Compare structured files by meaning, not line position

Capability overview

What does semantic structured diffs do in Diff Anything?

Compare JSON, YAML, XML, CSV, OpenAPI, and JSON Schema by parsed keys, paths, rows, values, and compatibility rather than line position alone. API mode also provides explicitly limited contract review for GraphQL types and SQL CREATE TABLE definitions.

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

Choose the right comparison mode

Choose sources, understand automatic detection, and select the engine that answers the question you are actually asking.

The guide covers start with the review question, choose and load sources, how automatic mode resolves, read text and structured results, keep code readable, navigate and review, resolve a three-way merge, recover from input problems. It is the best next step when you want to move from the product overview into a repeatable setup.

Direct answers

Questions about semantic structured diffs.