A specialized tool for semantically comparing and merging structured configuration files across different environments.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install config-diff
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install config-diff using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Config Diff?
Config Diff is a robust utility designed to bridge the gap between simple text comparisons and structural analysis of configuration data. By utilizing Openclaw Skills to interpret the underlying schema of YAML, JSON, TOML, and .env files, it ensures that developers focus on logic changes rather than trivial formatting or whitespace differences. This skill is essential for teams managing complex infrastructure where environment-specific settings need to stay synchronized without compromising structural integrity.
At its core, the tool performs structural normalization before comparison. This means it can detect when two configuration files are logically identical even if their keys are in a different order or if they use different indentation styles. It transforms raw data into a readable, actionable report that highlights exactly what has changed between your source and target configurations.
Config Diff Use Cases
- Syncing local development settings with production environment variables.
- Auditing structural changes in YAML Kubernetes manifests or JSON cloud configurations.
- Identifying missing keys or redundant parameters after a software version upgrade.
- Merging divergent .env files while ensuring sensitive credentials remain masked.
How Config Diff Works
- Automatically detects the file format based on the extension or internal content signature.
- Normalizes the file structure by sorting keys and flattening nested objects into dot-notation paths.
- Executes a semantic comparison using specialized parsers like jq or yq to ignore irrelevant formatting or comments.
- Classifies each detected change into specific categories: Added, Removed, Changed, or Unchanged.
- Generates a formatted report with merge recommendations based on the target environment context.
Config Diff Setup
To leverage this part of the Openclaw Skills ecosystem, ensure the necessary CLI parsers are installed on your local environment.
# Install standard utilities
sudo apt-get install jq diffutils
# For YAML support, install yq
# On macOS:
brew install yq
# On Linux:
sudo wget https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/latest/download/yq_linux_amd64 -O /usr/bin/yq && chmod +x /usr/bin/yq
Config Diff Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill organizes data by flattening hierarchical structures into a unified table format for maximum clarity.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Key Path | The flattened dot-notation path representing the object hierarchy (e.g., db.connection.host) |
| Source | The original value retrieved from the base configuration file |
| Target | The updated value found in the comparison or target file |
| Change Status | A visual indicator (Added, Removed, Changed, Unchanged) showing the nature of the delta |
Security metadata is prioritized; any key identified as a password, token, or private key is automatically masked during the generation of the data schema to prevent accidental exposure.
Config Diff Advanced Features
- Semantic vs. Textual diffing toggle allows users to choose between structural logic and raw text preservation.
- Automated secret detection identifies sensitive keys and masks them with asterisks to maintain security compliance.
- Context-aware merge suggestions recommend the safest value to keep based on whether the target is a production or development environment.
- Path flattening handles deeply nested JSON and YAML structures, presenting them in a flat, searchable list.
- Order-independent comparison ensures that reordered lists or keys do not trigger false positive differences.
SKILL.md
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