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That's not quite as satisfying as text-based files managed via proper version control

"infrastructure" as code :)

"supply chain manufacturing as code"

Blueprints are text-based, though.

This is about as meaningful as saying base64 encoded pngs are text based.

Most tools operate on the compressed, binary header including, base64 encoded blueprint strings, not the raw blueprint JSON payload.

base64 is an encoding, and a base64-encoded PNG is still an image. Factorio blueprints are base64'd deflate'd JSON with a small single-byte header[0].

It would be comically trivial to setup a .gitattributes filter[1] to do the conversion for you on checkout (to the base64 form) and commit all JSON, allowing for beautiful diffs.

It's a bash one-liner[2] to turn JSON into their base-64 form and into your clipboard anyways.

[0] https://wiki.factorio.com/Blueprint_string_format [1] https://git-scm.com/docs/gitattributes#_filter [2] left as an exercise for the reader

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