Automator Quick Action for KDiff3 in Finder

The need for quick action

kdiff3¹ is a diff & merge tool that compares multiple files/directories and shows the difference line by line and character by character as shown below.

In Windows, when we select multiple files/directories and right click on them, it will show the option to compare selected items with kdiff3.

However, in Macbook, it doesn't show this option. In this tutorial, let us see how we can create the same quick action in the right-click menu when we right-click on the files/directories.

Creating Quick Action

Let us open Automator², create new file and select Quick Action.

On the left side select Utilities and then select Run Shell Script.

For Workflow receives current, select files or folders and then select in Finder.

Then select pass input as agruments and in the script section let us add the following command.

/path/to/kdiff3 $1 $2

After adding the command, save this Quick Action.

Now if we relaunch Finder app and then select multiple directories, and right click we can see Compare with KDiff3 in quick actions.

Conclusion

Even though we can use the command line to compare the files/directories, it is always good to have a quick action in the right-click menu.