diff --git a/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/OpsLoader.java b/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/OpsLoader.java
index 99169836b..cb99faf90 100644
--- a/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/OpsLoader.java
+++ b/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/OpsLoader.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package io.nosqlbench.adapters.api.activityconfig;
 
 import com.amazonaws.util.StringInputStream;
+import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.nbio.Content;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.nbio.NBIO;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.errors.BasicError;
@@ -27,6 +28,8 @@ import io.nosqlbench.adapters.api.activityconfig.yaml.OpsDocList;
 import io.nosqlbench.adapters.api.templating.StrInterpolator;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.snakeyaml.engine.v2.api.Load;
+import org.snakeyaml.engine.v2.api.LoadSettings;
 import scala.Option;
 import sjsonnet.DefaultParseCache;
 import sjsonnet.SjsonnetMain;
@@ -146,4 +149,25 @@ public class OpsLoader {
         return stdoutOutput;
     }
 
+    // TODO These should not be exception based, use explicit pattern checks instead, or tap
+    // into the parsers in a non-exception way
+    public static boolean isJson(String workload) {
+        try {
+            new GsonBuilder().setPrettyPrinting().create().fromJson(workload, Map.class);
+            return true;
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+
+    // TODO These should not be exception based, use explicit pattern checks instead, or tap
+    // into the parsers in a non-exception way
+    public static boolean isYaml(String workload) {
+        try {
+            new Load(LoadSettings.builder().build()).loadFromString(workload);
+            return true;
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/rawyaml/OpsOwner.java b/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/rawyaml/OpsOwner.java
index b355a4be6..223372f1a 100644
--- a/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/rawyaml/OpsOwner.java
+++ b/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/rawyaml/OpsOwner.java
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import java.util.*;
 
 public class OpsOwner extends RawOpFields {
 
-    private final static List<String> opsFieldNames = List.of("op","ops","operation","statement","statements");
+    private final static List<String> opsFieldNames = List.of("op","ops","operation","stmt","statement","statements");
 
     private List<RawOpDef> rawOpDefs = new ArrayList<>();
 
diff --git a/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/rawyaml/RawOpsLoader.java b/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/rawyaml/RawOpsLoader.java
index 32bd76f65..b7fc11ab3 100644
--- a/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/rawyaml/RawOpsLoader.java
+++ b/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityconfig/rawyaml/RawOpsLoader.java
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 
 package io.nosqlbench.adapters.api.activityconfig.rawyaml;
 
+import com.google.gson.Gson;
+import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.nbio.Content;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.nbio.NBIO;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.errors.BasicError;
@@ -36,6 +38,11 @@ public class RawOpsLoader {
 
     private final ArrayList<Function<String,String>> transformers = new ArrayList<>();
 
+    private static LoadSettings loadSettings = LoadSettings.builder().build();
+    private final Load yaml = new Load(loadSettings);
+    private final Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().setPrettyPrinting().create();
+
+
     public RawOpsLoader(Function<String,String> transformer) {
         addTransformer(transformer);
     }
@@ -44,6 +51,15 @@ public class RawOpsLoader {
         addTransformer(new StrInterpolator());
     }
 
+    public boolean isJson(String workload) {
+        try  {
+            Object canLoad = gson.fromJson(workload, Object.class);
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            return false;
+        }
+        return true;
+    }
+
     private void addTransformer(Function<String, String> newTransformer) {
         Collections.addAll(this.transformers, newTransformer);
     }
@@ -79,8 +95,6 @@ public class RawOpsLoader {
     }
 
     public RawOpsDocList parseYaml(String data) {
-        LoadSettings loadSettings = LoadSettings.builder().build();
-        Load yaml = new Load(loadSettings);
         Iterable<Object> objects = yaml.loadAllFromString(data);
         List<RawOpsDoc> newDocList = new ArrayList<>();