Files and patches

Use file comparison when you already have before and after content, and patch mode when another tool emits unified diff text.

View a complete file or directory

hunk open                # browse the current directory
hunk open README.md      # syntax-highlighted complete document
hunk open path/to/project

No repository or changeset is required. The read-only browser lazy-loads expanded directories and selected documents, and watches them for changes. Arrow keys and Enter navigate the tree; Tab switches tree/document focus. Mouse clicks select files and expand folders. Press i to show hidden and Git-ignored entries, e to open the displayed file in $EDITOR, t for themes, w for wrapping, and ? for controls. Commands can be remapped in user configuration.

Symlinks are listed but never followed. Binary/non-UTF-8, unreadable, missing, or files over 1 MiB show a placeholder. Extremely large directories are bounded to 10,000 entries. Only one path is accepted; stdin, multiple paths, and file:line are not supported yet. open does not load user extensions or register a review session with the agent broker.

Compare files

hunk diff --files before.ts after.ts

The explicit --files option keeps file comparison distinct from hunk diff <from> <to>, which compares two VCS revisions. Add --watch to reload when either file changes:

hunk diff --files before.ts after.ts --watch

Open a patch file

hunk patch changes.patch

A file-backed patch can use watch mode. It remains tied to that file path.

Read a patch from stdin

git diff --no-color | hunk patch -

Use - to make stdin explicit. Stdin is a snapshot, so it cannot use --watch; write the patch to a file when you need continuous reloads. A top-level watch = true in your config makes stdin reviews fail too; see Watch mode.

Patch-like input is parsed into the same file and hunk model as repository input. Non-diff text belongs in pager mode, where Hunk can fall back to plain text.