["primary", "replica"] }
  ],
  "stats": { "sections": 1, "keys": 1, "comments": 0, "duplicates": 1 }
}

Limits and edge cases

• Value continuation / multi-line values are not supported — each entry is a single line. Paste a value that already fits on one line.
• Type detection is opt-in and lossy by design: with it on, 007 becomes 7 and 1.10 becomes 1.1. Leave it off (the default) to keep values verbatim, or quote a value to force it to stay a string.
• Duplicate section headers merge into one object (their keys are combined), and duplicate keys are then resolved by the chosen policy.
• Global key vs section-name clash: if a global key has the same name as a section, the section object wins in the nested output.
• Input is capped at 100,000 lines; paste a slice of anything larger.

FAQ