> Are you aware of JSON::PP#sort_by ?

as a demo:

(NB: I changed your indentation levels to make it identical, otherwise please uncomment the whitespace eraser prior to testing. )

use warnings;
use strict;
use autodie;
BEGIN { $ENV{PERL_JSON_BACKEND}='JSON::PP'; }
use JSON;
use Test::More;

use 5.010;

my @order = qw/id disp ver auth/;



my $dat = [ ({ id => 'a', disp => 'a', ver => 'a', auth => 'a' })x2 ];
+ # dummy data

local $\ = "\n";

#print 'Unsorted => ', JSON->new->indent->space_after->encode( $dat );
#print 'Alpha Sorted => ', JSON->new->indent->space_after->canonical->
+encode( $dat );
print "Pryrt's Order => ",
    my $pryrt = manual_ordered_json( $dat, \@order );

# --- Sorting with JSON::PP
my %ORDER;
@ORDER{@order} = 1..@order;
my $sort = sub {
    package JSON::PP;
    ($ORDER{$a} // 1e999) <=> ($ORDER{$b} // 1e999)
        or
    $a cmp $b
};
print "LanX' Order => ",
    my $lanx = JSON->new->sort_by($sort)->indent->space_after->encode(
+ $dat );

# # --- erase whitespace diffs
# s/\s//g for $pryrt, $lanx;


is($lanx,$pryrt,"same JSON");

done_testing();

use Data::Dumper;

sub manual_ordered_json{
    my @list = @{$_[0]};
    my @ordr = @{$_[1]};
    my $out = "[\n";
    for my $i ( 0 .. $#list ) {
        my $h = $list[$i];
        $out .= "   {\n";
        for my $j ( 0 .. $#ordr ) {
            my $k = $ordr[$j];
            next unless defined $k;
            next unless exists $h->{$k};
            $out .= sprintf qq|      "%s": "%s"|, $k, $h->{$k} // '<un
+def>';
            $out .= ',' if $j < $#ordr;
            $out .= "\n";
        }
        $out .= "   }";
        $out .= "," if $i < $#list;
        $out .= "\n";
    }
    $out .= "]\n";
    return $out;
}
[download]

--->

Pryrt's Order => [
   {
      "id": "a",
      "disp": "a",
      "ver": "a",
      "auth": "a"
   },
   {
      "id": "a",
      "disp": "a",
      "ver": "a",
      "auth": "a"
   }
]

LanX' Order => [
   {
      "id": "a",
      "disp": "a",
      "ver": "a",
      "auth": "a"
   },
   {
      "id": "a",
      "disp": "a",
      "ver": "a",
      "auth": "a"
   }
]

ok 1 - same JSON
1..1
[download]

---

---

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