---
id: jsonref
version: "1.1.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: aging
---

# jsonref — jsonref is a library for automatic dereferencing of JSON Reference objects for Python.

License: permissive · Maintenance: aging · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install jsonref
uv add jsonref
poetry add jsonref

## Description

# jsonref

[![image](https://github.com/gazpachoking/jsonref/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://github.com/gazpachoking/jsonref/actions/workflows/test.yml?query=branch%3Amaster)
[![image](https://readthedocs.org/projects/jsonref/badge/?version=latest)](https://jsonref.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
[![image](https://coveralls.io/repos/gazpachoking/jsonref/badge.png?branch=master)](https://coveralls.io/r/gazpachoking/jsonref)
[![image](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/jsonref?color=%2334D058&label=pypi%20package)](https://pypi.org/project/jsonref)

`jsonref` is a library for automatic dereferencing of [JSON
Reference](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-pbryan-zyp-json-ref-03)
objects for Python (supporting Python 3.7+).

This library lets you use a data structure with JSON reference objects,
as if the references had been replaced with the referent data.

```python console
>>> from pprint import pprint
>>> import jsonref

>>> # An example json document
>>> json_str = """{"real": [1, 2, 3, 4], "ref": {"$ref": "#/real"}}"""
>>> data = jsonref.loads(json_str)
>>> pprint(data)  # Reference is not evaluated until here
{'real': [1, 2, 3, 4], 'ref': [1, 2, 3,...

## AI interpretation — verify before relying

jsonref automatically dereferences JSON Reference objects in JSON data, replacing `$ref` pointers with their target values transparently through lazy-loading proxy objects.

Verdict: jsonref is a lightweight, dependency-free library for JSON Reference resolution with no known vulnerabilities. Its aging maintenance status (1.3 years since last release) is acceptable given the stable, narrow scope of the functionality, but users should verify it meets their specific JSON Reference draft version requirements before adoption.

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/jsonref) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/jsonref/)