XML to XSL Converter
Generate a ready-to-edit XSLT stylesheet for your XML — an identity-style transform you can drop in and start customising instead of writing from a blank file.
A scaffold for your XSLT, not a guess
XSLT is the language for transforming one XML document into another (or into HTML, text, and so on). Writing a stylesheet from scratch means remembering the namespace declaration, the output method, and the boilerplate templates that walk elements and attributes. This tool hands you that scaffold so you can skip straight to the transformation logic that's actually specific to your data.
Be clear about what it produces: this is a starter identity-style stylesheet, not a bespoke transform derived from your exact tags. It first validates that your XML is well-formed (parsing it with xml2js), then emits a clean, reusable .xsl template with the standard xsl:stylesheet wrapper, an XML output declaration, and templates that recursively copy elements and attributes through to a <root>.
Everything runs in your browser. The point is to remove the blank-page friction — paste your XML, get a syntactically correct stylesheet, and edit the templates to match the output you want.
Generating an XSL starter
- 1
Paste your XML
Drop the XML into the input pane so the tool can confirm it's well-formed before generating anything.
- 2
Get the stylesheet
A complete, valid XSLT 1.0 starter stylesheet appears in the output pane ready to copy.
- 3
Customise the templates
Edit the xsl:template rules to shape the output — rename elements, filter nodes, or emit HTML instead of XML.
- 4
Copy or download
Copy the stylesheet or save it as a .xsl file to use with your XSLT processor.
Where a starter stylesheet helps
Skip the boilerplate
The namespace, output method and recursive templates are written for you — start editing logic, not setup.
Always well-formed
The template is valid XSLT 1.0, so your processor won't choke on a typo in the scaffold.
Learn by editing
It's a clear, minimal example of how apply-templates and match patterns fit together — handy if you're new to XSLT.
Nothing leaves the browser
Your XML is validated locally; the stylesheet is generated client-side with no upload.
The starter you get
Paste any well-formed XML and the tool returns this reusable XSLT scaffold.
<library>
<book><title>Dune</title></book>
</library><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<root>
<xsl:apply-templates select="*"/>
</root>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*">
<xsl:element name="{name()}">
<xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="@*">
<xsl:attribute name="{name()}">
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>What the generated stylesheet actually does
Out of the box the template is an identity-style transform: a root template wraps everything in a <root> element, a generic match="*" template recreates each element by name and recurses into its children, and a match="@*" template copies attributes across. Run as-is, it produces a restructured copy of your input. The real value is using it as a foundation — replace or add templates to rename nodes, drop fields, sort, or output HTML.
Understand the limitation before you rely on it
- The stylesheet is the same template regardless of your specific tags — it doesn't read your element names and write tailored rules for each one.
- It targets XSLT 1.0, the version every major processor supports; adapt it if you're using 2.0/3.0 features.
- The XML you paste is used to validate well-formedness, not to drive the template's content. Think of this as a head start, not a finished transform.
Frequently asked questions
No — and that's important to know. It generates a reusable identity-style template that works for any well-formed XML rather than writing custom rules for each of your element names. Treat it as a starting scaffold you then customise.
XSLT 1.0, which every mainstream processor supports out of the box. If you're working with 2.0 or 3.0 features, you can use this as a base and extend it.
It performs an identity-style transform: it wraps the document in a root element and recreates each element and attribute. The output is a restructured copy of your input — useful as a sanity check before you add real logic.
Validating your input catches well-formedness problems early, so you don't pair a broken source document with a fresh stylesheet and waste time debugging the wrong file.
No. The XML is parsed in your browser to check it's well-formed, and the stylesheet is generated locally. Nothing is sent to a server.
Change the xsl:output method from xml to html and replace the templates with ones that emit your desired HTML elements. The scaffold gives you the structure; the transformation logic is yours to write.
Need another tool?
Browse the full toolbox or dig into the blog for the engineering behind it.