RDV (render-diff-validate)

rdv lets you preview your GitOps changes without committing rendered manifests.

It renders your local Helm chart or Kustomize overlay, optionally validates the output with kubeconform, and compares the results against a target git ref (such as main or develop).

A coloured diff shows exactly what will change before you push.

Requirements

• make
• git
• Go 1.24 or newer

Installation

You can install rdv directly using go install:

go install github.com/dlactin/rdv@latest

Flags

Flag	Shorthand	Description	Default
--debug	—	Enable verbose logging for debugging	false
--github	g	Output format optimized for GitHub PR comments	false
--help	h	help for rdv	false
--no-color	—	Output in plain style without any highlighting	false
--output	o	Write the local and target rendered manifests to a specific file path	—
--path	p	Relative path to the chart or kustomization directory	.
--ref	r	Target Git ref to compare against. Will try to find its remote-tracking branch (e.g., origin/main)	main
--semantic	s	Enable semantic diffing of k8s manifests (using dyff)	false
--update	u	Update Helm chart dependencies. Required if lockfile does not match dependencies	false
--validate	v	Validate rendered manifests with kubeconform	false
--values	f	Path to an additional values file (can be specified multiple times)	[]
--version	—	version for rdv	false

Examples

This must be run while your current directory is within your git repository

Checking a Helm Chart diff against another target ref

rdv -p ./examples/helm/helloworld -f values-dev.yaml -r development

Checking a Helm Chart diff and validating our rendered manifests

rdv -p ./examples/helm/helloworld --validate

Checking Kustomize diff against the default (main) branch with semantic diff

rdv -p ./examples/kustomize/helloworld -s

Checking Kustomize diff against a tag

rdv -p ./examples/kustomize/helloworld -r tags/v0.5.1