JSON serialization doesn't work when DeepDiff is part of another dict

[maltelorbach]

Describe the bug
When the DeepDiff object is part of another dictionary, I can't get the serialization to work. Perhaps it's more the json/Python part of it and any suggestions are welcome.

Details
The .to_json() works fine for a standalone DeepDiff object, but in my case it is part of a larger data structure that I want to serialize to json.

I tried using the .to_json() method in a custom JSONEncoder, but as it turns out the custom encoder doesn't receive the DeepDiff object but a SetUnordered for which no serialization is known.

To Reproduce
MWE:

import json

from deepdiff import DeepDiff

d1 = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3)
d2 = dict(a=1, b=2, c=4, e="new")

diff = DeepDiff(d1, d2)

print(diff.to_json())  # works fine

# ---

some_bigger_object = {"diffs": diff}


class DeepDiffToDictEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
    def default(self, o):
        if isinstance(o, DeepDiff):
            return o.to_dict()
        return super().default(o)


class DeepDiffToJsonEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
    def default(self, o):
        if isinstance(o, DeepDiff):
            return o.to_json()
        return super().default(o)


# raises TypeError: Object of type SetOrdered is not JSON serializable
print(json.dumps(some_bigger_object, cls=DeepDiffToDictEncoder))

# raises TypeError: Object of type SetOrdered is not JSON serializable
print(json.dumps(some_bigger_object, cls=DeepDiffToJsonEncoder))

Expected behavior
I expect that - using a custom JSONEncoder - it should be possible to serialize a data structure containing a DeepDiff object.

OS, DeepDiff version and Python version (please complete the following information):

• OS: Ubuntu
• Version [24]
• Python Version [3.13]
• DeepDiff Version [8.6.0]

Workaround
For now I'm using the following workaround when creating my larger data structure:

some_bigger_object = {"diffs": json.loads(diff.to_json())}