Summary: The Neon CLI diff command prints a git-style schema diff between two branches: the branch under review (the +++ side) and the branch you compare against (the --- side). Use this reference for the exact positional argument and flags: set the branch under review with --branch, the branch to compare against with the compare-branch positional, limit output to one database with --database, and target a project with --project-id.

Show a git-style schema diff between two branches

The diff command shows a git-style schema diff between two branches, in the same unified diff format git diff produces. The branch under review is the +++ side; the branch you compare against is the --- side. Omit the compare-branch argument to diff against the reviewed branch's parent, which answers "what did I change since branching?". See Schema diff for more on comparing schemas in Neon.

The +++ branch comes from --branch, or the branch pinned in your .neon context file, or the project's default branch, in that order. diff covers every database on that branch unless you pass --database. Use --output json or --output yaml for a machine-readable diff, one entry per database.

neon diff is a shortcut for comparing branch schemas. To compare against a historical point in time (by timestamp or LSN), use the neon branches schema-diff subcommand.

neon diff [compare-branch] [options]

Diff the branch pinned in your .neon context against its parent. This works only when the pinned branch has a parent; against the project's default branch it errors, since there's nothing above it to compare:

neon diff

Diff the reviewed branch's schema against the main branch:

neon diff main

Say your feature/checkout branch adds a discount_code column to the orders table and a new coupons table on top of main. Diff it against main with --branch, which reviews an explicit branch regardless of your .neon context:

neon diff main --branch feature/checkout

INFO: → Comparing schema main → feature/checkout
diff --neon database neondb
--- main (br-solitary-block-atxzqx8a)
+++ feature/checkout (br-wandering-bar-atq2lw6c)
@@ -22,6 +22,19 @@
 SET default_table_access_method = heap;

 --
+-- Name: coupons; Type: TABLE; Schema: public; Owner: neondb_owner
+--
+
+CREATE TABLE public.coupons (
+    code text NOT NULL,
+    percent_off integer NOT NULL,
+    expires_at timestamp with time zone
+);
+
+
+ALTER TABLE public.coupons OWNER TO neondb_owner;
+
+--
 -- Name: orders; Type: TABLE; Schema: public; Owner: neondb_owner
 --

@@ -29,7 +42,8 @@
     id integer NOT NULL,
     customer_id integer NOT NULL,
     total numeric(10,2) NOT NULL,
-    created_at timestamp with time zone DEFAULT now()
+    created_at timestamp with time zone DEFAULT now(),
+    discount_code text
 );

Each branch's schema is dumped as pg_dump --schema-only SQL and the two dumps are compared, so the diff includes generated lines you didn't write directly, such as -- Name: ... comments and ALTER TABLE ... OWNER TO statements. Lines prefixed with + exist only on the branch under review; - lines exist only on the compare branch. If the schemas match, diff reports no differences instead.

• snapshots
• projects
• branches
• databases
• roles
• operations

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