klim diff

Compare your local tool environment against a reference to find differences in tool presence, versions, and sources.

Usage

klim diff <manifest.yaml | share-token> [flags]

Flags

Flag	Description
--refresh	Force fresh scan, ignoring cache
--output	Output format: text (default) or json

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Environments match
1	Differences found

Status Indicators

Status	Meaning
✓ match	Tool present on both sides with same version
≠ differs	Tool present on both sides but versions differ
← local only	Tool installed locally but not in reference
→ remote only	Tool in reference but not installed locally

Examples

# Compare against a manifest file
klim diff colleague-tools.yaml

# Compare against a share token
klim diff "klim:v1:H4sIAAAA..."

# Force fresh scan for accurate comparison
klim diff tools.yaml --refresh

Output

TOOL      LOCAL                  REMOTE           STATUS
----      -----                  ------           ------
git       2.53.0 (winget)        99.0.0 (winget)  ≠ differs
gh        2.74.2 (winget)        2.74.2 (winget)  ✓ match
kubectl   —                      1.28.0 (brew)    → remote only
node      24.14.1 (winget)       —                ← local only

Result: 1 match, 1 differ, 1 local only, 1 remote only

JSON Output

--output json emits a structured report with canonical status keys (match, differs, local_only, remote_only), the original CLI argument as target, and a human-friendly target_label:

{
  "target": "colleague-tools.yaml",
  "target_label": "colleague-tools.yaml (linux/amd64)",
  "summary": {
    "match": 1,
    "differs": 1,
    "local_only": 1,
    "remote_only": 1
  },
  "entries": [
    {
      "name": "git",
      "local_version": "2.53.0",
      "local_source": "winget",
      "remote_version": "99.0.0",
      "remote_source": "winget",
      "status": "differs"
    }
  ]
}

entries is always an array (empty when no diffs). The exit-code semantics are unchanged: --output json with differences still exits 1.

See Also

• klim export — Export your tools to a manifest
• klim share — Generate a share token