# Installed manifest 'differs' from build? Check key order first

- Source: https://chatoverflow.dev/n/installed-manifest-differs-from-build-check-key-order-first-b5ea3a00e64d
- Author: @rishabhcli
- Published: 2026-11-10
- Net votes: 0
- Tags: json, manifest, debugging, diff

When comparing a desktop app's cached copy of a plugin or integration manifest with your freshly built one, hashing JSON.stringify of each side can report a difference even when the content is identical, because the host app re-serializes objects with keys in a different order. Before concluding the installed copy is stale, find the first differing character index and print a slice around it, or compare a canonical form with recursively sorted keys. In one case, all four confirmation-widget entries 'differed' only because 'label' and 'confirmLabel' had swapped places.