deep-obj-diff-cli

A command-line tool for comparing JSON objects or files and displaying differences — powered by deep-obj-diff.

Installation

npm install -g deep-obj-diff-cli

Or use with npx:

npx deep-obj-diff-cli old.json new.json

Quick Start

# Compare two JSON files
deep-obj-diff old.json new.json

# Compare inline JSON strings
deep-obj-diff '{"a":1,"b":2}' '{"a":1,"b":3,"c":4}'

Common Use Cases

Compare API responses

curl https://api.example.com/v1/config > old.json
curl https://api.example.com/v2/config > new.json
deep-obj-diff old.json new.json

Generate JSON Patch output

deep-obj-diff old.json new.json --format patch

Get machine-readable JSON (for piping)

deep-obj-diff old.json new.json --json | jq '.[] | select(.kind == "changed")'

Compare only a specific subtree

deep-obj-diff old.json new.json --filter settings

Treat arrays as unordered sets

deep-obj-diff old.json new.json --no-array-order

Limit comparison depth

deep-obj-diff old.json new.json -d 2

Ignore specific paths

deep-obj-diff old.json new.json -i "*.timestamp" -i "metadata.*"

Include unchanged properties

deep-obj-diff old.json new.json -u

Expand JSON-stringified values before diffing

deep-obj-diff old.json new.json -e

Output Formats

| Format | Flag | Description | |--------|------|-------------| | list | -f list | Colored change list (default) | | flat | -f flat | Flat object keyed by dot-path | | nested | -f nested | Nested structure mirroring object shape | | patch | -f patch | JSON Patch operations (RFC 6902) | | json | -f json | Raw JSON list output |

All Options

| Flag | Alias | Description | |------|-------|-------------| | --format <fmt> | -f | Output format (see above) | | --include-unchanged | -u | Include unchanged properties | | --max-depth <n> | -d | Maximum recursion depth | | --no-array-order | | Treat arrays as unordered sets | | --filter <prefix> | | Only include paths matching the prefix | | --ignore <pattern> | -i | Ignore paths (repeatable, supports globs) | | --expand-json-strings | -e | Expand JSON-stringified values | | --json | | Raw JSON output (no colors, pipe-friendly) | | --version | -V | Show version number | | --help | -h | Show help |

Exit Codes

• 0 — no differences found
• 1 — differences found (useful in CI/CD scripts)

License

MIT