agentsmesh diff

Show a unified diff of what the next agentsmesh generate would change, without writing anything. Use this to review pending changes before committing or to debug unexpected output.

Usage

agentsmesh diff [flags]

Flags

Flag	Description
--global	Diff outputs generated from ~/.agentsmesh/ instead of the current project.
--targets <csv>	Limit diff output to specific target IDs.

Examples

Show all pending changes

agentsmesh diff

Output shows a unified diff for each file that would be created, modified, or deleted by the next generate.

Show changes for specific targets

agentsmesh diff --targets windsurf
agentsmesh diff --targets claude-code,cursor

Diff home-level global outputs

agentsmesh diff --global --targets claude-code

Sample output

--- .claude/rules/security.md (current)
+++ .claude/rules/security.md (generated)
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 Never log sensitive data.
 Validate all external inputs.
+Use parameterized queries for all database operations.
+Sanitize HTML output to prevent XSS.

--- .cursor/rules/security.mdc (current)
+++ .cursor/rules/security.mdc (generated)
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 Never log sensitive data.
 Validate all external inputs.
+Use parameterized queries for all database operations.
+Sanitize HTML output to prevent XSS.

Workflow

diff is most useful as a pre-commit review step:

# 1. Edit canonical files
vi .agentsmesh/rules/security.md

# 2. Preview what changes will be generated
agentsmesh diff

# 3. If it looks correct, generate
agentsmesh generate

# 4. Commit both canonical and generated files
git add .agentsmesh/ .claude/ .cursor/
git commit -m "security: add SQL injection and XSS rules"

Relationship to generate --dry-run

Both preview a run without writing, but they are separate commands with different output.

• agentsmesh diff writes each unified patch to stdout, then a summary line: N files would be created, N updated, N unchanged, N deleted.
• agentsmesh generate --dry-run writes one status line per file — [dry-run] <status> <path> (<target>) — and no patches or summary.

Use diff when you want to read the change, generate --dry-run when you want the file list.