JSON in a Line

Many logs write a JSON payload inside an ordinary line, for example 2026-09-26 14:03:11 INFO request {"user":"alice","items":[3,7]}. Show JSON finds that JSON and shows it formatted, with each key and value on its own line, so you can read it without copying the line elsewhere.

Show the JSON in a line

Use either of these:

Right-click the line in Text view or Grep view and select Show JSON.
In Text view, click the line, then press Alt + J (Show JSON in line).

A dialog titled JSON in line with the line number opens and shows the JSON indented by two spaces per level. For the example line above:

{
  "user": "alice",
  "items": [3, 7]
}

Long JSON shows its first 300 lines, then a line that counts the rest, ending with (Copy JSON for the full value). Copy JSON copies all of it. The line itself can be up to 4 MiB. For a longer line, the dialog shows the line’s size and the limit.

Close the dialog with Esc, its close button, or a click outside it. To see the JSON of another line, close the dialog and open it from that line.

For files where every line is a JSON record, use NDJSON view instead. Show JSON is not available there.

Which JSON Vaste finds

Vaste shows the first valid JSON object or array in the line, reading from the left. That is not always the largest one. In tags=[1] payload={"user":"alice"}, it shows [1]. If the line holds no valid JSON object or array, the dialog shows No JSON object or array found in this line.

Copy the JSON

Select Copy JSON to copy the formatted JSON to the clipboard. The button shows Copied. Vaste copies the formatted version, not the text exactly as it appears in the line.

If an object has the same key twice, only the last value is shown. To keep the original text, select it in the line and copy it, or use Copy line from the line menu.

Next steps

Scratchpad: collect payloads and pretty-print or decode them
NDJSON view: browse files with one JSON record per line