YAML Path Query

Query and edit YAML by path in your browser

Paste a YAML document, enter a path such as server.host, items[0].name or ['key with spaces'], and choose whether to query, set or delete that value. The tool runs locally in your browser and uses the same pure-Rust core as the CLI and chat block.

Worked example

Input YAML:

server:
  host: localhost   # bind address
  port: 8080
items:
  - name: alpha
    qty: 1

• Path server.host in Query mode returns localhost.
• Path server.port in Set mode with value 9090 returns the whole YAML document with only that scalar changed; the trailing comment on host stays where it was.
• Path items[0].name reads alpha; items.0.name is accepted too.

Path syntax

• Dot segments select mapping keys: metadata.name.
• Bracketed numbers select list items: containers[0].image.
• Plain numeric dot segments also select list items: containers.0.image.
• Quoted bracket keys select keys that contain punctuation or spaces: ['my.key'], ["key with spaces"].
• A leading $ root marker is accepted ($.server.host) for copy-pasted paths, but JSONPath filters, wildcards and recursive descent are intentionally not part of this small editor.

Modes and output

• Query returns scalar values raw, which makes the result easy to copy or pipe. Mapping and list results are printed as YAML.
• Set parses the value as YAML: 42, true, null, [a, b] and {k: v} become typed YAML values. Wrap a value in quotes, for example "8080", to force a string.
• Delete removes a mapping key or list item.
• JSON output pretty-prints the selected value or edited document as JSON.

Limits and edge cases

The input must contain one YAML document. Multi-document streams separated by --- are rejected so the target document is never guessed. Simple scalar edits, new keys in an existing block mapping and block item deletes are spliced into the original source and then re-parsed to verify the result, preserving comments, blank lines, key order, quoting style and indentation. More complex edits, such as creating missing intermediate levels or replacing block scalars, fall back to re-emitting the parsed tree; that keeps the data correct but normalizes formatting and drops comments. YAML anchors resolve during query, but anchor syntax is not preserved when an edit needs the normalized fallback.

FAQ