diff --git a/docs/usage/templates.md b/docs/usage/templates.md
index 6bdf0688c235b4f28d148fd401dbe1488f46d009..470c1d0efda945b7a99dc0a2cd944bd4aa204f0b 100644
--- a/docs/usage/templates.md
+++ b/docs/usage/templates.md
@@ -20,3 +20,13 @@ Some are configuration options passed through, while others are generated as par
 ## Other available fields
 
 <!-- Insert runtime fields here -->
+
+## Additional Handlebars helpers
+
+### stringToPrettyJSON
+
+If you want to print pretty JSON with Handlebars you can use the built-in function `stringToPrettyJSON` like this:
+
+`{{{stringToPrettyJSON myvar}}}`
+
+In the example above `myvar` is a variable/field, that contains valid JSON.
diff --git a/lib/util/template/__snapshots__/index.spec.ts.snap b/lib/util/template/__snapshots__/index.spec.ts.snap
index e9fc7048944be908cb8b100e8c0e8b2cce380ec3..d900a0a75152385265af6a7e5bc794a54ea883e5 100644
--- a/lib/util/template/__snapshots__/index.spec.ts.snap
+++ b/lib/util/template/__snapshots__/index.spec.ts.snap
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
 // Jest Snapshot v1, https://goo.gl/fbAQLP
 
 exports[`util/template/index filters out disallowed fields 1`] = `"github token = \\"\\""`;
+
+exports[`util/template/index string to pretty JSON  1`] = `
+"{
+  \\"some\\": {
+    \\"fancy\\": \\"json\\"
+  }
+}"
+`;
diff --git a/lib/util/template/index.spec.ts b/lib/util/template/index.spec.ts
index 652d0f5e35275779ced3151813c849304df66622..55ab3c7b27362cc2dda1a89221f1fb115066b2b1 100644
--- a/lib/util/template/index.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/util/template/index.spec.ts
@@ -18,4 +18,10 @@ describe('util/template/index', () => {
     expect(output).toContain('github');
     expect(output).not.toContain('123test');
   });
+  it('string to pretty JSON ', () => {
+    const userTemplate =
+      '{{{ stringToPrettyJSON \'{"some":{"fancy":"json"}}\'}}}';
+    const output = template.compile(userTemplate, undefined);
+    expect(output).toMatchSnapshot();
+  });
 });
diff --git a/lib/util/template/index.ts b/lib/util/template/index.ts
index d5415734a1b11431203c7bdc6103357b9fec5409..4a4ad1ee33af6263d66cce68f33547c168da0ea1 100644
--- a/lib/util/template/index.ts
+++ b/lib/util/template/index.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ import { clone } from '../clone';
 
 handlebars.registerHelper('encodeURIComponent', encodeURIComponent);
 
+handlebars.registerHelper('stringToPrettyJSON', (input: string): string =>
+  JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(input), null, 2)
+);
+
 // istanbul ignore next
 handlebars.registerHelper(
   'replace',