origami:

yamlParse(text)

Parses the indicated text as JSON or YAML. The parsed plain JavaScript object is returned or, if the parse fails, this returns undefined.

You will generally only need to call jsonParse in cases where you are obtaining YAML values from a web service. Origami will already unpack local or web YAML files you reference in Origami expressions.

To parse a quoted argument on the command line:

$ ori yamlParse "'[1, 2, 3]'"
- 1
- 2
- 3

See also jsonParse, which is focused on parsing JSON.