API Tester + JSON Formatter together = fast debugging loop
Sharing a workflow that's become second nature to me:
1. Open API Tester, fire a request to your endpoint
2. Click Copy on the response
3. Switch to the JSON Formatter tab and paste (auto-formats instantly)
4. Use Tree view to navigate the full response structure
This takes about 5 seconds end-to-end and gives you a fully explorable view of any API response. I barely open browser DevTools for API inspection any more.
Bonus move: if the response looks wrong, paste your expected response alongside it in the Diff Viewer to spot the exact difference. This three-tool combo covers probably 80% of my daily API debugging.
4 replies
This is exactly my workflow now too. The copy-paste is almost frictionless thanks to auto-format on paste. Would love a "Send to JSON Formatter" button in the API tester response panel though — one click instead of copy + switch + paste.
Great write-up. The auto-format on paste in the formatter makes the copy step almost invisible. I've basically stopped opening browser DevTools for API inspection entirely since I got into this habit.
The Diff Viewer bonus tip is the one I'm adding to my workflow immediately. I've been comparing response structures manually in my head during debugging. This is obviously better.
Adding to this: the tree view collapse/expand is really useful when the response has deeply nested structures. You can collapse the parts you don't care about and focus on the specific field you're debugging.
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