Response Diff

Response diff

Compare the current tab's response against an earlier one and see exactly what changed: a line-by-line diff of the pretty-printed bodies plus a summary of the status-code and header differences. It answers "did this endpoint's response change since I last saved it?" and "why does this run differ from the last one?" in one click.

Opening it

On the response BODY pane there's a Compare response button, next to the existing Copy / Save response to file / Save as example actions (see Responses).

• It's hidden when there's no response on the tab yet.
• It's disabled (with the tooltip No saved examples or matching history to compare) when there's nothing to compare against.

Choosing what to compare against

Clicking Compare response opens a picker with up to three sections of targets:

• PREVIOUS RESPONSES (this tab) — earlier responses from this tab's Responses#response-history-time-travel (shown only when the tab has more than one recent response). Lets you diff "now vs. my last call" without re-sending.
• SAVED EXAMPLES — the Collections of this request's collection node (each captured response).
• RECENT (this request) — recent History entries whose HTTP method and URL match the current request.

A section with no targets shows None. Pick a target to open the diff.

Reading the diff

The diff view shows:

• A summary header — both source labels, the two status codes shown as left → right badges, and a header-delta line (Headers match, or N header(s) changed). When headers differ, each changed/added/removed header is listed (+ added on the target, - removed from the current response, ~ changed).
• A unified body diff — the two pretty-printed bodies, line by line. Added lines and removed lines are tinted in the theme's diff colours (green / red by convention), each with a + / - gutter glyph; unchanged lines are shown plain.

If the bodies match, you'll see Bodies are identical. (the status/header summary still shows above). If everything matches — same status, same headers, same body — it reads These responses are identical.

Limits

• The body diff is line-level on the pretty-printed body — it isn't semantic or key-aware, so re-ordered JSON keys show as changed lines even when the data is equivalent. (Char/word-level highlighting is a possible future addition.)
• Responses over ~512 KB show the status and header summary only — the inline body diff is skipped (you'll see Responses too large to diff inline (over 512 KB)) to keep the app responsive.
• The diff is read-only and computed on demand — nothing is persisted.

See also: Responses, Collections (saved examples), and History.