How to Compare package.json Files: A Node.js Developer's Guide

You open a pull request to review a dependency update and the diff is a wall of text — 80 lines of package names and version numbers. Your teammate says "just bumped a few deps", but buried in there is a downgraded React version and two new packages nobody discussed. Manually spotting that by eye is error-prone. A proper side-by-side diff would have caught it in seconds. Here are four methods for comparing package.json files, when to use each, and a workflow that fits into real code reviews. Why