midi-diff 1.0.6

Output the differences between two MIDI files, using the command-line.

MIDIDiff

MIDIDiff compares two MIDI files and produces a third MIDI file containing the notes that are present in only one of the inputs. Notes are matched by pitch, start tick, and duration; velocity differences are ignored.

Documentation

Full documentation is available at Read the Docs (once published).

To build the documentation locally:

cd docs
poetry run sphinx-build -b html . _build/html

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• mido (installed automatically via the project dependencies)
• rich (optional, for enhanced CLI output)

Installation

With Poetry (recommended for development)

poetry install

This installs the core library and all optional dependencies, including the CLI extras.

Build and install locally

poetry build
pip install dist/*.whl

For CLI functionality with rich formatting, install with CLI extras:

pip install dist/midi_diff-*.whl[cli]

Or install directly from the package:

pip install "midi-diff[cli]"

Core library only (no CLI dependencies)

If you only need the core library without CLI dependencies (e.g., for programmatic use), install without extras:

pip install midi-diff

Usage

Command-line interface

The CLI expects two input MIDI files and an output path for the diff:

midi-diff fileA.mid fileB.mid diff.mid

You can also run the module directly:

python -m midi_diff.cli diff fileA.mid fileB.mid diff.mid

Output behavior

• If the output file already exists, MIDIDiff will append an incrementing suffix (for example, diff_1.mid) to avoid overwriting.
• The resulting MIDI file contains only notes that are present in one input but not the other.

Version and environment info

Use -V or --version to print the installed MIDIDiff version, environment details, and the result of an update check against PyPI:

midi-diff --version

Debug information

Use the debug-info subcommand to display comprehensive diagnostic information:

midi-diff debug-info

Shell completions

Generate shell completion scripts:

midi-diff completion bash        # Bash
midi-diff completion zsh         # Zsh
midi-diff completion fish        # Fish
midi-diff completion powershell  # PowerShell
midi-diff completion cmd         # Command Prompt (prints doskey helper)

Then follow your shell's instructions to load the printed script.

Programmatic usage

You can also use MIDIDiff as a library in your Python code:

from midi_diff.core import main

# Compare two MIDI files and save the diff
main('fileA.mid', 'fileB.mid', 'diff.mid')

Or work with the lower-level API:

import mido
from midi_diff.midi_utils import extract_notes, notes_to_midi

# Load MIDI files
mid_a = mido.MidiFile('fileA.mid')
mid_b = mido.MidiFile('fileB.mid')

# Extract notes
notes_a = set(extract_notes(mid_a))
notes_b = set(extract_notes(mid_b))

# Compute diff
diff_notes = notes_a.symmetric_difference(notes_b)

# Create output MIDI
diff_mid = notes_to_midi(list(diff_notes), ticks_per_beat=mid_a.ticks_per_beat)
diff_mid.save('diff.mid')

Architecture

CLI Sub-package (v1.0.0+)

Starting with version 1.0.0, the CLI has been separated into its own sub-package (midi_diff.cli) to improve separation of concerns and allow the core library to be used without CLI dependencies.

• Core library (midi_diff): Contains note extraction, diff logic, and data models. Has minimal dependencies (mido only).
• CLI sub-package (midi_diff.cli): Contains argument parsing, version reporting, debug info, and environment checks. Requires rich for enhanced output.

Migration note: If you were importing from midi_diff.cli in your code, this continues to work through a backward compatibility shim that will be maintained through the 1.x release series.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on:

• How to contribute code and documentation
• Changelog update requirements
• Development setup
• Pull request process

All contributions with user-facing changes must update the CHANGELOG.md file.

How note matching works

Notes are considered identical when they share the same:

• Pitch
• Start tick
• Duration

Velocity is intentionally ignored so that the diff focuses on musical placement.

API Stability (v1.0.0+)

Starting with version 1.0.0, the following API surface is considered stable and will follow semantic versioning:

• Core functions: midi_diff.core.main()
• Data models: midi_diff.midi_utils.NoteEvent
• Utility functions: midi_diff.midi_utils.extract_notes(), midi_diff.midi_utils.notes_to_midi()
• CLI entry point: midi-diff command and midi_diff.cli:cli function

Breaking changes to these APIs will result in a major version bump (2.0.0, etc.).