# JSON Canvas

7 Hacker News commenters recommended JSON Canvas and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend its simple, open JSON file format, which is easy to read and implement, suits interactive content and can be built on. Some critics doubt its practical use beyond Obsidian.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple, easy to read and implement (2 comments): "It's good, not great, but the simplicity of the file type opens up a lot of opportunities to build on top of it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47619296)) "JSON Canvas nails the simplicity — it's easy to read and easy to implement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47620192))
- Clear benefit for interactive content (2 comments): "for interactive content the additional sematic layer of JSON Canvas has a clear benefit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47626041)) "It's interactive, for starters." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47620397))
- Flexible, more specific tool (2 comments): "JSON Canvas is a more specific tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47626748)) "this seems a little more flexible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47618281))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apache Parquet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/parquet.md): 40 recommend
- [Safetensors](https://hackerapproved.com/p/safetensors.md): 7 recommend
- [F3 file format](https://hackerapproved.com/p/f3.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "JSON Canvas", https://hackerapproved.com/p/json-canvas/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).