🧭 JSONavigator

The Swiss Army knife for nested JSON — traverse, flatten, search, validate, format, and diff JSON structures with a single lightweight Python library.

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🤔 Why JSONavigator?

Working with deeply nested JSON in Python is painful. Standard dict access breaks on missing keys; jmespath has a custom query language to learn; pandas is overkill for simple lookups.

JSONavigator solves this with a zero-dependency, pure-Python code that covers the whole lifecycle of nested JSON manipulation — from traversal to diffing — in a handful of intuitive functions.

4,000+ downloads  •  Zero dependencies  •  Python 3.8+  •  MIT Licensed

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✨ Features

Feature	Function	Description
🔍 Traverse	traverse_json	Recursively yield every (path, value) pair
📦 Flatten	flatten_json	Collapse nested JSON into a single-level dict
🎯 Get by path	get_value_at_path	Retrieve a value using a dot-notation path
✍️ Set by path	set_value_at_path	Update or set a value at a dot-notation path
🗑️ Delete by path	delete_at_path	Remove a key/index at a dot-notation path
🧹 Delete key	delete_key	Recursively remove every occurrence of a key
🔎 Find value	find_value_of_element	Search for first occurrence of a key, anywhere
🗺️ Find all paths	find_all_paths_for_element	Get every path where a key exists
🧹 Clear values	empty_all_the_values	Reset all leaf values to "" in-place
✅ Validate path	validate_path	Assert a path string is well-formed
💅 Format path	format_path	Pretty-print a path for human readability
📊 Compare JSON	compare_files	Diff two JSON objects or files with a summary
🚨 Custom exceptions	InvalidPathError, ElementNotFoundError	Semantic error handling

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📦 Installation

pip install jsonavigator

From source:

git clone https://github.com/Nikhil-Singh-2503/JSONavigator.git
cd JSONavigator
python -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Requires: Python ≥ 3.8. No runtime dependencies.

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⚡ Quick Start

from jsoninja import (
    traverse_json,
    get_value_at_path,
    flatten_json,
    find_value_of_element,
    find_all_paths_for_element,
    empty_all_the_values,
    validate_path,
    format_path,
    compare_files,
)

data = {
    "user": {
        "name": "Alice",
        "scores": [95, 87, 100],
        "address": {"city": "Berlin", "zip": "10115"}
    }
}

# Traverse every leaf
for path, value in traverse_json(data):
    print(f"{path}: {value}")
# user.name: Alice
# user.scores[0]: 95  ...

# Retrieve by path
print(get_value_at_path(data, "user.address.city"))  # Berlin

# Flatten to single level
flat = flatten_json(data)
# {"user.name": "Alice", "user.scores[0]": 95, ...}

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📖 Usage Guide

1️⃣ Traverse Nested JSON

View Details

Yields (path, value) tuples for every leaf node. Supports mixed dicts and lists.

from jsoninja import traverse_json

data = {"a": {"b": [1, 2], "c": 3}}

for path, value in traverse_json(data):
    print(f"Path: {path}, Value: {value}")

Path: a.b[0], Value: 1
Path: a.b[1], Value: 2
Path: a.c, Value: 3

Use the separator parameter to change the default . delimiter.

traverse_json(data, separator="/")  # a/b[0], a/b[1], a/c

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2️⃣ Get Value at a Specific Path

View Details

from jsoninja import get_value_at_path

data = {"a": {"b": [10, 20, 30]}}

print(get_value_at_path(data, "a.b[2]"))   # 30
print(get_value_at_path(data, "a.b[0]"))   # 10

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3️⃣ Set Value at a Specific Path

View Details

Update or create a leaf value using dot notation, modifying the dict in place.

from jsoninja import set_value_at_path

data = {"user": {"scores": [10, 20]}}
set_value_at_path(data, "user.scores[1]", 99)
print(data)  # {"user": {"scores": [10, 99]}}

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4️⃣ Delete Value at a Specific Path

