Git Alias to Diff Staged Changes

Diff Staged Changes

The dc alias shows the diff of staged (cached) changes, letting you review exactly what will go into your next commit:

[alias]
    dc = diff --cached

Staged vs Unstaged Diffs

Git maintains three trees that determine what different diff commands show:

Working Directory  -->  Staging Area  -->  Repository (HEAD)
      |                    |                    |
      |---- git diff ----->|                    |
      |                    |---- git dc ------->|
      |------------ git diff HEAD ------------->|

Command	Compares
git diff	Working directory vs staging area (unstaged changes)
git dc	Staging area vs HEAD (staged changes, what will be committed)
git diff HEAD	Working directory vs HEAD (all changes since last commit)

Why This Matters

Before committing, you should always know exactly what you are about to commit. The dc alias makes this a quick one-command check.

Additional Diff Aliases

Build a complete diff toolkit:

[alias]
    dc   = diff --cached
    dw   = diff --word-diff
    dcw  = diff --cached --word-diff
    dns  = diff --name-status
    dcns = diff --cached --name-status

--word-diff highlights changes at the word level rather than line level, which is excellent for prose, documentation, and variable name changes.

--name-status shows only the file names and their status (Modified, Added, Deleted) without the full diff. This is useful when you just want to know which files changed.

Stat Summary

For a middle ground between full diff and just file names:

[alias]
    dcs = diff --cached --stat

This shows the diffstat with insertions and deletions per file, giving you a quick sense of the scope of your staged changes.