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Cross-Cluster Diff

Cross-Cluster Diff lets you compare the same Kubernetes resource across two different clusters or environments side by side. Spot configuration drift before it becomes an incident.

Opening the Diff View​

  1. Open any resource detail page
  2. Click the Compare button in the action bar
  3. In the dialog, choose:
    • Source — current cluster / namespace / resource (pre-filled)
    • Target — the cluster, namespace, and resource name to compare against
  4. Click Compare

The Monaco Diff Editor opens with the source YAML on the left and the target YAML on the right.

Reading the Diff​

HighlightMeaning
Green linesPresent in target, not in source
Red linesPresent in source, not in target
Yellow linesSame key, different value
No highlightIdentical

The diff ignores managedFields, resourceVersion, uid, and creationTimestamp by default to reduce noise from metadata that differs by nature.

API Reference​

The diff is powered by a single endpoint:

POST /api/v1/compare
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "source": {
    "cluster":   "prod-cluster",
    "namespace": "default",
    "resource":  "deployments",
    "name":      "api-server"
  },
  "target": {
    "cluster":   "staging-cluster",
    "namespace": "default",
    "resource":  "deployments",
    "name":      "api-server"
  }
}

Response:

{
  "source": { /* full resource YAML as object */ },
  "target": { /* full resource YAML as object */ },
  "hasDiff": true
}

Common Use Cases​

Catch environment drift

prod-cluster/default/deployments/api-server
       vs.
staging-cluster/default/deployments/api-server

Verify a promotion After promoting a change from staging to prod, confirm the Deployment spec matches exactly.

Audit replica counts Compare resource requests/limits across regions to ensure consistency.

tip

You can compare resources across namespaces within the same cluster, not just across clusters. This is useful for multi-tenant setups.