Differential cohomology theories as sheaves of spectra

We show that every sheaf on the site of smooth manifolds with values in a stable $$(\infty ,1)$$(∞,1)-category (like spectra or chain complexes) gives rise to a “differential cohomology diagram” and a homotopy formula, which are common features of all classical examples of differential cohomology theories. These structures are naturally derived from a canonical decomposition of a sheaf into a homotopy invariant part and a piece which has a trivial evaluation on a point. In the classical examples the latter is the contribution of differential forms. This decomposition suggests a natural scheme to analyse new sheaves by determining these pieces and the gluing data. We perform this analysis for a variety of classical and not so classical examples.