CLI

Run driftabot locally to check for API drift before adding it to CI.

Install

See Installation for all install options.

Run on your repository

From the root of your project, run:

driftabot compare

Show steps

driftabot compare
       │
       ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  1. Auto-detect                            │
│     Framework: Express · NestJS · Gin …    │
│     API types: OpenAPI · GraphQL · gRPC    │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
       │
       ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  2. Select schema type                     │
│     GraphQL found?  → compare GraphQL      │
│     gRPC found?     → compare gRPC         │
│     Otherwise       → compare OpenAPI      │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
       │
       ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  3. Scaffold (Node.js only, if needed)     │
│     NestJS  → @nestjs/swagger              │
│     Express → swagger-autogen or tsoa      │
│     Go      → swag init (auto, no prompt)  │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
       │
       ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  4. Generate schemas                       │
│     head  ←  current branch               │
│     base  ←  origin/main (git worktree)   │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
       │
       ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  5. Diff & print results                   │
│     breaking · non-breaking · info         │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘

This is a good way to verify it works with your project before integrating further.

If driftabot compare fails to auto-detect or generate schemas for your project, you can generate them manually and pass the files directly with driftabot openapi --base ... --head ....

Check for breaking changes only

driftabot compare --fail-on-breaking

Exits with code 1 if any breaking changes are found — same behavior as in CI.

Markdown output

driftabot compare --format markdown

Renders the same table that gets posted as a PR comment in CI.