json5rt

JSON5 round-trip library: load, edit, and save JSON5 files with comment preservation.

Why?

Two PyPI packages — json5 and json-five — both use the import name json5, but their APIs are not interchangeable. Neither makes comment-preserving round-trip editing easy.

json5rt wraps json-five's model API in a clean, dict-like interface with a non-colliding import name (import json5rt).

Installation

uv add json5rt
# or
pip install json5rt

Quick start

import json5rt

# Load a JSON5 file with comments
doc = json5rt.load("config.json5")

# Edit like a dict
doc["port"] = 9090
doc["ssl"] = False
del doc["features"]

# Save back — comments preserved!
doc.save()

# Create from scratch
doc = json5rt.Document()
doc["host"] = "localhost"
doc["port"] = 8080
doc.save("new_config.json")  # valid JSON (double-quoted, no comments)

API

Functional

• json5rt.load(path) — Load from file, returns Document
• json5rt.loads(text) — Load from string, returns Document
• json5rt.dump(doc, path) — Write to file
• json5rt.dumps(doc) — Serialize to string

Document (dict-like)

• doc["key"] — Get value
• doc["key"] = value — Set/add key
• del doc["key"] — Delete key
• "key" in doc — Check existence
• doc.keys(), doc.values(), doc.items()
• doc.get(key, default)
• doc.update(dict)
• doc.save() / doc.save(path) / doc.save_as(path)
• doc.to_dict() — Plain dict (comments lost)
• doc.to_json() — Strict JSON string
• doc.dumps() — JSON5/JSONC string (comments preserved)

License

MIT