A macOS app for data refinement

Name: A macOS app for data refinement
Availability: InStock
Author: jshchnz

by jshchnz·Mar 5, 2026·3 points·0 comments

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AI Analysis

●●SolidSolve My ProblemCozy

Global hotkey to prettify any text format—faster than opening browser or terminal.

Strengths

•Solves a genuine friction point (developers constantly formatting messy data)
•Auto-detection + multiple view modes (raw/formatted/side-by-side) is thoughtful UX
•Native macOS build with no dependencies, floating panel, and JSON auto-repair are polish touches

Weaknesses

•MacOS-only severely limits audience (no Windows/Linux); competes with free web tools (jsoncrack.com)
•Feature set is narrow and predictable; unlikely to grow beyond a single-purpose utility

Post Description

I got tired of always going into online formatters or weird terminal commands to view nicely prettified data, so I built Refiner.

Current Features

- Auto-detection: identifies JSON, XML, CSV, Markdown, Code, and plain text automatically

- Interactive tree views: collapsible JSON and XML trees with expand/collapse all

- CSV tables: clean grid layout with alternating row highlighting

- Markdown rendering: headings, lists, blockquotes, code blocks, inline formatting

- Code highlighting: syntax coloring for keywords, strings, numbers, comments

- Three view modes: Raw, Formatted, and Side-by-Side (Cmd+1 / Cmd+2 / Cmd+3)

- Floating panel: always-on-top, follows you across spaces

- Global hotkey: summon with Cmd+Opt+R (customizable)

- Copy formatted output: one-click copy of prettified content

- JSON auto-fix with revert: automatically repairs malformed JSON

My long term goal is that hopefully people will contribute and Refiner can become the most comprehensive way of viewing nicely formatted data locally.

Praise Kier.