Rift / Guide

Guide

One page for each way to run Rift. Every command below ran on a pair of files made by rift-gen, and the output is what it printed.

New to Rift? Read the plain diff page, then the --summary page: the summary shows how much differs before you commit to a full diff.

• Plain diff

  Write a unified diff that patch applies.

• --summary

  Line counts, segments, the first differing ranges, moved blocks and resource use.

• Terminal view

  Browse the differences with n and p before the whole diff is done.

• Key mode

  Compare records by key: CSV columns, NDJSON fields, pg_dump COPY blocks.

• Moves

  What the moved block list means, what it misses, and how to turn it off.

• --mem

  Set the heap limit, read the rerun advice, and know what the limit does not cover.

• Exit codes

  What each exit status means and how to use it in a script.

• Git

  Set up rift git-diff as an external diff for large files, and know what it costs.

• MCP server

  Install rift-mcp, add it to a client and use its three tools.

• VS Code

  Install the extension, compare two files, step through the differences, and handle memory refusals.