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Diff

mxcli provides two diff commands for comparing MDL scripts against project state and viewing local changes in MPR v2 projects.

mxcli diff

Compares an MDL script against the current project state, showing what would change if the script were executed. This is a dry-run preview.

Usage:

mxcli diff -p app.mpr changes.mdl

This shows:

  • Elements that would be created (new entities, microflows, pages)
  • Elements that would be modified (changed attributes, altered properties)
  • Elements that would be removed (DROP statements)

Use mxcli diff to review changes before applying them, especially when working with AI-generated scripts.

mxcli diff-local

Compares local changes against a git reference for MPR v2 projects. MPR v2 (Mendix >= 10.18) stores documents as individual files in an mprcontents/ folder, making git diff feasible.

Usage:

# Compare against HEAD (latest commit)
mxcli diff-local -p app.mpr --ref HEAD

# Compare against a specific commit
mxcli diff-local -p app.mpr --ref HEAD~1

# Compare against a branch
mxcli diff-local -p app.mpr --ref main

MPR v2 Requirement

diff-local only works with MPR v2 format (Mendix >= 10.18), where documents are stored as individual files. MPR v1 projects store everything in a single SQLite database, making file-level git diff impractical.

Workflow

Review Before Applying

# 1. Generate MDL changes
# (AI assistant creates changes.mdl)

# 2. Review what would change
mxcli diff -p app.mpr changes.mdl

# 3. If satisfied, apply
mxcli exec changes.mdl -p app.mpr

Track Changes Over Time

# After making changes, see what changed since last commit
mxcli diff-local -p app.mpr --ref HEAD

# See changes since two commits ago
mxcli diff-local -p app.mpr --ref HEAD~2