# Fix diff highlights \(\#38384\) · gitcafe/zed

[View on GitCafe](https://git.cafe/gitcafe/zed/commit/e033829ef27a704e6704d51f4915b48767545c63)

Repository: [gitcafe/zed](https://git.cafe/gitcafe/zed)

Visibility: public

Requested revision: e033829ef27a704e6704d51f4915b48767545c63

Requested commit: e033829ef27a704e6704d51f4915b48767545c63

Commit: e033829ef27a704e6704d51f4915b48767545c63

Tree: b4180a486cd6779532023ddc2bce92a6449441f7

Author: Vinh Tran

Committer: GitHub

## Message

```
Fix diff highlights (#38384)

Per
https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/discussions/23371#discussioncomment-13533635,
the issue is not new and I don't know how to solve the problem more
holistically yet.

All of the native themes don't have spec for `@diff.plus` and
`@diff.minus` leaving addition and deletion not being highlighted. For
diff file, the most valuable highlighting comes from exactly what we're
missing. Hence, I think this is worth fixing.

Perhaps, the ideal fix would be standardizing and documenting captures
such as `@diff.plus` and `@diff.minus` on
https://zed.dev/docs/extensions/languages#syntax-highlighting for theme
writers to adopt. But the existing list of captures seems to be
language-agnostic so I'm not sure if that's the best way forward.

Per
https://github.com/the-mikedavis/tree-sitter-diff/pull/18#issuecomment-2569785346,
`tree-sitter-diff`'s author prefers using `@keyword` and `@string` so
that `tree-sitter highlight` can work out of the box. So it seems to be
an ok choice for Zed.

Another approach is just adding `@diff.plus` and `@diff.minus` to the
native themes. Let me know if I should pursue this instead.

Before
<img width="668" height="328" alt="Screenshot 2025-09-18 at 11 16 14 AM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d9a5b3b5-b9ef-4e74-883f-831630fb431e"
/>

After
<img width="1011" height="404" alt="Screenshot 2025-09-18 at 12 11
15 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9cf453c0-30df-4d17-99e9-f2297865f12a"
/>
<img width="915" height="448" alt="Screenshot 2025-09-18 at 12 12 14 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9e7438a6-9009-4136-b841-1f8e1356bc9b"
/>



Closes https://github.com/zed-industries/extensions/issues/490


Release Notes:
- Fixed highlighting for addition and deletion for diff language

---------

Co-authored-by: MrSubidubi <finn@zed.dev>
```

## Parents

- [61f512af032f73fcc52dfdc18d9e1b31934b8e15](https://git.cafe/gitcafe/zed/commit/61f512af032f73fcc52dfdc18d9e1b31934b8e15?format=markdown)

[Source at this commit](https://git.cafe/gitcafe/zed/tree/e033829ef27a704e6704d51f4915b48767545c63?format=markdown)