unstringify for VS Code
The engine behind this site, where VS Code keeps such things: broken JSON fixed with named fixes on the lightbulb and in the Problems panel; CSV, NDJSON and logs read as records through the reading question; conversion into a new editor; comparison by structure in the diff editor; stringified JSON opened in place. Nothing you open is uploaded.
Fourteen days of everything, then Free and Pro
Every install starts a 14-day trial with every feature open. When it ends, the Free set keeps working forever and the Pro set asks for a licence key — a one-time personal licence, three activations, sold through Lemon Squeezy.
Free, forever
- Fix JSON — the fixes named by line in the Refactor Preview; keep the ones you want; undo restores every byte. On a JSON Lines file, each broken record alone
- Quick fixes on the lightbulb, in the hover and in the Problems panel, tied to the diagnostic each resolves — the way a linter with a fixer offers them
- Read as records — the reading question as QuickPick steps: separator · first row · the split decimal for CSV, which measured shape or your regex for a log; then the rows open beside the text
- Convert to YAML · XML · CSV · NDJSON · Markdown table · TypeScript · JSON · minified, from a document, a selection or a rows file, into a new editor
- Copy JSON path, Sort keys, Minify, Generate TypeScript interfaces, Open on unstringify.com (the text travels in the link’s fragment, never to a server)
- Diagnostics on JSON, JSONC and JSON Lines; the status bar reads “Not valid JSON yet · 6 fixable” or “CSV · 1,284 rows”
Pro
- Unpack stringified JSON, XML or YAML values in place — undo packs them back — or into a new editor; a hover shows what a packed value holds first
- Compare by structure with another open document, the clipboard or a file, in VS Code’s own diff editor — keys sorted and whitespace normalised, one record per line for rows
- Coming: a records view of its own for CSV, NDJSON and logs — rows, level chips, filter, the record panel
- Coming: Fix across a workspace, one preview
Install
The extension is on the Visual Studio Marketplace and on Open VSX. In VS Code, search the Extensions view for “unstringify”, or use the button; Cursor, Windsurf and VSCodium find it in their own Extensions view through Open VSX. The extension’s own changelog names what each version added.
The Pro licence
A one-time personal licence — $19, three activations, no subscription — bought through Lemon Squeezy, who handle tax and the invoice, and entered once with “unstringify: Pro: enter a licence key”.
Sales open when Lemon Squeezy finishes reviewing the store — a few days from 6 September 2026. Until then the trial is the way in, and this line changes first.
Privacy, the same sentence
No telemetry. No document ever leaves the editor. The one network call the extension makes is to the licence service, carrying the key and this machine’s name, and only when you enter, re-check or deactivate a key. The web app’s promise is the same, in full, on the privacy page.