Diffdeck

Open a Git diff in your browser from the terminal.

diffdeck starts a local web UI for the diff you ask Git for, then opens it in your browser. Use it when:

• You do not have a diff view where you are editing.
• git diff in the terminal is too hard to read.
• You are SSHed into a server and still want a clean visual review.

Optionally, you can comment on changed lines and copy all of them at once for your AI to resolve — the surrounding code context goes with them, so the agent has everything it needs to act.

Agentic Setup

Tell your coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.):

Install `@parthj/diffdeck` globally with `npm install -g @parthj/diffdeck`, then add `alias gd='diffdeck'` to my shell rc file. Run `gd` whenever I ask you to show me a diff.

Install

npm install -g @parthj/diffdeck

The package is scoped, but the installed command is diffdeck.

To update to the latest version:

npm install -g @parthj/diffdeck@latest

(npm update -g won't bump globally-installed packages because they're pinned to an exact version at install time.)

Make It A Drop-In

Diffdeck accepts the same diff arguments, so the simplest setup is a shell alias:

alias gd='diffdeck'

Then use it like git diff:

gd
gd --cached
gd HEAD~1 HEAD

Use It Like Git Diff

diffdeck
diffdeck --cached
diffdeck HEAD~1 HEAD
diffdeck -- -- '*.tsx'

Everything after Diffdeck's own options is passed through to git diff as long as it still produces plain patch output. Summary-only modes such as --stat, --name-only, --raw, and --no-patch are rejected because there is no file patch for the browser to render.

Options

| Option | What it does | | --- | --- | | --repo <path> | Run against another repository. | | --port <number> | Bind to a specific port. Defaults to 4321 (falls back to a free port if taken). | | --host <host> | Bind to a host. Defaults to 127.0.0.1. | | --no-open | Start the server without opening a browser. | | --version | Print the installed version and exit. | | --help | Show CLI help. |

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or newer
• Git available on your PATH

Develop

bun install
bun run dev
bun run check

Releases

See GitHub Releases for the full version history. Highlights:

• 0.3.8 — Refined the review UI with shared controls, icons, compact states, and better mobile diff layout.
• 0.3.7 — Browser page refreshes now reload the current git status instead of reusing a cached session.
• 0.2.0 — File-list virtualization for large diffs (23k+ files), survives non-ASCII patches, comment drafts persist across scroll.
• 0.1.3 — Float copy-comments FAB, render binary file placeholders, oklch theme tokens.
• 0.1.1 — Initial scoped npm release.

License

MIT