nrepo diff

nrepo diff <id> [id2] [options]

Compares two ideas across five fields — title, body, status, source, and tags — and prints only the ones that differ.

Options

Flag	Type	Default	Description
--json	boolean	false	Output both ideas plus a field-by-field diff as JSON.
--human	boolean	—	Force human-readable output. Wins over --json.

Output

nrepo diff 391 402

diff #42 → #43
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Title
  - Add dark mode to dashboard
  + Add dark mode and a theme picker

  Body
    Switch the dashboard to support both schemes.
  - Use CSS custom properties.
  + Use CSS custom properties and a picker in Settings.

  Tags
  - ui, frontend
  + ui, frontend, themes

Identical ideas print No differences found. An empty field renders as (empty).

Note

The body comparison is line-by-line by position, not a real diff. Insert a line near the top of one body and every line after it is reported as changed, because line 5 is now being compared against line 4. It is a readable summary, not a patch.

Comparing against a related idea

With one ID, the CLI picks the comparison target itself, in this order:

1. The idea’s parent_id — set when it was created by nrepo branch.
2. A parent relation.
3. A duplicate relation.
4. The highest-scoring relation of any type.

nrepo diff 402
# Compares #43 against the idea it was branched from

An idea with none of those has nothing to compare against:

No parent or related idea to diff against.
Usage: nrepo diff 402 <other-id>

That case exits 0 in human mode. With --json it exits 1 and prints {"error":"...","code":"no_diff_target"}.

JSON output

nrepo diff 391 402 --json

{
  "a": { "id": 391, "number": 42, "title": "Add dark mode to dashboard" },
  "b": { "id": 402, "number": 43, "title": "Add dark mode and a theme picker" },
  "diff": [
    { "field": "Title", "a": "Add dark mode to dashboard", "b": "Add dark mode and a theme picker", "changed": true },
    { "field": "Body", "a": "...", "b": "...", "changed": true },
    { "field": "Status", "a": "exploring", "b": "exploring", "changed": false },
    { "field": "Source", "a": "cli", "b": "cli", "changed": false },
    { "field": "Tags", "a": "ui, frontend", "b": "ui, frontend, themes", "changed": true }
  ]
}

a and b are the full idea objects; diff carries every field, including unchanged ones.

Next Steps

nrepo branch Create the variant that nrepo diff compares against its parent.

nrepo merge Fold one of the two ideas into the other once you have decided.

nrepo duplicate Review pairs the system flagged as near-identical.

nrepo show Read either idea in full instead of a field summary.