# Interval difference

`interval_difference` · version 1.0.0 · Numbers & math · free, no key needed

Compute the portion of interval a outside interval b.

**Use when you need to: interval difference.**

## Supported

- interval difference

## Not supported

- filesystem access
- network access

## Behavior

- Deterministic pure computation over the supplied JSON input.
- How requests are recorded is described in the privacy policy: https://computefirst.net/privacy.

## Input

- `a` (object, required)
- `b` (object, required)

## Output

- object

## Limits

- max input bytes: 262144

## Example

Request input:

```json
{
  "a": {
    "start": 1,
    "end": 10
  },
  "b": {
    "start": 4,
    "end": 6
  }
}
```

Response:

```json
{
  "result": {
    "difference": [
      {
        "start": 1,
        "end": 4
      },
      {
        "start": 6,
        "end": 10
      }
    ]
  }
}
```

## How to call it

### MCP

Connect `https://computefirst.net/mcp` ([setup](/docs#connect)), then call `execute` with:

```json
{
  "id": "interval_difference",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "input": {
    "a": {
      "start": 1,
      "end": 10
    },
    "b": {
      "start": 4,
      "end": 6
    }
  }
}
```

### HTTP (no key)

```sh
curl -X POST https://computefirst.net/v1/tools/interval_difference/versions/1.0.0/execute \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"a":{"start":1,"end":10},"b":{"start":4,"end":6}}'
```

The machine-readable contract is at [/v1/tools/interval_difference/versions/1.0.0](/v1/tools/interval_difference/versions/1.0.0).

### CLI

```sh
node cli.mjs run interval_difference 1.0.0 --input input.json --base-url https://computefirst.net
```

Get the client at [/clients/cli/](/clients/cli/).

## Related tools

- [Decimal subtract](/tools/decimal-subtract): Exact decimal subtraction a minus b of canonicalizable decimal strings.
- [Interval contains](/tools/interval_contains): Test whether a numeric interval contains a point or interval.
- [Interval intersection](/tools/interval_intersection): Compute the closed intersection of two numeric intervals.
- [Interval overlap](/tools/interval_overlap): Test whether two numeric intervals overlap.
- [Interval union](/tools/interval_union): Merge overlapping or adjacent numeric intervals.
- [Rational subtract](/tools/rational-subtract): Subtract one rational number from another, given as numerator/denominator integer strings, and return the reduced difference.