diffyml#
A fast, structural YAML diff tool with built-in Kubernetes intelligence. One dependency, minimal attack surface, native CI annotations for GitHub, GitLab, and Gitea.
brew install szhekpisov/diffyml/diffyml
diffyml old.yaml new.yamlWhy diffyml?#
Fastest structural YAML diff at scale. On large (5K lines) and xlarge (50K lines) inputs diffyml is 1.5–1.9× faster than the nearest YAML-aware competitor. On small/medium files it ties within milliseconds — the residual overhead comes from capabilities the simpler tools lack (x509 inspection, remote URL fetching, AI summaries).
One dependency, zero surprises. A single module dependency (yaml.v3) and pure Go stdlib. Auditable in minutes.
Gets YAML right. Dotted keys, type preservation, mixed-type lists, nil values — concrete edge cases other tools get wrong.
Where to next#
- Install — Homebrew, Docker,
go install, release binaries - Quick Start — three minimal examples that cover 90% of usage
- Output Formats — pick the right format for terminal review or CI
- CI Integration — GitHub Actions, GitLab Code Quality, Gitea, kubectl, git
- Reference — every flag, auto-generated from source
How it compares#
| Feature | diffyml | dyff | plain diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| YAML-aware (structural) | Yes | Yes | No (line-based) |
| Kubernetes resource matching | apiVersion + kind + name (or generateName) | apiVersion + kind + name | No |
| Rename detection | Yes (content similarity) | Yes (identifier) | No |
| API version migration | Yes (--ignore-api-version) | No | No |
| CI annotation formats | 3 (GitHub, GitLab, Gitea) | 0 | 0 |
| Module dependencies | 1 (yaml.v3) | 23 | 0 |
| Performance (78 KB) | 19 ms | 120 ms (6.4×) | 6 ms |
| Performance (780 KB) | 129 ms | 1,146 ms (8.9×) | 45 ms |
Comparison based on dyff v1.11.3 and diffyml v1.5.23. See the PERFORMANCE doc for full methodology.