Guides

JSON is the lingua franca of web APIs. This guide walks through its syntax, its data types, the trade-offs that shaped it, and the small gotchas that trip up newcomers.

JSON Schema is how you describe, document, and enforce the shape of a JSON document. This primer walks through the core keywords and the workflow that makes them pay off.

JSON's string-escaping rules are small and strict. Here is the full list with examples, the handful of edge cases that cause production bugs, and the cross-language defaults that surprise people.

Most JSON parse errors come from a handful of mistakes. This reference covers the ten offenders we see most, what their error messages look like, and how to fix each one quickly.

JSON and YAML solve overlapping problems but optimise for different users. This guide compares their syntax, strengths, and failure modes so you can pick the right one without regret.

XML has not gone away. It has moved to specific niches where its document model fits. This guide covers when each format is the right answer today, not the one it was in 2005.

Three names, one format, and a handful of good reasons to reach for it. Here is why line-delimited JSON keeps appearing in logs, data pipelines, and AI training sets.

Every JSON document can be formatted for humans or for bytes on the wire. This guide covers when each mode matters, what the actual savings are, and why most production answers are boring.

Sorting JSON keys alphabetically is a small decision with outsized effects on diffs, signatures, and caching. Here is when to sort, when not to, and how to do it without regret.

Minifying JSON looks like free bandwidth savings. The real numbers are more nuanced. Here is what compression, TLS overhead, and response-time budgets really say about pretty-printed APIs.