A CLI tool that compares local Kubernetes manifests (plain YAML, Helm charts, Kustomize overlays) against the actual state in your cluster, providing clear, colorized diffs with a summary report.
For detailed documentation, see the docs/ folder:
Usage | Configuration | Examples | Deployment | Development | Use Cases
kubectl diff |
kube-diff |
|
|---|---|---|
| Input | YAML files, Kustomize (-k) |
Helm / Kustomize / plain YAML |
| Output | Raw unified diff | Per-resource colorized diff + summary |
| New resources | Full content dump | NEW label |
| Deleted detection | --prune with -l |
--deleted with -l, reported as DELETED in every output format |
| CI integration | Exit code only | JSON / Markdown / Table report output |
| Filtering | Label selector (-l) |
Namespace, kind, name, label selector filter |
| Field ignore | Not supported | --ignore-field to exclude specific paths |
| Context lines | Fixed | Configurable --context-lines |
| Diff strategy | Live, or server-side with --server-side |
--diff-strategy live|last-applied, or --server-side |
| Watch mode | Not supported | kube-diff watch for auto re-run on file change |
# Homebrew
brew install somaz94/tap/kube-diff
# Scoop (Windows)
scoop bucket add somaz94 https://github.com/somaz94/scoop-bucket
scoop install kube-diff
# Krew (kubectl plugin)
kubectl krew index add somaz94 https://github.com/somaz94/krew-index
kubectl krew install somaz94/diff2
# Binary (latest)
curl -sL https://github.com/somaz94/kube-diff/releases/latest/download/kube-diff_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv kube-diff /usr/local/bin/
# Binary (specific version)
curl -sL https://github.com/somaz94/kube-diff/releases/download/v0.1.0/kube-diff_0.1.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv kube-diff /usr/local/bin/
# From source
go install github.com/somaz94/kube-diff/cmd@latest# Homebrew
brew update && brew upgrade kube-diff
# Scoop
scoop update kube-diff
# Krew
kubectl krew upgrade diff2
# From source
go install github.com/somaz94/kube-diff/cmd@latest# Homebrew
brew uninstall kube-diff
# Scoop
scoop uninstall kube-diff
# Krew
kubectl krew uninstall diff2
# Manual
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/kube-diff# Compare YAML manifests against cluster
kube-diff file ./manifests/
# Compare Helm chart
kube-diff helm ./my-chart --values values-prod.yaml --release my-release
# Compare Kustomize overlay
kube-diff kustomize ./overlays/production
# Ignore specific fields in diff
kube-diff file ./manifests/ --ignore-field metadata.annotations.checksum
# Table output with custom context lines
kube-diff file ./manifests/ -o table -C 5
# Don't fail CI on changes
kube-diff file ./manifests/ --exit-code
# Compare against last-applied-configuration instead of live state
kube-diff file ./manifests/ --diff-strategy last-applied
# Secret values are redacted by default; print them only on a trusted terminal
kube-diff file ./manifests/ --show-secrets
# Also report objects labeled app=web that the manifests no longer contain
kube-diff file ./manifests/ -l app=web --deleted
# Compare a server-side apply dry run, so server defaults and webhook mutations do not show as drift
kube-diff file ./manifests/ --server-side
# Watch mode — auto re-run on file changes
kube-diff watch file ./manifests/
kube-diff watch helm ./my-chart/ -f values.yaml★ NEW ConfigMap/app-config (namespace: production)
~ CHANGED Deployment/web-app (namespace: production)
--- cluster
+++ local
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
spec:
- replicas: 2
+ replicas: 3
✓ OK Service/web-svc (namespace: production)
Summary: 3 resources — 1 changed, 1 new, 1 unchanged
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
0 |
No changes detected |
1 |
Changes detected (use --exit-code to always exit 0) |
2 |
Error occurred |
The CLI and its Cobra commands live in cmd/. The comparison pipeline lives in importable packages under pkg/ (source, cluster, diff, report, and engine, which ties them together), so other tools can reuse it.
Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.
- kube-diff-action: Run kube-diff in GitHub Actions and post the drift as a pull request comment.
- kube-drift: An operator that runs the same manifest-vs-cluster comparison on a schedule, inside the cluster.
- kube-ctx: Switch contexts and namespaces per terminal, with production guards and a built-in fuzzy picker.
- kube-events: View and summarize Kubernetes events, grouped by resource with warnings first.
This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 — see the LICENSE file for details.