ntdiff - Nimble Terminal Diff

ntdiff is a Golang Terminal Diff viewer for the Bubble Tea Framework and other TUIs. It parses unified diffs and provides an interactive split-pane terminal interface to explore code changes.

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Features

• Split-Pane Layout: List of changed files with addition/deletion counts on the left; scrollable, colorized unified diff viewport on the right.
• Dynamic Adjustments: Responsive UI that adapts to terminal resize events automatically.
• Syntax Highlighting: Uses Lip Gloss to colorize diff components (additions in green, deletions in red, hunk headers in cyan, diff headers in magenta).
• Interactive Navigation: Smooth pane switching (Tab or h/l) and scrolling/list navigation (↑/↓ or k/j).
• Flexible Inputs: Automatically detects piped stdin, accepts direct file/directory paths, or runs git diff fallback.
• WebAssembly Ready: Full browser demo utilizing the Ghostty terminal emulator engine (ghostty-web) via booba.

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Installation & CLI Usage

Install the CLI

go install github.com/NimbleMarkets/ntdiff/cmd/ntdiff@latest

Usage

# Run git diff inside a repository
ntdiff

# Read a diff from a file
ntdiff patch.diff

# Compare two files or directories outside a git repository
ntdiff file1.txt file2.txt

# Pipe a command output directly
git diff HEAD~1 | ntdiff

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Library Usage

ntdiff can also be integrated into other Bubble Tea applications as a model.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"os"

	tea "charm.land/bubbletea/v2"
	"github.com/NimbleMarkets/ntdiff/diff"
)

func main() {
	diffText := `diff --git a/hello.txt b/hello.txt
--- a/hello.txt
+++ b/hello.txt
@@ -1,1 +1,2 @@
 hello
+world!
`

	model := diff.NewModel()
	model.LoadDiff(diffText)

	p := tea.NewProgram(model)
	if _, err := p.Run(); err != nil {
		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Error running program: %v\n", err)
		os.Exit(1)
	}
}

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BubbleTea Version Compatibility

We have migrated to Bubble Tea v2. You should import ntdiff as so:

import "github.com/NimbleMarkets/ntdiff/diff"

Please note that the dependencies are tied to charm.land/bubbletea/v2 and charm.land/lipgloss/v2 for WebAssembly and rendering enhancements.

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Web Demo

ntdiff features a browser-based demo that runs the compiled WebAssembly binary inside a native high-fidelity web terminal engine (ghostty-web).

Building and Serving the Site Locally

# Build the WebAssembly site assets
task build-wasm-site

# Serve locally at http://localhost:8000/ntdiff/
task serve-wasm-site