Capability overview
What does folder and archive review do in Diff Anything?
Recursively compare trees, open nested changes, and compare ZIP, TAR, TGZ, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, and GZ entry paths and hashes. Pro folder synchronization previews create, update, and delete counts, then applies the reviewed plan transactionally with rollback and one-click undo.
Diff Anything chooses a comparison engine that understands the inputs. Code and text receive language-aware highlighting and moved-block detection, text adds an interactive three-way merge workspace, JSON and other structured formats compare semantic paths, folders can synchronize a reviewed plan with rollback and undo, PDFs connect rendered pages with extracted text, and images offer overlay, swipe, blink, heatmap, and changed-pixel views.
In the workflow
Select a mode
Use automatic detection or explicitly choose text, structured, folder, archive, document, image, binary, or API comparison.
Diff Anything keeps the source pair, selected mode, comparison rules, result, and review state together so the same decision can be revisited or automated.
Useful in practice
Where this capability earns its place.
Related manual
Compare folders, archives, and images
Review release trees, archives, documents, and visual assets with purpose-built navigation, safety checks, and rollback.
The guide covers prepare folder sources, compare large trees, synchronize with a plan and an undo path, inspect archives, compare documents, use visual image tools. It is the best next step when you want to move from the product overview into a repeatable setup.
Read the guideDirect answers
Questions about folder and archive review.
What does folder and archive review do in Diff Anything?
Recursively compare trees, open nested changes, and compare ZIP, TAR, TGZ, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, and GZ entry paths and hashes. Pro folder synchronization previews create, update, and delete counts, then applies the reviewed plan transactionally with rollback and one-click undo.
Do compared files leave the computer?
No. Comparison is local. The application has no account, cloud comparison service, analytics, or telemetry.
How does automatic mode choose a comparison?
Matching structured formats use their semantic engine, two folders use folder comparison, and other compatible inputs fall back to text. You can always choose a concrete mode.