JSON Diff

Compares two JSON documents and reports every added, removed and modified key or value, each with its path. Runs locally in Python's standard library. No credential, no network.

Tool ID

json-diff

Credential Required

No.

Use case

Catch drift between two versions of the same JSON: yesterday's API response against today's, a config file before and after a deploy, an export against its baseline. A later task can branch on hasChanges or send summary as an alert.

Published Outputs

Example

Input:

{
  "tool": "json-diff",
  "properties": {
    "original": "{\"name\": \"widget\", \"price\": 10, \"tags\": [\"a\", \"b\"], \"stock\": {\"nyc\": 4, \"sfo\": 2}}",
    "modified": "{\"name\": \"widget\", \"price\": 12, \"tags\": [\"a\", \"b\", \"c\"], \"stock\": {\"nyc\": 4}, \"sku\": \"W-1\"}"
  }
}

Actual captured output:

summary     Found 4 difference(s): 2 added, 1 removed, 1 modified.
hasChanges  true
changeCount 4
added       [{"path": "sku", "key": "sku", "value": "W-1"}, {"path": "tags[2]", "index": 2, "value": "c"}]
removed     [{"path": "stock.sfo", "key": "sfo", "value": 2}]
modified    [{"path": "price", "oldValue": 10, "newValue": 12}]

How it works

Objects are compared key by key and the comparison recurses into nested objects, so a change deep in the document is reported at its full path (stock.sfo). Arrays are compared position by position.

Each input may be JSON text or the path of a .json file readable by the InTouch server.

Chaining Patterns

• http → json-diff → message — alert when an API response differs from a saved baseline
• file → json-diff — compare a config file before and after a change
• Use {{task.hasChanges}} in a later task's if to act only when something changed

Limitations

• Arrays are compared by position. Inserting an element at the front of an array reports every later element as modified rather than as one insertion.
• An input that is not valid JSON does not fail the task: summary carries the parse error and hasChanges is "false". Check summary if a "no changes" result is surprising.
• Values are compared exactly: 1 and 1.0 are equal, "1" and 1 are not.

Source

tool.iml, json_diff.py

Publishes

The keys a later task may reference as {{taskName.key}}. Referencing anything not listed here resolves to nothing at run time.

• added
• changeCount
• diff
• hasChanges
• modified
• removed
• summary

Input Properties

Every property this tool accepts, from its own tool.iml.