diff kubernetes manifest with cluster
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Like a dufus this morning I did a hard reset on a git repo for getting I was working on a manifest for. You see I generally use argo, but occasionally I have...

Date: February 5, 2026

Like a dufus this morning I did a hard reset on a git </glossary/git/> repo for getting I was working on a manifest for. You see I generally use argo, but occasionally I have no idea what I am doing or want yet and I start raw doggin it, fully aware that I’m going to just nuke this namespace before getting it into a proper argocd.

I was overjoyed when I found out that you can diff your manifests with live production using the kubectl diff command. It uses standard diff so you can bring all your fancy diff viewers you like.

[code]
  # regular manifest
  kubectl diff -f k8s/shots -n shot
  # kustomize
  kubectl diff -k k8s -n go-waylonwalker-com
  # using a fancy diff viewer
  kubectl diff -f k8s/shots -n shot | delta
  # using an even fancier diff viewer
  # pinkies out for this one
  kubectl diff -f k8s/shots -n shot | delta --diff-so-fancy

Now I can get those changes back that I thought I lost, and apply updates with confidence knowing what is about to change.