What is mavlink-json?

mavlink-json is a small utility that converts MAVLink message definitions from XML format into JSON. MAVLink is a communication protocol commonly used in drones and robotics, and its message structures are traditionally stored in XML files. This tool translates those files so they're easier to work with in modern applications that prefer JSON. At its core, the project is a Python script called xml2json.py. You run it from the command line, point it at an XML file, and it outputs the equivalent JSON. You can run this manually on any file you want, but the repo also includes an automated process that runs weekly. Every Monday, it pulls the latest message definitions from the official MAVLink project, converts all of them to JSON, and saves the results back into the repository. This would be useful for anyone building software that interacts with drones, ground stations, or other robotics systems that speak MAVLink. If you're building a web dashboard to monitor drone telemetry, a mobile app for flight control, or any tool that needs to understand MAVLink messages, working with JSON instead of XML is often simpler, especially in JavaScript and web-based environments. Instead of parsing XML yourself, you get ready-to-use JSON files that are kept up to date automatically. The project is straightforward and minimal. It requires Python 3.11 or newer, and beyond the conversion script and the automated weekly sync, the README doesn't go into further detail about additional features or configuration options. It's essentially a focused utility that does one job: keeping a JSON version of MAVLink definitions available and current.