Format GitHub Actions YAML Online — Workflow Beautifier

Beautify GitHub Actions workflow YAML with 2 or 4 space indent. Comments are not preserved (js-yaml) — all processing stays local.

Loading…
GitHub Actions formatter — workflow YAML playbook
Normalize GitHub Actions workflow YAML before review or paste into docs. Indentation only — not a semantic rewriter.

Developer notes

• Formats via js-yaml load + dump (same limit as beautify-yaml). • Comments and some quoting styles are lost on round-trip. • indentWidth defaults to 2 spaces (GitHub convention). • Pair with validate-github-actions for structural checks.

Options

Indent width
Spaces per indentation level (2 or 4) in the formatted workflow YAML. Default is 2.

When teams pick this route

• Clean up hand-edited workflow YAML before opening a PR. • Align indentation across copied examples from Actions docs. • Format a single workflow when Prettier YAML is not configured. • Preview 2 vs 4 space indent for repo style guides.

Worked examples

Messy job steps from a gist

Before

name: CI on: push jobs: build: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - run: npm test

After format

name: CI on: push jobs: build: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - run: npm test

Minimal push workflow

Before

name: CI on: push jobs: build: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - run: echo hi

After format

name: CI on: push jobs: build: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - run: echo hi

Navigate related CI/CD tools

Validate structure with validate GitHub Actions, format GitLab pipelines via format GitLab CI, or browse the CI/CD hub.

GitHub Actions formatter FAQ

YAML layout only

Are comments preserved?

No. js-yaml round-trip drops comments. Keep a copy if you rely on inline notes, or format with a comment-aware tool locally.

Does this run actionlint?

No — this only reformats YAML. Use validate-github-actions for structural checks, or actionlint in CI for expression and action rules.

What is the size limit?

512 KB per paste (same as DevOps tools). Split large monorepo workflows if needed.

More CI/CD tools in this cluster

Looking for converters, encoders, formatters, and minifiers in one place? Developer tools hub Open the curated developer tools catalogue.