YAML Formatter/Beautifier

YAML formatting (also called beautifying or pretty-printing) takes messy or inconsistent YAML and transforms it into a clean, readable structure with consistent indentation. For example, this messy YAML:

tool:   yaml-formatter
category:    utility
active:  true

becomes:

tool: yaml-formatter
category: utility
active: true

The indentation selector lets you choose how many spaces to use for each level of nesting. YAML commonly uses 2 spaces (default), but you can select 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8 spaces. For example, with 2 spaces:

converter:
  from: JSON
  to: YAML

And with 4 spaces:

converter:
    from: JSON
    to: YAML

Tip: Changing the indentation after formatting will automatically re-format the output without needing to click the Format button again.

If your YAML has syntax errors, the formatter will display an error message with details about the issue. Common YAML errors include:

• Inconsistent or incorrect indentation
• Missing colons after keys
• Tabs instead of spaces (YAML requires spaces)
• Unquoted special characters
• Incorrect list formatting

No. Formatting only changes whitespace and indentation. Your actual data: keys, values, lists, numbers, booleans, and null values remain exactly the same.

Yes! YAML naturally supports deeply nested structures. The formatter handles any level of nesting and formats each level with proper indentation.

toolset:
  name: ConvertChief
  categories:
    - name: Converters
      tools:
        - name: JSON to XML
          format: xml
        - name: JSON to YAML
          format: yaml
    - name: Formatters
      tools:
        - name: JSON Formatter
          format: json
        - name: YAML Formatter
          format: yaml

Yes! Unlike many YAML formatters, this tool preserves your comments during formatting. Comments remain in their original positions relative to the data they document.

# Application configuration
app:
  name: MyApp  # Application name
  version: 1.0.0
  # Database settings
  database:
    host: localhost
    port: 5432  # Default PostgreSQL port

YAML is a superset of JSON, meaning valid JSON is also valid YAML. Key differences:

• YAML uses indentation instead of braces/brackets
• YAML supports comments
• YAML is more human-readable
• YAML supports multi-line strings more elegantly

Need to convert between formats? Use our JSON to YAML or YAML to JSON converters.

YAML cannot be truly minified like JSON or XML because it relies on whitespace for structure.