delta

Website: https://dandavison.github.io/delta/↗

Project: https://github.com/dandavison/delta↗

Author: Dan Davison

Alternative to: diff

License: MIT

Language: Rust

Works with: git

This page last updated: 2026-03-29

delta is a pager for git and diff output that adds syntax highlighting, word-level diff highlighting, line numbers, and configurable color themes. It integrates with git as a drop-in pager replacement, transforming git diff, git log, git show, and git blame output into a more readable format.

delta showing a side-by-side diff with syntax highlighting

Features include side-by-side diff mode, word-level change highlighting for precise visualization of what changed within a line, improved merge conflict display, and integration with grep output. Delta ships with 20+ built-in syntax themes including Dracula and GitHub Light variants.

Basic usage

# Configure git to use delta as its pager.
git config --global core.pager delta

# Enable side-by-side view in ~/.gitconfig.
git config --global delta.side-by-side true

# Use directly on a diff file.
delta < file.diff

gitconfig setup

[core]
    pager = delta

[interactive]
    diffFilter = delta --color-only

[delta]
    navigate = true
    side-by-side = true
    line-numbers = true