delta
A syntax-highlighting pager that makes git, diff, and grep output a pleasure to read.
About
delta is a syntax-highlighting pager for git, diff, and grep output by Dan Davison, written in Rust. It takes the diffs developers already read all day and makes them genuinely pleasant: language syntax highlighting using the same themes as bat, word-level diff highlighting driven by a Levenshtein edit-inference algorithm, side-by-side views with line wrapping, line numbers, and --navigate mode with n/N keybindings for jumping between files in large diffs.
It also improves merge-conflict display, syntax-highlights git blame (with --hyperlinks turning commits into links to GitHub, GitLab, SourceHut, or Codeberg), highlights grep output from rg and git grep, supports git's --color-moved, and strips the -/+ markers so code can be copied straight from the diff. Over twenty stylable elements use git's own color language, it auto-detects light and dark terminal backgrounds, and it handles plain unified diffs as well as git output. The quality claims rest on the documented algorithm and wide adoption rather than benchmarks. Free and MIT-licensed.
What it can do
- Language syntax highlighting with bat-compatible themes
- Word-level diff highlighting via Levenshtein edit inference
- Side-by-side view with line wrapping and line numbers
- --navigate mode: n/N jump between files in large diffs
- Improved merge-conflict display
- Enhanced git blame with syntax highlighting and hyperlinks
- Highlights grep output from rg, git grep, grep
- --color-moved support and copyable diff output
- diff-highlight and diff-so-fancy emulation modes
- Auto light/dark terminal background detection
Setup
Install via Homebrew (brew install git-delta), your distro package manager, or a release binary. Wire it into git with: git config --global core.pager delta, git config --global interactive.diffFilter "delta --color-only", plus git config --global delta.navigate true for file navigation. See delta --help and the online user manual at dandavison.github.io/delta for the full option set.
Prerequisites
Git (for git integration); works standalone for unified diffs and grep output too.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: ~32.5k GitHub stars with commits pushed October 10, 2026; the upstream README and independent writeups confirm the bat-compatible themes, Levenshtein word-level highlighting, side-by-side views, --navigate mode, blame hyperlinks, and grep highlighting. Strengths: the definitive diff pager, deep configurability, excellent manual, huge theme compatibility. Docked for: (1) quality claims rest on documentation and adoption rather than benchmarks; (2) the option surface is large and can intimidate first-time setup; (3) single-maintainer project. License: MIT.
★ 32,509 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 8.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 9.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 9.0/10
- · ~32.5k GitHub stars (Oct 16, 2026 snapshot), commits pushed Oct 10, 2026; by Dan Davison; Rust
- · bat-compatible themes; Levenshtein word-level diff; side-by-side; --navigate n/N; blame hyperlinks; grep highlighting
- · Quality claims rest on docs/adoption not benchmarks; large option surface; single-maintainer project
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.