DevDiff

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Quick Start Guide ​

This guide will walk you through staging files, running the generator, testing different personas, and configuring the daemon watcher in under two minutes.

Step 1: Stage Code Changes ​

Before DevDiff can analyze your project, it needs active git diff changes. Make a change in your project (e.g., adding a feature, fixing a bug, refactoring a module) and stage it using Git:

bash
# Edit your source files, then run:
git add .

Step 2: Generate an AI Explanation ​

Once files are staged, trigger DevDiff to analyze the modifications and output a structured changelog explanation:

bash
devdiff generate

What happens behind the scenes: ​

  1. Diff Extraction: DevDiff pulls the staged diff from your local git state.
  2. AST Reduction: The parser isolates the exact classes, functions, or lines that changed.
  3. Secret Scan: Credentials and API keys are automatically redacted.
  4. AI Analysis: The local or configured cloud model processes the code changes.
  5. Output Generation: A structured explanation (what changed, impact, and modules affected) is output directly in your console.

Step 3: Experiment with Personas ​

DevDiff supports personality-driven outputs which tailors the language, verbosity, and tone to specific audiences. You can specify a persona using the --persona flag:

bash
# Format the output for compliance audits and security reports
devdiff generate --persona compliance

# Format the output for non-technical stakeholders (CEOs/Executives)
devdiff generate --persona ceo

# Format the output with detailed explanations suitable for training junior developers
devdiff generate --persona educator

Step 4: Preview Without LLM Costs (Dry Run) ​

If you are using cloud providers and want to preview what prompt structure and redacted diff content will be sent to the AI model before incurring token costs, use the --dry-run flag:

bash
devdiff generate --dry-run

Step 5: Launch the Commit Daemon Watcher ​

For continuous integrations or local automation, you can run the DevDiff watcher in the background. It will monitor your repository and automatically compile changelogs on every commit:

bash
devdiff watch

The watcher will:

  • Listen to filesystem changes and git commits.
  • Merge consecutive commits using custom batch windows to optimize tokens.
  • Post the compiled changelog directly to your configured output adapters (e.g. Slack, webhook endpoints).