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Get Started Installation Authentication Your first project Models Overview Available models Reasoning effort Features How Kiro works Specs Steering Hooks MCP Permissions Custom agents Agent Skills Powers Cloud sessions Compaction Kiroignore Checkpoints and rewind Built-in tools Configuration scopes IDE 1.x What's new in 1.0 Setup & First Run Editor Chat Experimental Troubleshooting 0.x reference CLI What's new in 3.0 Setup & First Run Terminal UI Chat Session management Goal Queue steering In-session settings Prompts File references Context management Responding to messages Working with Git Images Custom diff tools Voice mode Headless mode ACP Auto complete Experimental 2.x reference Crew Quick start Installation Running 24/7 Chat Agent Capabilities Features Interfaces Apps System & storage Configuration Security Troubleshooting Web Setup & First Run Identity Center Connect your repositories Working with the agent Autonomous mode Automations Memory Configuration Sync Sandbox Mobile - Preview Overview Commands and Reference CLI commands Slash commands Built-in tools Exit codes Settings Billing Overview Managing your subscription Upgrading your plan Downgrading your plan Cancelling your plan Purchasing add-on credits Managing your payments Managing usage notifications Managing your taxes Contacting billing support Deleting your account Related questions Enterprise Concepts Onboarding quickstart Connecting your identity provider Deployment options Subscribe your team Manage subscriptions Governance Monitor and track Settings Managed updates Billing IAM Supported regions Privacy and Security Overview Data protection Code references Compliance validation Infrastructure security IAM permissions Firewalls, proxies, and data perimeters VPC endpoints (AWS PrivateLink) Guides Overview Language support Learn by playing Migration Migrating from Q Developer Migrating from VSCode Upgrading from Q CLI * Docs * * CLI * * Chat * * Custom diff tools Copy page View as Markdown Custom Diff Tools Copy page View as Markdown When Kiro proposes file changes, it displays them using a built-in diff tool. If you prefer a different diff experience—whether that's syntax highlighting, side-by-side views, or your favorite GUI tool—you can configure Kiro to use an external diff tool instead. Configuration Configure your preferred diff tool with the chat.diffTool setting: bash kiro-cli settings chat.diffTool < tool-name > For example, to use delta: bash kiro-cli settings chat.diffTool delta To reset to the built-in diff: bash kiro-cli settings -d chat.diffTool Terminal tools These tools display diffs directly in your terminal, keeping you in your workflow: Tool Config value Best for delta delta Git users who want syntax highlighting and line numbers difftastic difft Language-aware structural diffs that ignore formatting icdiff icdiff Quick side-by-side colored comparisons diff-so-fancy diff-so-fancy Clean, human-readable output colordiff colordiff Simple colorized diffs diff-highlight diff-highlight Word-level highlighting (ships with Git) ydiff ydiff Side-by-side with word-level highlighting bat bat Syntax highlighting with Git integration GUI tools These open a separate window for reviewing changes: Tool Config value VS Code code VSCodium codium Meld meld KDiff3 kdiff3 FileMerge (macOS) opendiff Vim vimdiff or vim Neovim nvim Warning GUI diff tools open temporary files for viewing only. Any edits you make in the GUI tool will not be saved or applied to Kiro's proposed changes. Custom arguments You can customize tool behavior by including arguments in quotes: bash # Enable side-by-side view in delta kiro-cli settings chat.diffTool "delta --side-by-side" Other tools Kiro can work with diff tools not listed above. When you configure a tool, Kiro tries two approaches: * Pipes a unified diff to the tool via stdin * Invokes the tool with two temporary file paths as arguments If neither approach works, Kiro falls back to the built-in inline diff. Troubleshooting If you see the error "Couldn't find the diff tool", the tool isn't installed or isn't in your PATH. Verify the tool is accessible: bash which delta If nothing is returned, install the tool first. For example, to install delta: bash # macOS brew install git-delta # Ubuntu/Debian sudo apt install git-delta For other tools, check the tool's documentation for installation instructions. Page updated: August 4, 2026 Images Voice mode