Documentation

Local Diffs

Use local diffs to review desired-state changes before opening or merging a pull request. drydock renders both sides and compares Argo CD desired manifests, so operators can review resource and image changes from repository inputs alone.

Compare Two Trees

git worktree add ../baseline main
drydock diff apps --path . --path-orig ../baseline
drydock diff images --path . --path-orig ../baseline

Use this when you already have a separate baseline checkout or want to inspect uncommitted changes in the current working tree. Add --offline when the review must use only local files, repo maps, and existing drydock cache entries. Default output is intended for terminal review and uses TTY-appropriate color and syntax highlighting when available.

Compare Git Refs

drydock diff apps --repo . --ref HEAD --ref-orig main
drydock diff images --repo . --ref HEAD --ref-orig main

--repo is a local Git repository path. --ref-orig selects the baseline snapshot, and --ref selects the current snapshot. Top-level remote --repo URLs are not supported.

Useful Diff Flags

  • --changed-only=false renders all discovered Applications.
  • --strict-changed-only fails if changed-file ownership is incomplete.
  • --changed-only-include 'apps/**' considers only matching changed paths.
  • --changed-only-ignore '.github/**' removes matching paths before ownership.
  • --skip-secrets omits Secret resources from output and diffs.
  • --skip-crds omits CRDs from output and diffs.
  • --show-ignored-fields shows drydock default ignored metadata fields.
  • --exit-code=false keeps the command successful when differences exist.

Changed-only filters are repository-relative and repeatable. They are useful when local commits include known non-GitOps files, but they should stay narrow: ignored files cannot trigger an Application render.

Markdown For Pull Request Comments

Manifest and image diffs support markdown output for pull request comments:

drydock diff apps --path . --path-orig ../baseline -o markdown
drydock diff images --path . --path-orig ../baseline -o markdown

Manifest markdown is the primary review surface. It keeps the operator summary near the top and puts rendered resource patches behind per-Application details:

## drydock desired state diff

**Summary:** 2 apps, 3 resources, +12/-5.

<details open>
<summary>payments-api (+9/-3, 2 resources)</summary>

```diff
--- Application: payments-api apps/Deployment: payments/payments-api
+++ Application: payments-api apps/Deployment: payments/payments-api
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
-        app.kubernetes.io/version: 2026.05.0
+        app.kubernetes.io/version: 2026.05.1
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
-          image: registry.example.com/payments-api:2026.05.0
+          image: registry.example.com/payments-api:2026.05.1
```

</details>

Image markdown is a companion view for scanning rendered image reference changes. It omits unchanged images by default so the comment stays focused on added and removed references.

For the full diff behavior, output formats, ignore rules, and exit codes, see the CLI usage guide .