diff --git a/hack/diff-protobuf.sh b/hack/diff-protobuf.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..77dc503d147
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/diff-protobuf.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Copyright 2025 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+if [[ $# -ne 2 ]]; then
+  echo "requires two arguments"
+  echo ""
+  echo "Examples:"
+  echo "  hack/diff-protobuf.sh staging/src/k8s.io/api/testdata/v1.22.0/core.v1.CreateOptions{,.after_roundtrip}.pb"
+  echo ""
+  echo "  git difftool -x hack/diff-protobuf.sh --no-prompt <git diff args...>"
+  echo "  git difftool -x hack/diff-protobuf.sh --no-prompt c0b7858946c253 4144c9294f7448 -- staging/src/k8s.io/api/testdata/HEAD/*.pb"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+lhs="${1}"
+rhs="${2}"
+if [[ ! -f "${lhs}" && ! -f "${rhs}" ]]; then
+  echo "${lhs} and ${rhs} do not exist."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# simple case
+diffcmd="diff"
+if [ -t 1 ]; then
+  # if we're in a terminal, try to colorize
+  if diff --help | grep color >/dev/null; then
+    # diff supports --color
+    diffcmd="diff --color=always"
+  elif command -v colordiff &> /dev/null; then
+    # alternative color diff command
+    diffcmd="colordiff"
+  fi
+fi
+
+echo "${BASE}"
+if [[ "${lhs}" = *".pb" || "${rhs}" = *".pb" ]]; then
+  if ! command -v protoc &> /dev/null
+  then
+      echo "protoc command not found"
+      exit 1
+  fi
+
+  $diffcmd -u \
+    <(tail -c +5 "${lhs}" | protoc --decode_raw) \
+    <(tail -c +5 "${rhs}" | protoc --decode_raw) \
+  | tail -n +3
+else
+  $diffcmd -u "${lhs}" "${rhs}" | tail -n +3
+fi
+echo ""