drift

drift

A fast, interactive file comparison tool.

Compare directories, archives, binaries, plists, text files, and git commits with a terminal UI or structured JSON output.

Installation

Download a pre-built binary for your platform from a release.

Alternative install methods

Use go to install a version:

go install github.com/block/drift/cmd/drift@latest # or @vX.X.X

Or build from source:

gh repo clone block/drift
cd drift
go run ./cmd/drift --help

Usage

# Compare two directories
drift MyApp-v1.0 MyApp-v2.0

# Compare two archives (.ipa, .apk, .aar, .jar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2)
drift MyApp-v1.0.ipa MyApp-v2.0.ipa

# Compare two binaries
drift MyApp-v1.0/MyApp.app/MyApp MyApp-v2.0/MyApp.app/MyApp

# Force a specific comparison mode
drift -m binary MyApp-v1.0/MyApp.app/libcore.dylib MyApp-v2.0/MyApp.app/libcore.dylib

# JSON output (non-interactive, for scripting)
drift --json MyApp-v1.0 MyApp-v2.0

Git mode

drift can compare git commits, branches, and working tree changes - bringing its interactive TUI to your git workflow.

# View uncommitted changes (staged + unstaged + untracked)
drift

# Compare a ref against HEAD
drift HEAD~3
drift main

# Compare any two refs (commits, branches, tags)
drift main feature-branch
drift v1.0.0 v2.0.0

# Target a different repo with -C
drift -C ~/projects/my-app HEAD~1 HEAD

# Force git mode when a ref collides with a file path
drift --git main feature

When comparing git refs, the root node in the tree shows commit metadata including SHA, author, date, and links to the commit and pull request on GitHub.

Auto-detection resolves arguments as git refs when they don't match filesystem paths. Use --git to skip path detection entirely.

Agent skill

drift ships a skill that gives AI coding agents native access to structured file comparison via drift --json. The skill is included in every GitHub release.

Install with a single command:

Claude Code

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/drift && gh release download --repo block/drift --pattern 'skill.tar.gz' --output - | tar -xz -C ~/.claude/skills/drift

Codex / Amp

mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills/drift && gh release download --repo block/drift --pattern 'skill.tar.gz' --output - | tar -xz -C ~/.agents/skills/drift

Agent skill demo

Comparison modes

drift auto-detects the comparison mode based on the inputs:

Use -m <mode> to override auto-detection.

Archives

drift transparently extracts and compares the contents of:

• .ipa (iOS app bundles)
• .apk (Android app bundles)
• .aar (Android libraries)
• .jar (Java archives)
• .tar, .tar.gz / .tgz, .tar.bz2

Interactive TUI

When stdout is a terminal, drift launches an interactive Bubbletea-based TUI with a split-pane layout: file tree on the left, detail diff on the right.

Keybindings

JSON output

Pass --json to get structured, machine-readable JSON output - ideal for CI pipelines, automation scripts, and AI-powered analysis.

drift --json MyApp-v1.0 MyApp-v2.0
drift --json MyApp-v1.0/MyApp.app/libcore.dylib MyApp-v2.0/MyApp.app/libcore.dylib
drift --json MyApp-v1.0.ipa MyApp-v2.0.ipa | jq '.summary'

Output structure

Every JSON result includes:

Node status is one of: unchanged, added, removed, modified.

For single-file modes (binary, plist, text), a detail field is automatically included with mode-specific data:

• binary - symbols (added/removed symbol names) and sections (segment/section size changes)
• plist - changes with key_path, status, and before/after values
• text - hunks with line-level diffs (kind: context, added, removed)

Examples

Detect new files added between two builds:

drift --json MyApp-v1.0 MyApp-v2.0 | jq '[.root | .. | select(.status? == "added") | .path]'

Get the total size delta:

drift --json MyApp-v1.0 MyApp-v2.0 | jq '.summary.size_delta'

List changed symbols in a binary:

drift --json MyApp-v1.0/MyApp.app/libcore.dylib MyApp-v2.0/MyApp.app/libcore.dylib \
  | jq '.detail.binary.symbols[] | select(.status == "added") | .name'

Feed a comparison to an LLM for analysis:

drift --json MyApp-v1.0.ipa MyApp-v2.0.ipa | llm "Summarize what changed between these two builds"

Platform support

drift works on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Core features (directory/archive comparison, text diffing) work everywhere. Some features require external tools and degrade gracefully when they are unavailable:

License

Apache License 2.0