ABDiff icon ABDiff macOS

Git workflows on macOS

Git Diff Tool for macOS

ABDiff is a native Git diff and merge tool for macOS that works with git difftool and git mergetool, supports three-way merge, and keeps review local when a plain terminal diff is not enough.

It fits the moments where human judgment matters: reviewing a change visually, resolving conflicts deliberately, or loading an earlier revision into a side-by-side comparison without leaving the app.

View on the Mac App Store Git Integration Manual Git Workflow Details
  • git difftool
  • git mergetool
  • Three-way merge
  • Revision loading
  • Keyboard-first review
ABDiff text diff view on macOS
ABDiff text diff view

Why use a native Git diff tool?

  • Text changes are easier to inspect when word-level edits, modified hunks, and pane-to-pane copy actions are visible at once.
  • Merge conflicts are less error-prone when the result file is the only editable pane and the base, local, and remote versions remain explicit.
  • Some reviews need semantic or visual judgment rather than a raw line-based patch in the terminal.

What ABDiff adds

  • Unified, side-by-side, or connector-based text diff layouts.
  • Three-way merge with explicit conflict regions and a separate result pane.
  • Git revision loading inside the diff view for local history review.
  • Patch export, keyboard navigation, and deliberate local-only workflows.

How ABDiff fits Git workflows

Workflow need How ABDiff helps
Review changed files from Git Use git difftool or open files directly for side-by-side review with word-level highlighting.
Resolve merge conflicts Use git mergetool with BASE, LOCAL, REMOTE, and RESULT inputs mapped into ABDiff's three-way merge interface.
Inspect older revisions Load previous Git revisions directly into a pane instead of jumping across multiple tools.
Keep repository data local ABDiff is local-first and does not require file uploads or a cloud review pipeline.

Typical Git setup

git config --global diff.tool abd
git config --global difftool.prompt false
git config --global difftool.abd.cmd 'abd --local "$LOCAL" --remote "$REMOTE"'

git config --global merge.tool abd
git config --global mergetool.abd.trustExitCode true
git config --global mergetool.abd.cmd 'abd --base "$BASE" --local "$LOCAL" --remote "$REMOTE" --result "$MERGED"'

The full configuration and conflict-handling details are documented in the Git integration manual page and the broader Git diff and merge workflows guide.

Related pages