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Decode and display the contents of a Kodexa delta binary file. Deltas are the binary change format used by the platform to represent modifications between document revisions. This command lets you inspect what operations a delta contains without applying it.

Usage

kdx document delta <file> [flags]

Flags

FlagDescriptionDefault
--dataShow operation data payloads (JSON)false
--jsonOutput as structured JSONfalse
--max-ops NLimit number of operations displayed (0 = all)0

Examples

Inspect a Delta File

kdx document delta changes.bin
Delta Binary — v1
  Source Hash:    a1b2c3d4e5f6...
  Revisions:     5 → 12
  Checksum:      0x1A2B3C4D
  Operations:    47

  Summary:       +20 ADD  ~15 MOD  -12 DEL
  By Entity:
    DataObject                9
    DataAttribute             22
    ContentNode               10
    Tag                       6

  Operations:
  #     OP     ENTITY                  ID        REV       TIMESTAMP
  ────  ─────  ──────────────────────  ────────  ────────  ───────────────────
  0     ADD    DataObject              305       6         2026-03-19 14:30:22
  1     ADD    DataAttribute           1015      6         2026-03-19 14:30:22
  2     MOD    ContentNode             42        7         2026-03-19 14:30:23
  ...

Show Data Payloads

kdx document delta changes.bin --data --max-ops 3
Each operation’s JSON data and previous data (for MOD operations) is displayed inline beneath the operation row.

JSON Output

kdx document delta changes.bin --json | jq '.summary'
{
  "add": 20,
  "modify": 15,
  "delete": 12,
  "byEntityType": {
    "DataObject": 9,
    "DataAttribute": 22,
    "ContentNode": 10,
    "Tag": 6
  }
}

Filter with jq

# Show only DataObject operations
kdx document delta changes.bin --json --data | \
  jq '.operations[] | select(.entityType == "DataObject")'

# Count operations by type
kdx document delta changes.bin --json | jq '.summary.byEntityType'

Entity Types

Entity TypeDescription
ContentNodeDocument structure nodes (pages, lines, words)
ContentFeatureFeatures attached to content nodes
ContentFeatureLinkLinks between features and nodes
TagExtraction tags on content nodes
ContentTagLinkLinks between tags and nodes
DataObjectStructured data objects (e.g., invoice line items)
DataAttributeAttributes on data objects (e.g., amount, description)
DataExceptionValidation exceptions on data objects
MetadataDocument-level metadata changes

Operation Types

OperationDescription
ADDNew entity created
MODExisting entity modified (includes previous data)
DELEntity deleted
Use --json --data with jq to build custom reports. For example, to see all modified data attributes with their before/after values:
kdx document delta changes.bin --json --data | \
  jq '.operations[] | select(.operation == "MOD" and .entityType == "DataAttribute")'