diff

Compares schemas and optionally row-level data between two targets (e.g. prod:dev). See Data Diffs for detailed usage.

Usage

sqb diff <FROM>:<TO> <mode> [flags]

The first argument is a positional FROM:TO range. Exactly one mode is required: --full, --schema-only, or --bounded <duration>.

FROM and TO are configured target names. Their database/schema namespaces remain authoritative, while the TO target’s named connection executes the complete comparison and must be able to read both namespaces.

Full and bounded row comparisons require the model to define unique_key. Bounded mode uses the model’s cursor and falls back to a full row comparison when no cursor is configured.

Flags

Flag	Description
--full	Compare both schema and all row data
--schema-only	Compare column names and types only
--bounded	Compare row data within a recent window (e.g. 14d, 6h)
--verbose, -v	Show more example rows (default: 3, verbose: 10)
--max-column-examples	Override maximum examples per changed column
--max-row-only-examples	Override maximum examples for side-only rows
--sample-rows	Override the deterministic unique-key sample size
--sample-seed	Override the deterministic sample seed
--exhaustive	Disable inherited sampling for this invocation
--json-output	Write structured comparison scope, coverage, and results to a JSON file
--max-models	Fail when the selected scope contains more models than this limit
--max-columns	Fail when either side of a model has more columns than this limit
--no-sql-analysis	Disable compile-time SQL analysis (--no-sql-validation is an alias)
--select, -s	Select specific models to diff (required in v1)
--exclude	Exclude specific models from diffing

Examples

# Full diff of a specific model
sqb diff prod:dev --full --select customer_status_snapshot

# Schema-only diff of all marts
sqb diff prod:dev --schema-only --select path:models/marts

# Bounded diff of last 14 days
sqb diff prod:dev --bounded 14d --select hourly_order_activity

# Deterministic bounded sample
sqb diff prod:dev --bounded 14d --sample-rows 50000 --sample-seed 7 --select order_lines

# Force exhaustive comparison despite inherited sampling defaults
sqb diff prod:dev --bounded 14d --exhaustive --select order_lines

Exit codes

Returns 0 when all selected models have no differences, 1 when any model has schema or row differences.