- 1 Export from Get cookies.txt LOCALLY
On the site you care about, use Get cookies.txt LOCALLY (or an equivalent Netscape exporter) and save the file. Keep the tabs — do not open-and-save in an editor that converts tabs to spaces.
- 2 Convert to JSON Array here
Paste the file into the converter. Output is JSON Array.
#HttpOnly_lines become"httpOnly": true, not comments. - 3 Import with the extension
Open the destination origin in Chrome, Import the JSON in CookieMan, preview domains, Apply, reload. For yt-dlp you can skip JSON and keep the original Netscape file.
What Get cookies.txt LOCALLY actually writes
The extension’s job is a Netscape dump: seven tab-separated fields plus the #HttpOnly_ hack. It does not emit CookieMan JSON. After conversion, sameSite is unspecified because the source format has no such column. If the site requires SameSite=None; Secure, set those flags in CookieMan after import, or start from a JSON export instead.
| Netscape field | JSON Array field | Notes |
|---|---|---|
domain, optional #HttpOnly_ prefix | domain, httpOnly | Prefix is stripped and the flag is set |
| include_subdomains TRUE/FALSE | hostOnly (inverted) | TRUE means not host-only |
| path / secure / expires / name / value | matching fields | Expiry 0 becomes a session cookie |
| (none) | sameSite | Always unspecified after this conversion |
| (none) | partitionKey | CHIPS cookies cannot be represented in cookies.txt |
When you should not convert at all
yt-dlp, curl and wget want the Netscape file. Converting to JSON and back is a downgrade: you still lack SameSite, and you can introduce a milliseconds-vs-seconds mistake if another tool rewrites expiry. Keep the original file for those CLIs; convert only when Chrome Import (or a test fixture) needs JSON.