difftastic

A structural diff tool that understands syntax

Development Version Control linuxmacoswindows Rust MIT

Description

difftastic is a diff tool that compares files based on their syntax rather than line-by-line text. It understands 30+ programming languages and highlights meaningful changes while ignoring formatting differences.

Install

homebrewbrew install difftastic

cargocargo install difftastic

pacmansudo pacman -S difftastic

AI Summary

A structural diff tool that understands syntax. Compares code based on AST structure rather than text lines, showing meaningful changes and ignoring formatting noise.

Capabilities

+ Syntax-aware diffing for 30+ languages
+ Ignores formatting-only changes
+ Side-by-side display with syntax highlighting
+ Git integration as external diff tool

Use When

→ Reviewing code changes where formatting was also modified
→ Want to see meaningful structural changes, not whitespace diffs
→ Using as a git difftool for code review

Avoid When

x Need to diff non-code files (use standard diff)
x Diffing unsupported languages

Usage Patterns

Diff two files

difft old.py new.py

Shows structural differences between two Python files

Use as git difftool

GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF=difft git diff

Uses difftastic for git diff output

Related Tools

delta alternative

delta enhances line-based diffs; difftastic does structural diffs

View AGENTS.md for difftastic