# Wilfred/difftastic

a structural diff that understands syntax 🟥🟩

Repository: https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/difftastic
Homepage: https://difftastic.wilfred.me.uk/
Language: Rust
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: diff, tree-sitter
Last push: 2026-08-25T10:57:05+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 94/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 84, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2815, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 26, "gap_med": 78.0, "n_releases_24m": 9}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 25822, forks 510 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:38.687674+00:00)

## What it is
Difftastic is a structural diff CLI tool that compares files based on syntax parsed with tree-sitter, rather than line-by-line. It supports over 30 programming languages and integrates with git and other version control systems.

## Use cases
- show syntax-aware diffs instead of line diffs
- ignore formatting-only changes when reviewing code
- diff reformatted code to see what actually changed
- use a better diff tool with git
- compare files in languages like Rust, Python, or JavaScript structurally

## When to choose
- you want human-readable diffs that understand code structure
- you review diffs after running code formatters
- you need a git-compatible diff tool across many languages

## When to avoid
- you need to generate patch files that can be applied later
- you need AST merging or three-way merge support
- you diff very large files with many changes and care about performance or memory

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: developer-tools, parser, cli
- domain: developer-tools, version-control, parsers
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: diff, tree-sitter, syntax-aware, git, code-review, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- Wilfred/difftastic (main) score 94

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:38.687674+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:55:58.434736+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:38.687674+00:00, sha 0a33c799aae0)
  - homepage: https://difftastic.wilfred.me.uk/ (fetched 2026-08-29T07:52:30.441879+00:00, sha a4d7b10988f2)
  - site_page: https://difftastic.wilfred.me.uk/installation.html (fetched 2026-08-29T07:52:30.451050+00:00, sha c5a255c84490)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/difftastic (fetched 2026-08-29T07:52:30.453038+00:00, sha 0bd9d33ab943)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.