docs: def delist(target):
      ''' for any "list" found, replace with a single entry if the list has exactly one entry '''
      result = target
      if type(target) is dict:
          for key in target:
              target[key] = delist(target[key])
      if type(target) is list:
          if len(target)==0:
              result = None
          elif len(target)==1:
              result = delist(target[0])
          else:
              result = [delist(e) for e in target]
      return result