View Details

Delete a key or pop an index at the specified path.

from jsoninja import delete_at_path

data = {"a": {"b": 1, "c": 2}}
delete_at_path(data, "a.b")
print(data)  # {"a": {"c": 2}}

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5️⃣ Flatten JSON

View Details

Collapses any depth of nesting into a flat {path: value} dictionary.

from jsoninja import flatten_json

data = {"a": {"b": [1, 2], "c": 3}}
print(flatten_json(data))

{
    "a.b[0]": 1,
    "a.b[1]": 2,
    "a.c": 3
}

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6️⃣ Find a Value by Key

View Details

Returns the first occurrence of a key anywhere in the structure.

from jsoninja import find_value_of_element

data = {"a": {"b": {"c": 42}}}
print(find_value_of_element("c", data))  # 42
print(find_value_of_element("z", data))  # "" (not found)

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7️⃣ Find All Paths for a Key

View Details

Returns every path where the target key appears — great for duplicate-key analysis.

from jsoninja import find_all_paths_for_element

data = {"a": 1, "b": {"a": 2}, "c": [{"a": 3}]}
print(find_all_paths_for_element(data, "a"))
# ["a", "b.a", "c[0].a"]

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8️⃣ Empty All Values

View Details

Resets every leaf value to "" — useful for creating JSON templates or anonymising data.

from jsoninja import empty_all_the_values

data = {
    "a": 1,
    "b": {"c": 42, "d": [1, 2, {"e": "hello"}]},
}
print(empty_all_the_values(data))

{
    "a": "",
    "b": {"c": "", "d": ["", "", {"e": ""}]}
}

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9️⃣ Recursively Delete a Key

View Details

Recursively remove every occurrence of a key name anywhere in the nested object.

from jsoninja import delete_key

data = {"id": 1, "user": {"id": 2, "name": "Alice"}}
delete_key(data, "id")
print(data)  # {"user": {"name": "Alice"}}

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🔟 Validate & Format Paths

View Details

from jsoninja import validate_path, format_path
from jsoninja.exceptions import InvalidPathError

# Validation
try:
    validate_path("a.b[1]")         # returns True
    validate_path("a.b[1")          # raises InvalidPathError (mismatched brackets)
except InvalidPathError as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")

# Human-readable formatting
print(format_path("user.address.city"))   # user -> address -> city
print(format_path("a.b[1]"))             # a -> b[1]

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1️⃣1️⃣ Compare Two JSON Structures

View Details

Diff two JSON objects or files and receive a structured list of changes plus a summary.

from jsoninja import compare_files

json1 = {"a": {"b": 1, "c": 2}, "d": [1, 2]}
json2 = {"a": {"b": 1, "c": 99}, "d": [1, 2, 3], "e": "new"}

changes, summary = compare_files(json1, json2)

print(summary)
# {"added": 2, "removed": 0, "changed": 1, "type_changed": 0, "unknown": 0}

for change in changes:
    print(change)
# {"type": "changed",  "path": "a-->c", "old_value": 2,    "new_value": 99}
# {"type": "added",    "path": "d[2]",  "new_value": 3}
# {"type": "added",    "path": "e",     "new_value": "new"}

Compare from file paths:

changes, summary = compare_files(
    r"path/to/old.json",
    r"path/to/new.json",
    isPath=True
)

Note: When passing file paths as strings, use raw strings (r"...") or double backslashes (\\) to avoid escape-sequence issues.

