diff

Scan the project and emit a ScanDiff against a previously saved baseline.

Useful for "what changed since main" PR comments and for trend dashboards.

Synopsis

archora diff [path] --base <baseline.json> [options]

Options

Option	Meaning
--base <file>	Required. Baseline JSON snapshot to compare against.
--output, -o <file>	Write diff JSON to file instead of stdout.
--quiet	Suppress the diff summary on stderr.
--help, -h	Show help and exit.

Output

A ScanDiff JSON document — see packages/core/src/diff for the schema. High-level fields:

• summary — counts of added / removed / changed modules and cycles.
• addedModules, removedModules, changedModules — per-module entries.
• newCycles, resolvedCycles — full cycle records.
• metricDeltas — per-module before/after for fan-in, fan-out, coupling, hotness.

A one-line summary is written to stderr:

Diff: +N / -M modules, K changed, +A / -B cycles.

Examples

# Save a baseline today, diff a week later
archora analyze . > baseline.json
# … a week of refactors …
archora diff . --base baseline.json -o diff.json

# Pipe straight into jq
archora diff . --base baseline.json --quiet \
  | jq '{addedModules: (.addedModules | length), newCycles: (.newCycles | length)}'

When to pick diff vs report --base

• diff — machine-readable JSON of changes only. Best for piping, custom dashboards, archiving.
• report --base — human-readable Markdown that includes the diff section. Best for PR comments.