@hailbytes/sbom-diff

Diff two CycloneDX or SPDX SBOMs and produce human-readable change reports. Highlights added, removed, upgraded dependencies and new CVEs.

---

What it does

Compare two CycloneDX or SPDX SBOM files and instantly see what changed: added packages, removed packages, version upgrades, and newly introduced CVEs. Output as human-readable text, JSON, or Markdown — perfect for CI/CD gates and audit trails.

---

Install

npm install @hailbytes/sbom-diff
# or use directly via npx
npx @hailbytes/sbom-diff old.json new.json

---

Quick Start

CLI

# Compare two SBOMs and print a human-readable report
npx @hailbytes/sbom-diff old.json new.json

# Output as JSON
npx @hailbytes/sbom-diff old.json new.json --format json

# Output as Markdown (great for PR comments)
npx @hailbytes/sbom-diff old.json new.json --format markdown

Programmatic

import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import { parse, diff, renderReport } from '@hailbytes/sbom-diff';

// parse() accepts a JSON string (or already-parsed object) and auto-detects
// the CycloneDX/SPDX format. diff() compares two parsed SBOMs synchronously.
const oldSBOM = parse(await readFile('old.cdx.json', 'utf-8'));
const newSBOM = parse(await readFile('new.cdx.json', 'utf-8'));

const report = diff(oldSBOM, newSBOM);

console.log(report.added);    // Component[]     — newly added packages
console.log(report.removed);  // Component[]     — packages removed
console.log(report.upgraded); // VersionChange[] — { component, from, to, isMajorBump }
console.log(report.newCVEs);  // CVEEntry[]      — vulnerabilities new in the latest SBOM

// Or render a ready-made report in text, JSON, or markdown:
console.log(renderReport(report, 'markdown'));

---

Who Is This For

Security engineers, DevSecOps teams, and supply-chain risk analysts who need to track dependency changes between software releases, detect newly introduced CVEs, and produce auditable SBOM diff reports for compliance evidence.

---

See Also

• @hailbytes/caiq-lite — CSA CAIQ-Lite schema and validator
• @hailbytes/asm-scope-parser — Attack surface scope parsing
• HailBytes

---

Part of the HailBytes open-source security toolkit.