Change types returned:

Type	Meaning
added	Key/value exists in JSON 2 but not JSON 1
removed	Key/value exists in JSON 1 but not JSON 2
changed	Same path, different value
type_changed	Same path, different Python type

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🗂️ Project Structure

JSONavigator/
├── jsoninja/
│   ├── __init__.py        # Public API surface
│   ├── core.py            # traverse, get, find, empty functions
│   ├── utils.py           # flatten, validate, format helpers
│   ├── compare.py         # JSON diff engine
│   └── exceptions.py      # Custom exception hierarchy
├── tests/
│   ├── test_core.py       # 30+ core function tests
│   ├── test_compare.py    # Compare module tests
│   ├── test_utils.py      # Utility function tests
│   └── conftest.py        # pytest fixtures
├── .github/workflows/
│   └── publish-to-pypi.yml  # Automated PyPI release CI
├── requirements.txt       # Dev/test dependencies
├── setup.py
└── README.md

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🛠️ Package Reference

jsoninja.core

Function	Signature	Returns
traverse_json	(data, parent_key='', separator='.')	Generator of (path, value)
get_value_at_path	(data, path, separator='.')	Value at the path
set_value_at_path	(data, path, new_value, separator='.')	Mutated data
delete_at_path	(data, path, separator='.')	Mutated data
delete_key	(data, target_key)	Mutated data
find_value_of_element	(target_key, data)	First matched value or ""
find_all_paths_for_element	(file_data, target_key, path='', separator='.')	list[str] of all paths
empty_all_the_values	(data)	Mutated data with "" leaves, or None

jsoninja.utils

Function	Signature	Returns
flatten_json	(data, parent_key='', separator='.')	Flat dict
validate_path	(path, separator='.')	True or raises InvalidPathError
format_path	(path, separator='.')	Human-readable path string

jsoninja.compare

Function	Signature	Returns
compare_files	(file1, file2, separator='-->', isPath=False)	(changes_list, summary_dict)

jsoninja.exceptions

Exception	When raised
InvalidPathError	Malformed path string passed to validate_path / format_path
ElementNotFoundError	Target element absent from JSON structure
JSONStructureError	Unexpected JSON structure type

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💡 Use Cases

• 🔬 API response inspection — quickly explore the shape of deeply nested API payloads.
• 🧪 Test assertion helpers — flatten and validate JSON responses in pytest fixtures.
• 📋 Config file diffing — compare application config files between environments.
• 🏗️ JSON schema generation — traverse and collect all paths to infer structure.
• 🕵️ Data anonymisation — empty_all_the_values strips sensitive data for safe sharing.
• 📥 ETL pipelines — flatten nested JSON before inserting into relational databases.

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🔧 Development Setup

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Nikhil-Singh-2503/JSONavigator.git
cd JSONavigator

# 2. Create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate       # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# 3. Install development dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 4. Run the tests
pytest

# 5. Run with coverage report
pytest --cov=jsoninja --cov-report=term-missing

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🧪 Testing

The test suite covers all public functions with 30+ unit tests using pytest.

# All tests
pytest

# Specific module
pytest tests/test_core.py
pytest tests/test_compare.py
pytest tests/test_utils.py

# With HTML coverage report
pytest --cov=jsoninja --cov-report=html

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are warmly welcome! Here's how to get started:

1. Fork the repository on GitHub.
2. Clone your fork:

   git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/JSONavigator.git

3. Create a feature branch:

   git checkout -b feature/my-feature

4. Make changes and add tests for any new functionality.
5. Run tests to make sure everything passes:

   pytest

6. Commit and push your changes:

   git commit -m "feat: add my-feature"
   git push origin feature/my-feature

7. Open a Pull Request against the main branch.

Please follow the existing code style and write docstrings for any new functions.

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🚀 Roadmap

• set_value_at_path — update a value at a given path in place
• delete_key — remove a key anywhere in the structure
• JSONPath ($) query syntax support
• Async-friendly streaming traversal for large JSON files
• Type-annotated stubs (py.typed marker)
• compare_files — side-by-side HTML diff report

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

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👤 Author

Nikhil Singh

• 📧 Email: nikhilraj7654@gmail.com
• 🐙 GitHub: @Nikhil-Singh-2503
• 📦 PyPI: jsonavigator

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⭐ Star the Repo

If JSONavigator saves you time, please consider giving it a ⭐ on GitHub — it helps others discover the project!

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